Algea Or Cyno?

[Tommy Gunnz]

Hello everyone.

I have had my tank up and running for about three and a half months now. I was lucky enough to be able to afford stocking the tank with all completely cured live rock and live sand and so my cycle was nearly non-existant. I have been keeping fish in the tank for about three months now and everything is absolutely fine. In fact, I have not yet lost a fish to water quality or anything like that (the ones I have lost have been due to other fish and compatability issues. Otherwise, I have traded them)

Anyways, I started to see brown algea almost right away in the tank and I simply rubbed it off of the glass with no problems. I then moved onto some dark green algea and right on to bright green, stringy or hair algea. I left that algea as it grew on the back glass of the tank and it has slowly gone away, partially due to the angelfish I have and partially on its own.

However, right now there is some very rapid growth of a red algea on the back of the tank, in the upper portions of the glass nearest the lights. This algea is growing so fast that it has actually covered a snail that is munching on the stuff (trochus snail). It appears as though the snail is ok, but it is now sporting a bright red shell.

So, my question is if this is algea and expected as far as how long this tank has been up and running (part of an algea 'phase') or is this cynobacteria and something I should be worried about? Here is a picture of it (sorry, it is hard to see the actual red color, but you can still see how it is growing):

As you can see, there is either a lot of air getting trapped within the algea (I did have an issue with some bubbles getting 'blown' into the tank by the sump return pump a couple days ago) or just plain bubble algea. I have chosen not to pop the bubbles yet until I am sure it is not bubble algea since this would spread it around even more, right? The fish in my tank are actually taking care of the bubbles pretty much on their own anyways.

 

[SkiFletch]

Tough to say what it is, I get a similar kind of algae all over my back glass too. Nothing my mag float algae scraper cant handle . What I have is definitely cyanobacteria, but what you have may be something different.

Btw, the bubbles you see are the algae or cyano "pearling" and releasing O2

 

[crazyelece]

Looks like and sounds like cyano to me. Do you have a skimmer? How heavy are you feeding? Cyano can be a pain once it has a foothold. I usually get it whenever I have a death in the tank (for whatever reason). Usually it comes and goes but a couple times it came so fast it got a good foothold and started outcompeting my macro algea. Every time it has done this I have used Red Slime Remover and it is gone in a couple days.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Based upon my more extensive freshwater experience with cyno, I sort of feel that this isnt what I have in my SW tank, but that, of course, doesnt mean I am not worried about it. This stuff is fast growing, BUT not as fast as the cyno problem I had in my FW tank a couple months ago.

Also, this stuff is completely limited to growing in the upper parts of my tank, I would say about 8 inches max from the top of the surface. Also, it ONLY grows on the back of my tank and on the overflow chamber which are all painted black. It is not on my Live Rock really (except for one small peice which was on leaning on the algea and on the very top of my 'stacking' configuration. I actually decided to move my rockwork around today, partially to mess up a territory set up by my bicolored angel, and partially to get it down deeper in the water. Oh, and to give my new shrimp friend some more overhangs and cliffs to live under.

I do have a skimmer, it is a Coralife Super Skimmer, and is rated for a 150 gallon tank, mine is 90 gallons. It is pretty effective I assume and I have to empty it about every third day.

I used to feed twice a day and only live foods when I had my lionfish and puffer in the tank. I am currently working on changing this tank over to a reef set up and have mostly omnivores with an emphasis on those who prefer eating algea (two angels, a six-line wrasse, and two green chromis...with a newly added fire red shrimp). These fish definitely pick at this algea quite well and also, the trochus snails I have (4) are making some interesting patterns in the algea as they eat it away. So, I am not exactly sure, but I think they are somewhat particular about what they eat as far as the types of algea, correct? Otherwise, I feed a very small pinch of marine flake food once daily and every wednesday I thaw out one cube of frozen brine shrimp and drop it in for the fish (wrasse and chromis in particular) and the hermits.

