Newb...What is this stuff?

[cimdxb2]

Ok, started small on the sand bed, but seems to be spreading. Some kind of growth, just not sure what it is. Guessing it isn't good....

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/147741DSC_0004-2-med.jpg


Oh, and if it isn't good, how do I get rid of it?

I have a BC29. All chem stats are good, except Nitrates are at about 10. I am doing about a 5 gallon water change a week.

Ideas?



Dave

[ezcompany]

probably cyano, its part of the cycle or early tank stages. how old is the tank and whats your alk

[cimdxb2]

Tank is about 5 weeks old. Alk?

The last set of tests I ran were as follows:

Salt = 1.024
Ph = 8.2
Amonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 10

Alk = ? Not sure how to measure this....or is that another way of describing Ph?

Sorry if this is such a dumb ? :/

Dave

[sir_dudeguy]

Alk is alkalinity i believe. And i agree that it is just cyano (the green version) and as long as you keep your nitrates and phosphates down, it should go away on its own in a while. New tanks always go through a few alga blooms like this, no worries. Give it time and make sure you got good flow along w/good parameters.

[chelskisw6]

siphon it out everytime you do a water change.

[sir_dudeguy]

I found that to do nothing for my cyano. Its just gonna come back, especially since whenever you do a water change, you're likely to kick up some crap which will cause nitrates...which feed cyano.

Some say that turning lights off helps too. I dont buy into that either, because at night it just releases the nutrients (sometimes, not always) and appears to be dieing...but in the morning it will come back all the way...Same thing if you keep the lights off for a couple days or whatever. You still havent fixed the "problem" so it will just come back.