Just wondering if anyone can help me decide what these things are in my tank?

[oro50]

I am uploading three very recent pictures of my tank. Approximately as young as 2 hours ago.

I'm wondering what is happening here in these pictures?

Notice the red stuff, in the sandbed that seems to be growing?

Notice the green in the sand-bed as well?

I took a farther away shot too, so you could see the entirety of my tank better.

Here are specifics of this tank.

I started this saltwater tank only about 4 months and going on + one week now.

I think this makes my saltwater tank still kinda young, as it hasn't even been six months yet since I started cycling this tank.

My tank is 20 gallon L, I have two main filtration devices. One HOB filter and One canister filter. I also use a small powerhead, and a bubble wall to help bring in oxygen throughout most if not all areas of this tank.

 

[cmantis]

It is cyano. The two easiest fixes are less light and more flow. Notice how it is in the middle of your tank where the light is probably brightest and flow the lowest.

 

[oro50]

The green too?

How do I get rid of it? Furthermore cyano is dangerous to fish?

Furthermore I should include one more detail. I recently ordered online special flake foods for my fish, as it did not like the frozen foods I was giving it.

With this said, two of the flake foods I give it, are ocean nutrition prime reef flakes (which are red flakes) and ocean nutrition formula two flakes (which are green flakes). These colors didn't start to appear in my sand substrate until some time had already passed after feeding my fish these two different foods.

Thus I thought that this might be some of the remains of these foods it didn't eat, or food dye if flakes are dyed different colors, (I don't know the answer to that question).

Anyway this is where I think it's coming from, but maybe it is cyano?

 

[cmantis]

It isn't from the food those are both quality foods. Let me rephrase it is no die. Generally I don't like flakes because it is easy to over feed and have left overs with them. Reef flakes though is my favorite flake.

A few things to try.

- Feed only what your fish will eat in 3 minutes
- Cut back on the hours that your lights are on (6 hours is fine for now)
- Try to change or increase the flow to that area
- Manual removal when doing water changes by positioning the siphon just above the sand bed in that area

 

[cmantis]

"One HOB filter and One canister filter. I also use a small powerhead, and a bubble wall to help bring in oxygen throughout most if not all areas of this tank."

What are you running in each of those filters? Running a media reactor or purigen, chemipure elite in a bag or in one of your filters would be useful. You should be cleaning that filter canister regularly if you are intent on using it. The one small powerhead might not be enough. If it were me I would get a Jebao rw4 or possibly adding a second one.

What is your lighting? Do you plan to add corals?

Do you have a top on the tank? If not you don't really need that bubble want and will just lead to increased evaporation.

 

[oro50]

Yes I have a top on the tank.

The colors of these ?? things in my sandbed, which you are calling cynao, really do reflect the two colors that two of my main foods are , the same shades of red and green.

With that said, right if extra bits from the flake food my fish doesn't eat over time has been accumulating on my sandbed, your saying that cynobacteria has been eating those little remains, and thus growing, as I continue to feed my fish.

Lastly, from what I read, you are suppose to feed exactly how much your fish eats within a five minute period, but I will tell you almost all the time (and I thought I was just giving my fish a pinch of food at a time), whatever I fed my fish at the time, it always seemed to eat almost all if not all of what I gave it during any given food period.

Lastly, I also have invertebrates in this tank, and I thought they would eat whatever my fish doesn't eat over time, thus leaving very little to zero remains of flake fish food.

As for the HOB filter I just changed the bio-max little white/ circular cubes a month ago. Thus they are good for two more months, and just last saturday changed the carbon filter and foam with two new ones.

As for the canister filter, I also have a prefilter inside that is suppose to consume coarse material. That has been in there for a few weeks. As for the rest of what I have in my fluval 106 canister filter, except the carbon cartridge, everything else doesn't need to be replaced yet.

I plan to change the carbon cartridge possibly this saturday, and the guide says only that it should be changed, not like it absolutely has to be changed.

Main issue I have with the canister filter is, when I do maintenance on it, it's easy to replace old cartridges, but in order to close the cap, I have to take out the water that is already in it, and as the device sucks in new water from my aquarium, after I put the cap back on sometimes, (though not all the time), but more than I like, it always seems like if the cap isn't placed in the exact position it came off from, water starts flowing out.

