red algae on sand from bad parameters or bad water flow?

[ryanpal]

for the past few weeks i've had red algae on my sand. is this due to bad water quality or because my water flow isn't hitting the top layer of sand properly?

when i put a powerheads flow close to the sand bed it seems to help however it causes valleys in the sand which are too deep.


any ideas?

[Mavrk]

how old is the tank?

[ryanpal]

5 years old. however i did a move to my house when purchasing in june. so most people will say its only a few months old

[msn711]

IME, could be the age of the tank, could be the flow, or could be water quality. I mean, it's commonly seen in relatively new tanks, but sometimes it will continue to thrive even with good flow.

[ryanpal]

that's disappointing.

one more question. ive been battling with getting nitrates down to 0. other parameters are at desired levels ph, calcium etc.

does nitrates around 20ppm cause this? ... maybe thats the problem

[Mavrk]

nitrates feed algae and cyano. since you moved, it is quite normal. Do some water changes, keep some macro algae, don't overfeed, make sure you have enough flow, and run a phosban reactor. Do 3 days lights out, one day actinic, then back to normal.

[hybridgenius]

Cyano is a PITA... have you tried directing one of your powerheads towards it? a lawnmower blenny?are you possibly overfeeding? these are just suggestions based on others success stories.

[ryanpal]

Marvk,

I looked up phoban reactor online and came across merchant web sites. I tried searching what this actually does and I'm still unclear. Would you like to fill me in on the details?

hybridgenius,

Thats exactly what I did and it does seem to keep the top layer of sand white. The problem is it's pushing the sand away too much to where it's almost down to the bottom of the tank.

[Sander1001]

It's just a canister to put media in. A pump is connected to then push the water through the media. They work well.

[flyguy7150]

drip kalk...pretty sure it helped clear up my sand...suppose to precipitate phophates

[ryanpal]

Originally posted by Sander1001
It's just a canister to put media in. A pump is connected to then push the water through the media. They work well.

a canister to "drip kalk" as flyguy says?

[flyguy7150]

sorry im talking about something different. Nothing to do the phosban reactor...the reactor just holds filter media and runs the water through it with a pump like an mj400. Filter media like phophate remover or carbon. Dripping kalk...kalkwasser...limewater...helps precipitates phophates clearing up some algae...at least it did for me.

[tmz]

The red algae on the sand is cynobacteria. It thrives on light and CO2 C02http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1239

[tmz]

Originally posted by tmz
The red algae on the sand is cynobacteria. It thrives on light and CO2 C02http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1239

Sorry, couldn't get the link to work.

Cynobacteria is truly primordial slime. It created the oxygen in the oceans from CO2 and without it there would be no life on earth. Many believe it was the first life form on the planet and is essential to our existence.OK, somehow it still doesn't look good in a reef tank.

Cynobacteria consumes CO2 and creates oxygen in a very similar fashion to corals and algae. It only thrives when there is excess CO2 not readily consumed by the other organisms in the system. Increased nutrients conrtribute CO2 as they breakdown. CO2 injectors such as calcium reactors usually rasie the level of CO2 and their introduction to a system often sparks cynobacteria. Inadequate flow and/or poor surface water interaction with the air as in closed tanks can limit gas exchange and trap CO2 in the tank above the level of the surrounding air. Higher CO2 in the air itself will also cause higher CO2 in the tank( as might be the case in some of our homes at this time of year with less outside air circulating through via AC or open windows).

Aside from light depravation(cynobacteria is photosynthetic) controlling cynobacteria is about controlling CO2.The following is a summary some of the methods:

Control nutrients. Search for a dead animal and remove it. Rinse frozen food thoroughly with tap water to insure removal of the packing water and to control potential bacterial infections on the food. Skim aggressively.Clean out mechanical filters.Consider an upgade to your cleanup crew. Use an opposite photo period refugium with chaetomorpha or other macroalgae.( the macro algae consumes CO2and nutrients and produces oxygen in it's photosynthetic process). The reason for opposite photo period is to offset the process of other photosynthetic organisms in the sytem which consume CO2 during the day and produce oxygen while they "exhale" CO2 at night which causes the very familiar ph drop.

Increase CO2 expulsion and/or consumption.. Increase air exchange at the surface via increased flow,open water. Use a big bubbly skimmer. If your home is high in CO2 find a way to get fresh air to your system. Some actulaly pipe in fresh air to their skimmer intake.Increasing ph will put more ions in your system that will bind up CO2. Dosing kalkwasser at night will not only increase calcium ,alkalinity and ph,it will consume CO2 as the Calcium Hydroxide forms calcium carbonate. Manually export the mats. I use a turkey baster to suck it out.
I am sure there are methods I have overlooked and welcome additions.
Finally, as Mark Twain once said after writing a letter to a friend"I apologize for the length of this,if I had more time I would have written a post card."

__________________
Tom
Hobby Experience

[tmz]

A little more information on cynobacteria. It is ubiquitous and has been found in the harshest antartic environments, on mopuntain ranges and in polar bear coats. You can't erradicate it only controll it to a point where you may not see it.

It is autotrophic,thriving on the sugar it produces from water and CO2 releasing oxygen in the process(6molecules of water and 6 molecules of CO2 form 1 sugar molecule and 6 oxygen molecules).

As it grows it produces heterocyst which are anerobic sacks where oxygen cannot enter. In these sacks there is nitogenase (nitrogenase is severely inhibited by oxygen) which binds nitrogen from the air or water into biomass including amonia.nitrite and nitrate in sort of a reverse denitrifecation. In this way it fuels life including undesireable forms such as algae's and desireable forms like rice tor example where cyno cultures produce fertilizer.

So since free nirtrogen is pretty constant in the athmosphere and the tank the only variable limiting factor would be CO2,since without it the cyno can't complete the photosynthetic process. While there is always CO2 in your system , itis only when it rises above normal consumption levels by other autotrophs(corals,algae,etc.) that cyno will flourish untill the CO2 is consumed or blown off into air, if the air has a lower concentration of CO2 than the tank. It does not directly feed on nitrogenous waste but does produce it

[ryanpal]

great info...i really appreciate it.

kalk came with my purchase so im going to drip some kalk. im also going to look into keeping the lights off for a few days as suggested.

oh on another note...my cleanup crew (hermit crabs) are fired ;]