I am not very familiar with the Red Slime Remover that you point out, but if you could tell me a bit about it, I would certainly listen to you. I am of the mindset that I'd rather keep my tank au naturale more often than not and try to stay away from chemicals as much as I can. As a side note, I can easily scrape the algea from the glass, but I haven't because I am not sure if doing so would spread the problem around as well as it comes off in a sort of 'sheet' or like thick hair like chunks which makes a big mess. I do not use mechanical filtration, only natural and so it is hard for me to get this stuff out of the tank once it is floating around. I may try to remove it when I do my next water change since i can just take out enough water to keep the surface under the algea and catch it with a paper towel or something. That is, if you think I should or is worth doing that....!

Thanks for your help!

 

[Opcn]

Don't worry, while Cyano is in the top three worst "algae" types to have in SW its no were near as bad as it is in FW. You probably just need to feed less, that and get more snails, in a tank that size I would have atleast 15 times as many snails as you have, Don't just get turbo grazers either, a healthy mix is key, 20 turbo grazers, 10 ceriths, 10 nassarius, 10 coumbellieds, and 10 stomatella would do you great. Its natural for snails to have algae growing on there shells, its not a reflection of how fast the algae has been growing. I would suggest avoiding the red slime remover, its just eurethromyocin and it will kill off te cyano, but you can overdose and whipe out your cycle bacteria too.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

The snail population is coming along and I am trying to get a mix of all types. I had a weird issue with keeping snails around for more than a week and finally figured out that my larger hermits were eating em. I also had some worms and other critters that were getting at the snails and so now I have only little scarlet reef hermits and I bought a six-line wrasse who is eating anything that moves on the rocks that I dont want to keep.

I honestly cannot be feeding any less than I am right now. Between the fish and the snails, I can see the algea start getting picked at. I feed only a tiny amount of flakes to my chromis and put in half a sheet of seaweed/algea once a week for the angels.

This algea is really starting to change into a very deep purple color though and to be honest, it sort of looks nice. I am going to be doing a water change in the next day or two with different salt and so I will see where my phosphates stand after that. Right now, I am about in the middle of the little color chart on my test kit, which is also just slightly above where my tap water is at.

For now, I am not keeping any corals or light sensitive inverts/fish. Do you think it would help to reduce the time my lights are on in the tank to reduce any photo-periods? I know in a FW tank that helps a bunch, but eventually I am going to be keeping some corals and so I figure that if I cant get rid of this completely now, it will just flourish again later on. Again, it isnt horrible right now and isnt on my rocks or sand at all. I just dont want it to be something that will come back to haunt me later on.

 

[crazyelece]

I would use the red slime revover as a last resort. I typically need it in my tank due to my huge amount of flow, as the powerheads are strong enough to suck it off the rocks and blow chunks around the tank. If the algea is not growing out of control then other methods are probably your best bet for now. More flow, less feedings, and more snails are probbably the key.

Also it would probably help to remove as much as you can on the next water change since you can get to it fairly easy. If it is on the glass, I usually use a siphon cleaner and a razor. Just siphon it out as you scrape it off.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I will try to get as much off as I can during my next water change like you say. I have been watching closer and it does appear that the fish stay away from it. In some ways it benifits me becuase it grows in the little slots of my overflow chamber and softens the noise of the water falling over the side.

Like I said, I am going to be switching over to a different salt with this next water change and the new stuff is 100% 'phosphate free' which I realize is not something to bet my life on, but the other salt didnt advertise that so maybe that will help.

 

[Opcn]

What was the other salt? Chances are its phosphate free too. Your fish should stay away from the stuff, seeing as how its toxic and all. At first I thought it was kinda pretty too, then having it cover everything and get debris trapped in it changed my mind, a few Cerith snails later and the problem was completely gone, You might also try seeding with beneficial macros like Caulerpa or Ulva, both grow quickly and take up excess nutrients rather well, Caulerpa releases several health promoting agents into the water and ulva is practically the favorite food of every vegitarian in the see, with the possible exception of Gracilaria the Agar algae.