fishissues
Member
I've been having this recent problem with my sand bed. A thin red alage film covers my sand bed and it i let it continue green hair alage forms. Any helping suggestions?
unwanted alage taking over sandbeds!?
- Thread starter fishissues
- Start date
fishissues
Member
any ideas? any help? any sand critters eat alage?
fishissues
Member
Originally Posted by b bauer
search cyano and see if that is what you have
no but that looks like my hair alage its more of a thin redish alage
search cyano and see if that is what you have
no but that looks like my hair alage its more of a thin redish alage
fishissues
Member
Originally Posted by fishissues
no but that looks like my hair alage its more of a thin redish alage
wait nvm yes it does to many differint types of it but i guess it is
no but that looks like my hair alage its more of a thin redish alage
wait nvm yes it does to many differint types of it but i guess it is
mlwoods007
Member
this thread frustrates me. I too have a problem with cyno. People, if you don't know what your talking about, or a little unsure of the answer, don't reply (Halamaya). It is much better to not give any info, than bad info. From what i've learned so far, Cyno is a result of an excess of phosphates being in your water. Increasing your flow with help to some degree, but it is best to figure what caused them in the first place. RO/DI water is a must. Alot of the times, i've gound that my nitrates are high along with my phosphate levels. This tends to run hand in hand with phosphates for me. Hopefully you have a good skimmer. Do a large water change, make sure all your levels are correct (including CA and Alk) and monitor your feedings. Within time, they "should" go away. Although crabs will help clean up excess food, they DO NOT EAT CYNO!!! D*MBA$$.
Sorry for the rant, it's early in the morning and I've been given bad "incorrect" info on more than one ocassioion. This hobby is complicated enough as it is, ya know.
Sorry for the rant, it's early in the morning and I've been given bad "incorrect" info on more than one ocassioion. This hobby is complicated enough as it is, ya know.
mlwoods007
Member
oh, and hair algae and the red cyno algae are two totally different types
halamaya
Member
So I did some more research on Cyano bacteria. It seems I was partially wrong you want to get blue legged hermit crabs or scarlet reef hermits. They will help eat it. Also make sure you are not over feeding your tank. If your lights are old they may have gotten into longer wavelengths, which helps the out break of cyano a ton. If they are a year old you might want to think about replacing the bulbs.
m0nk
Active Member
Cyano isn't actually an algea. It is actually a type of bacteria that gains it's energy through photosynthesis, which is what makes people think it's a type of algea. Because it's not an algea, there is nothing that will actually eat it. Basically you have a couple of possible problems; first is your lighting and lighting schedule, then your feeding schedule....and there are a couple of other things too, but these are the major causes.
How long do you let your lights run every day? Are the bulbs less than 12 months old? What type of lighting do you have? Is any direct sunlight hitting your tank? You should consider cutting your lighting schedule back a bit for a while, to help get rid of the cyano you currently have. Siphon most of it off the sandbed when you start the process. Slowly cut the lighting schedule back by a half hour each day until you're down to about 6 hours a day (if you use a timer this will be easy). Leave the schedule there until the cyano is gone for a few days, then you can start working with the schedule to see what works best. I keep my lights on for only 8 hours a day. Also, if your bulbs are a year old or older, change them out.
Next is nutrient levels in the tank. Phosphates has been mentioned, but overfeeding is a big cause of other excess nutrients that also contribute to cyano growth. If you feed more than once a day, cut back to once a day. If you feed once a day, cut back to every other day. Also make sure that you only feed what your fish can eat within 5 minutes. You don't want too much food floating around after each feeding.
If you start there and the cyano persists, post back, but those two things will knock out the cyano 90% of the time. Almost every tank ends up with it at one time or another... good luck!
How long do you let your lights run every day? Are the bulbs less than 12 months old? What type of lighting do you have? Is any direct sunlight hitting your tank? You should consider cutting your lighting schedule back a bit for a while, to help get rid of the cyano you currently have. Siphon most of it off the sandbed when you start the process. Slowly cut the lighting schedule back by a half hour each day until you're down to about 6 hours a day (if you use a timer this will be easy). Leave the schedule there until the cyano is gone for a few days, then you can start working with the schedule to see what works best. I keep my lights on for only 8 hours a day. Also, if your bulbs are a year old or older, change them out.
Next is nutrient levels in the tank. Phosphates has been mentioned, but overfeeding is a big cause of other excess nutrients that also contribute to cyano growth. If you feed more than once a day, cut back to once a day. If you feed once a day, cut back to every other day. Also make sure that you only feed what your fish can eat within 5 minutes. You don't want too much food floating around after each feeding.
If you start there and the cyano persists, post back, but those two things will knock out the cyano 90% of the time. Almost every tank ends up with it at one time or another... good luck!
jkcrumb
Member
Originally Posted by mlwoods007
this thread frustrates me. I too have a problem with cyno. People, if you don't know what your talking about, or a little unsure of the answer, don't reply (Halamaya). It is much better to not give any info, than bad info. From what i've learned so far, Cyno is a result of an excess of phosphates being in your water. Increasing your flow with help to some degree, but it is best to figure what caused them in the first place. RO/DI water is a must. Alot of the times, i've gound that my nitrates are high along with my phosphate levels. This tends to run hand in hand with phosphates for me. Hopefully you have a good skimmer. Do a large water change, make sure all your levels are correct (including CA and Alk) and monitor your feedings. Within time, they "should" go away. Although crabs will help clean up excess food, they DO NOT EAT CYNO!!! D*MBA$$.
Sorry for the rant, it's early in the morning and I've been given bad "incorrect" info on more than one ocassioion. This hobby is complicated enough as it is, ya know.
