Sand Turning Red?

[oo bubbagump oo]

I see my sandbed turning red in spots. Why is algae growing there?
Lighting:
100w Coralife 6500K Metal Halide
20w Helios Actinic
Water params. fine, trates at 30ppm though.
I noticed it after dosing with B-Ionic. Should I have more cleanup crew.
Currently:
2 Trochus Snails
4 Hawaiian Zebra Hermints
2 Blueleg Hermits
3 Scarlet Hermits

 

[leigh]

it's a common part of the cycle (cyano algae)...if however your tank is older and established and you're getting cyano it can be due to a number of things including 1) excess phosphates (best cured by adding a refugium) 2) too much light (best cured by shortening light cycle) 3) too little circulation (best cured by adding a powerhead in the location with issues)
i'm starting to have it crop up in my nano now--i think it's due to the increased lighting. i had it briefly in my main tank. if you don't have anything particularly sensitive to drastic lighting shifts, one way to give cyano a serious kick in the pants is to reduce light to 4 hrs a day for a few days... obviously though if you have a lot of coral this isn't such a good idea! there was a really good thread a while back on fighting cyano--a search should turn it up though sorry i forget who it was that wrote it...
oh, and mexican snails will chow down on the stuff!

 

[shanev]

Do a search for cyano or red slime. Usually caused by low waterflow anr/or high phosphates.

 

[krishj39]

Most likely causes, IME:
1. Tank is still young, going through cyanobacteria stage of cycling
Not much you can do about this one, just wait it out, remove what you can by hand.
2. Phosphates are too high.
Use a phosphate sponge, water changes, add a refugium/macroalgae
3. Not enough water flow
Add a powerhead, adjust current powerheads to eliminate "dead spots" of water flow, cyano is actually strains of bacteria and can't hold up under current

 

[archie]

My tank has been set up for five years, and I still get spots of cyano, so its not only a new tank problem.

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by Archie
My tank has been set up for five years, and I still get spots of cyano, so its not only a new tank problem.
How long have you had the MH lighting?

 

[ck_503]

I just had a bad cyano outbreak and I bought this new additive for my tank that removes the cyano in 48 hours or less and it's completely reef safe. Now all of my cyano is gone and nothing died. Would recommend to all.

 

[archie]

Originally Posted by PonieGirl
How long have you had the MH lighting?
about 18 months.

 

[murph145]

i used chemi clean red slime remover and its totally reef safe all my cyano was gone in 24 hours leaving pearly white sand!

 

[hot883]

Originally Posted by murph145
i used chemi clean red slime remover and its totally reef safe all my cyano was gone in 24 hours leaving pearly white sand!
I did the same worked great.
I had all types of recommendations given to me too when I had this problem. What are you feeding the tank? Over feeding can cause this also feeding frozen brine. Just my $.03

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by hot883
I did the same worked great.
I had all types of recommendations given to me too when I had this problem. What are you feeding the tank? Over feeding can cause this also feeding frozen brine. Just my $.03
A certain wise man who shall remain nameless (for 3 seconds), Murph, suggests rinsing the frozen food.
Ya know, sometimes what we do with our own food would be kind for our tanks, also.

 

[archie]

Originally Posted by PonieGirl
A certain wise man who shall remain nameless (for 3 seconds), Murph, suggests rinsing the frozen food.
Ya know, sometimes what we do with our own food would be kind for our tanks, also.
I do use frozen foods. but I only feed ever other day. only have a few fish mostly corals, and for them I use. cyclop eeze.make a small mix up, and feed.

 

[archie]

And how would you suggest I rince the frozen food?

 

[kevsha]

Ok, we had a small outbreak of red cyano in our 90 gallon tank.
We improved the flow with an additional power head, vacumed the sand and treated the tank with Chemiclean Red Slime remover.
After 48 hours we did a 20 gallon change and then when we ran the protein skimmer it pumped millions of tiny bubbles into the tank that piss off the fish and all of our corals.
We turned off the skimmmer for four days hoping it would help.
After this time all water tests were good except the ammonia had increased from 0ppm to .25ppm and nitrates from 0ppm to 5ppm.
We drained the sump, cleaned the skimmer and pump. This required an additional 7 gallons of salt water.
We still have the tiny bubble problem while the skimmmer is running.
What to do?