This is very very annoying, and I'm almost at a point where I feel I shouldn't even use the device anymore, as this part is super annoying.

Furthermore, I only use RO/DI water, so when this happens, and then finally (with what seems to be a divine miracle, I put the cap on in the exactly right position, and thus the device is no longer flooding) it pulled so much water from my aquarium, that I have to use a-lot of the RO/DI water I made for just water changes to re-fill it.

Again, I only started noticing these distinct colored sections within my sandbed, over some time, and only after I got the two foods I mentioned.

I will try to manually remove some during the next water change I have scheduled. Which will be coming up in about a week from now.

If this stuff remains in my tank, with no effort from me to manually remove it, what will happen, just curious?

 

[thirty6]

If you don't do anything manually to correct the problem, your tank will eventually become unpleasant to view and frustrating for you in the process. it will spread or another nuisance algae will take hold. simple fix is to get a powerhead like cmantis suggested and make sure the middle gets some more flow. syphon some out and slowly see a difference for sure. its one of the eaiser nuisances to get control over, compared to hair algae or something like that. good luck.
I also doubt the type of food is the issue here and for inverts, may need more for the tank. what type of cuc do you have? I have found that I am always looking to add something to the tank, but the cuc is often overlooked or forgotten about until I realize I need more snails, hermits, ect....

 

[cmantis]

Your mistake is reading manuals. Those filters are for freshwater. The food isnt the main issue and it has nothing to do with the color of it. Flow is a big part but proper filtration also.

 

[oro50]

If I bought an additional powerhead, I should place it in the middle portion of the tank on the other side?
Wow when I started a saltwater aquarium, I thought there would be more stuff involved, but it always seems to be a new issue coming up.

I live in New York, meaning I have limited space. The surge protector I use is connected to the only outlet closest to the aquarium, and actually is connected to the only outlet in my room where the aquarium is located.

With this said, there are no more slots open for another device.

Yeah some other people are helping me with this issue too? I could just use a turkey baster of some kind?


I don't feed my fish as much as I did two weeks ago. Once a day instead of twice now.

However, I also read that with young fish, which I am pretty certain my fish is, since it's a juvenile, (red maroon clownfish with white stripes instead of gold), it needs more food anyway as it's a growing fish.

However for now on, I will just feed it once a day.

 

[oro50]

I have two gravel vacs. One manually operated, one battery operated. When I tried using them before, I was highly disappointed with their ability to suck in mainly just fish waste, and other waste that has developed I bet over time in my sand bed at this point. Thus outside of using a turkey baster I don't see another good tool to use to manually remove this algae.

 

[oro50]

I also have a-lot of stuff on my plate right now, and I might have to give up this fish. I really hate to do it, but yeah it might happen. If I do, I'll just give anyone who wants it, and has a good home for it, for free.

I haven't decided yet what I will do.

Main reason I might give up this fish, is the changing job market. I might have to move, and at a moments notice. Honestly in today's modern changing world, I'm surprised so many people can keep fish, (especially saltwater) due to their very specific living requirements. Meaning that you can't just put the fish like a toy in your pocket or bags and when your ready put it back on a shelf for display, lol. I will probably know in a few months from now, maybe less about moving.

 

[fredro]

Turkey Baster to suck up the Cyano. Stop vacuuming your sandbed, stirring that stuff up is no good. Best thing you can do is leave it all alone, besides careful sucking up built up things like Cyano on top of the sand. Don't disturb the sand itself, if at all possible.

 

[cmantis]

Shoot me a pm and I will give you my number so you can get the answers you need and not have to quit the hobby.

 

[Loose tenticle]

You could also use chemiclean and an air stone somce you habe a low live stock. Thatll cure it over night, had that issue once and that dixed it.

 

[Jlavine]

You need to syphon the red cyano away. Not using a battery gravel vac. Stop mentioning the the color of your food, the algae you have in your tank has nothing to do with the food color. It has to do with your poor filtration, lighting and flow.

Can you post the exact light you have on the tank?

When we met I told you all of these problems were going to happen with your set up. Maybe you should consider switching tanks or adjusting your set up as directed 100x times since you started posting.