Is this Brown Cyano Growing in my tank?

[Convict Tang]

I've been having a large algae boom of this brown algae. It's not diatoms because the algae will sometimes form threads that flow with the current of the tank. It is mostly growing on the sand and is growing filmly like on the glass. None of this algae is growing on the rocks. My corralline growth has not stopped at all and is still growing well. This algae DID grow a bit on my bubble coral, but I removed the algae from it and it hasn't grown back since. Any idea what algae this is and how to get rid of it? I have a 55 gallon tank with only a protien skimmer as filtration and about 45 Lbs. of live rock. The tank is over 4 years old, but I recently changed the substance from course sand to super fine sand about 2 months ago. I have a very small clean up crew and they only work to keep algae off the rocks. I use Deiozed water for my water changes.

[Rinaldi]

Could it be Dinoflaggellates, maybe at an early stage? - Sounds like it to me. If it gets worse you might see long goopy, snootty strands with air bubbles everywhere. Search thread titles for "Dinoflagellates and Help" for a thread that I moved to the top for another member just this week. The thread has a lot of suggestions.

One reason I suspect this is that you renovated your sand bed - good in the long run, but can cause short term blooms. I had this problem in November after I yanked out an ill conceived plenum a couple months earlier.

[Convict Tang]

Yes, what you explained is what is exactly happening in the tank. And there are a lot of air bubbles on the tank walls too like you said. And yes, it does look snooty if I let it grow enough. It will go away evenually after the sand bed establishes right?

P.S.- I searched the message board and found the topic, but the browser didn't let me look at it. Can you somehow copy and paste the messages and e-mail it to me on word so I can see it? Click on the e-mail tab to email tab to email me. Thanks

[This message has been edited by Convict Tang (edited 04-21-2000).]

[Rinaldi]

I e-mailed you a copy in word - I was able to view it by searching the Archive section

[Convict Tang]

Can anyone esle help me out with this problem? I already did a water change and lowered my saliny to 1.022 down from the old 1.026 that it was at. The algae seems to be growing slower.