Well then maybe you should take some time to get yourself a cup of coffee and relax a little before ya decide to tear someone a new a** hole for attempting to help. There are many ways to get your point across but to call someone a D*MBA$$ for giving advice is rough. But, thats just my opinion (hopefully I dont get told off too for stating my opinion)
this thread frustrates me. I too have a problem with cyno. People, if you don't know what your talking about, or a little unsure of the answer, don't reply (Halamaya). It is much better to not give any info, than bad info. From what i've learned so far, Cyno is a result of an excess of phosphates being in your water. Increasing your flow with help to some degree, but it is best to figure what caused them in the first place. RO/DI water is a must. Alot of the times, i've gound that my nitrates are high along with my phosphate levels. This tends to run hand in hand with phosphates for me. Hopefully you have a good skimmer. Do a large water change, make sure all your levels are correct (including CA and Alk) and monitor your feedings. Within time, they "should" go away. Although crabs will help clean up excess food, they DO NOT EAT CYNO!!! D*MBA$$.
Sorry for the rant, it's early in the morning and I've been given bad "incorrect" info on more than one ocassioion. This hobby is complicated enough as it is, ya know.
Well then maybe you should take some time to get yourself a cup of coffee and relax a little before ya decide to tear someone a new a** hole for attempting to help. There are many ways to get your point across but to call someone a D*MBA$$ for giving advice is rough. But, thats just my opinion (hopefully I dont get told off too for stating my opinion)
halamaya
Member
I don't mind so much I em still new and have to remeber to get all of my facts straight. Stilll I only answer questions that I have had some maybe little experience with or have read about. I know most books and inserts say nothing about the crabs but there are a couple so I figured that it couldn't hurt.
Oh well I know we all LOVE SALT WATER
topfins-mj
Member
We all go through the Cyano and hair algae problems. Is hard for the newbie (Like me, 1.5 years in hobby) to control feedings, as it can be fun to watch all the livestock wake up and start acting nuts. However we need to control our emotions and let the tank feed itself once in a while.
Most fish will pick at the rocks and eat small hair algae growth, hermits and snails will do too. Deitrus food that falls gets devoured by blue legged and red scarlet crabs, as well as allow for the growth of copepods and other small animals that fish and corals feed on as well.
Once Cyano bacteria and hair algae grow to a certain level, there really isn't much your livestock can do so they stop eating it. (So adding more crabs and snails is not a solution.)
So here is when we start to control it.
Keep a consistent water change schedule (Small parts per week).
Change the type of food you feed and do it less frequently.
Monitor your Phosphate, and nitrate levels each week before you change water to see the changes.
Increase the flow to the affected areas and manually remove as much as you can.
You may decrease the light durations by several hours while you are controlling this nuisance.
Be patient and relentless
Only this way would you see it under control.
Most fish will pick at the rocks and eat small hair algae growth, hermits and snails will do too. Deitrus food that falls gets devoured by blue legged and red scarlet crabs, as well as allow for the growth of copepods and other small animals that fish and corals feed on as well.
Once Cyano bacteria and hair algae grow to a certain level, there really isn't much your livestock can do so they stop eating it. (So adding more crabs and snails is not a solution.)
So here is when we start to control it.
Keep a consistent water change schedule (Small parts per week).
Change the type of food you feed and do it less frequently.
Monitor your Phosphate, and nitrate levels each week before you change water to see the changes.
Increase the flow to the affected areas and manually remove as much as you can.
You may decrease the light durations by several hours while you are controlling this nuisance.
Be patient and relentless
Only this way would you see it under control.
mlwoods007
Member
Originally Posted by jkcrumb
Well then maybe you should take some time to get yourself a cup of coffee and relax a little before ya decide to tear someone a new a** hole for attempting to help. There are many ways to get your point across but to call someone a D*MBA$$ for giving advice is rough. But, thats just my opinion (hopefully I dont get told off too for stating my opinion)
I'm dropping this, but you obviously missed the point and are probably one to give incorrect advise too. The whole point was for people not to comment if you don't know. If you do, at least be kind enough to use "I think", or "I'm not sure, but this worked for me", to avoid confusing people with bad info. The more I read on here, the more I find people with high post counts giving complex advice on large tanks, when all they have ever had is a 10Gal FO in their living room. Luckily, in this case the advice given was over something simple like a cyno and not how to dose a tank. I'm not mad, and I'm sorry if he got offended, but someone needed to say it. Dropped...
Well then maybe you should take some time to get yourself a cup of coffee and relax a little before ya decide to tear someone a new a** hole for attempting to help. There are many ways to get your point across but to call someone a D*MBA$$ for giving advice is rough. But, thats just my opinion (hopefully I dont get told off too for stating my opinion)
I'm dropping this, but you obviously missed the point and are probably one to give incorrect advise too. The whole point was for people not to comment if you don't know. If you do, at least be kind enough to use "I think", or "I'm not sure, but this worked for me", to avoid confusing people with bad info. The more I read on here, the more I find people with high post counts giving complex advice on large tanks, when all they have ever had is a 10Gal FO in their living room. Luckily, in this case the advice given was over something simple like a cyno and not how to dose a tank. I'm not mad, and I'm sorry if he got offended, but someone needed to say it. Dropped...
jkcrumb
Member
mlwoods007 said:I'm dropping this, but you obviously missed the point and are probably one to give incorrect advise too.
I completey understood your point but I'm not sure if you understood mine. All I was trying to say is that your words were a little harsh. Also, its funny how you want to drop this but still find the need to throw in one last jab "and are probably one to give incorrect advise too". o-well.......I'm a big boy and dont allow other peoples ignorance to bother me......so.......dropped........have a teREEFic day & happy holidays
PS......u were absolutly right, I probably have given out wrong advice but most people have. Live and learn