What the Heck is this.. Please Help me reefers!!!

[Animalt21]

If anyone out there could please help me identify this stuff and how I could possible treat the problem, i would greatly appreciate any advise or attempt.

The tank has been running for over 2 months now!! There's 3 huge spots in the sand bed about 4 inches by 2 inches wide.

There's also a youtube video if you don't mind checking it out to help me resolve this situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydjwu-33KX4


Thank you in advance for the great help!!!

Thomas

[lcs]

Looks like cyanobacteria and it's really not too bad. I've just started to get ahead of mine after eights months of fighting it (granted, I wasn't really fighting that hard ;)). It was all over my tank; rocks and sand.

Two months is very young for a salt tank and all sorts of stuff will come and, hopefully, go. Siphon it off when you do your water changes, feed lightly, and make sure you have enough flow across those areas. It can take some time and tweaking to get the flow in your tank just right. Also make sure your bulbs aren't too old.

Good luck!

[Sk8r]

Normal at some point; pops up annually, often at change of seasons. The one treatment that works is turning your lights out for 3 days (won't hurt anything) and tuning your skimmer to work well. You may have to do this once a month for several months running to get rid of it. More info: Check out the post 'algae' in my blog: poke the blue number under my avatar.

[Animalt21]

I'm currently running 2 Ecotech Vortech MP40ES and 4 Aqua Illumination SOL BUL. This there some type of chemicals that I can treat this with??

Once again thank you for the reply, i'm a new member.

V/R

Thomas

[Animalt21]

I'm currently running 2 Ecotech Vortech MP40ES and 4 Aqua Illumination SOL BUL. This there some type of chemicals that I can treat this with??

Once again thank you for the reply, i'm a new member.

V/R

Thomas
Thank you SK8r... is there anything that i could do Sir to help this out.. it's goss there's a long stingy thing coming out of one of my corals.. it's scary looking too.. but i will shut off the lights ASAP.

Thanks again-

V/R

[Animalt21]

I'm currently running 2 Ecotech Vortech MP40ES and 4 Aqua Illumination SOL BUL. This there some type of chemicals that I can treat this with??

Once again thank you for the reply, i'm a new member.

V/R

Thomas
Thank you SK8r... is there anything that i could do Sir to help this out.. it's goss there's a long stingy thing coming out of one of my corals.. it's scary looking too.. but i will shut off the lights ASAP.

Thanks again-

V/R

[lcs]

You're very welcome! I know I've received help numerous times (and continue to ask questions) and I'm happy to be able to give back a little!

I wouldn't go the the chemical route, especially with such a new tank. The long, stringy thing is just an extra long bunch of the cyano.

In my opinion, the most important thing you can do is to manually remove it, ie siphon it out, then go with the three day lights out as sk8r suggested. If you need/want to do it more often than during your water change, you could siphon it into a filter sock, if you run one. At it's peak I was siphoning three times a week or so.

Oh, and I'm Ms. lcs ;)

[Animalt21]

once again thank you so much for the great info. Ms. lcs (sorry for the Mr.) do you think that stuff is poisonous to the fish? or other corals in my tank. I'm def. turn off the lights and do the siphon.

V/R

Thomas

[Animalt21]

once again thank you so much for the great info. Ms. lcs (sorry for the Mr.) do you think that stuff is poisonous to the fish? or other corals in my tank. I'm def. turn off the lights and do the siphon.

V/R

Thomas

[Chris27]

It's not poisonous, it's just a bacteria that is often times hard to get rid of. Good Luck with your fight!

[thebkramer]

3day lights out with 1 day actinic (last day.. for MHs) is what I had to do too...
check out Sk8r's blog.. has great info there!! she's great!!!!

IMO.. I would try to blow/rub off all the cyano that is on your coral asap!! I lost a whole colony of gsp because it smothered them :sad2: hate to see you lose any of yours!!!

GOOD LUCK!!! KEEP US UPDATED!! and btw...

:bounce3: WELCOME TO RC & THE ADDICTION!!! :bounce3:

[Animalt21]

thank you chris27

[Monster00101]

I found it's easiest to grab it with ur hand and take it out. +1 on the getting it off ur coral tip. They get stressed out when their space gets invaded.