Algae on sand and rocks coming back

[heyitskelton]

I'm not sure what this algae is, it grows like crazy and very fast. I thought it was cyno so I bought some chemiclean and put that in the water and followed the instructions on the box. it looked great afterwards, nice white sand, but its back but it doesn't look like it used to. it looked almost neon orange, but now its brownish. hope someone can help me ID this algae and how to get rid of it. put the lights on white so it is more visible.

 

[Lavey29]

If you don't address the underlying problem then chemiclean is just a temporary bandaid fix.

What are your water parameters? Light schedule? How old is the tank? Fish or coral?

 

[heyitskelton]

If you don't address the underlying problem then chemiclean is just a temporary bandaid fix.

What are your water parameters? Light schedule? How old is the tank? Fish or coral?

I dont have water params right now but I did test a few days ago and they were perfect. light schedule is 12hrs and the tank is 8 months old. both fish and coral.

 

[ApoIsland]

I'm not sure what this algae is, it grows like crazy and very fast. I thought it was cyno so I bought some chemiclean and put that in the water and followed the instructions on the box. it looked great afterwards, nice white sand, but its back but it doesn't look like it used to. it looked almost neon orange, but now its brownish. hope someone can help me ID this algae and how to get rid of it. put the lights on white so it is more visible.View attachment 2424495
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No idea what it is but looks bad. I would probably just do the nasty and give that tank a good rip-clean. Half a day of dirty hard labor will have your tank looking great. Then hopefully make a change to avoid a repeat.

Maybe reduce light period (I only have mine on for 6-7 hours full blast with an hour ramp up/down). Could also try to ad some more filter media/methods to process the bioload if that might be the issue.

 

[heyitskelton]

No idea what it is but looks bad. I would probably just do the nasty and give that tank a good rip-clean. Half a day of dirty hard labor will have your tank looking great. Then hopefully make a change to avoid a repeat.

Maybe reduce light period (I only have mine on for 6-7 hours full blast with an hour ramp up/down). Could also try to ad some more filter media/methods to process the bioload if that might be the issue.

what do you mean by rip-clean?

 

[ApoIsland]

what do you mean by rip-clean?

Take all rocks and sand out and give them a good scrub and rinse combined with a very large water change. There is a very enthusiastic nice guy here named Brandon that runs a rip clean thread that's fixed hundreds of tanks. Try to find that thread and jump in or send him a PM and he will walk you through it.

 

[heyitskelton]

Take all rocks and sand out and give them a good scrub and rinse combined with a very large water change. There is a very enthusiastic nice guy here named Brandon that runs a rip clean thread that's fixed hundreds of tanks. Try to find that thread and jump in or send him a PM and he will walk you through it.

got it, thank you very much!

 

[Lavey29]

I dont have water params right now but I did test a few days ago and they were perfect. light schedule is 12hrs and the tank is 8 months old. both fish and coral.

What were they the other day? Obviously there is an imbalance somewhere and chemiclean only hides the problem temporarily.

 

[CK00020]

Looks like the Dino’s I have

 

[heyitskelton]

What were they the other day? Obviously there is an imbalance somewhere and chemiclean only hides the problem temporarily.

Im not sure of exact numbers, I can get you fresh param numbers tomorrow tho

 

[heyitskelton]

Looks like the Dino’s I have

What are you doing to get rid of them?

 

[johnreef]

looks more like dino bacteria, pretty sure isnt diatom brown algae. antibiotic will help

 

[CK00020]

Just about everything, uv, phyto, manual removal, filter pads, blackout, dino x, dr Tim’s method, and the only thing that really worked was dino x and manual removal. Had them gone then I went on vacation and they are back.

 

[heyitskelton]

good news: it is under control and almost completely gone!

 

[ApoIsland]

Great to hear. What did you do?