Brown patches on sandbed

[jamesonwhiskey]

My sandbed has patches of brown on it. Is it a type of cyano, or something else? Is it because my cleanup crew mostly died off? Don't have much algae in my tank otherwise.

This is my tank that crashed last month. Most of my fish survived but almost none of my coral did. A lot of my cleanup crew didn't either so I've begun adding them back in. My tank stopped cycling over a month ago (ammonia peaked at 1.0 then).

Params using Red Sea kits:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Mag 1440
Alk 10
Calcium 400

SG 1.023 - refractometer
Nitrates 10 - API kit

 

[rookie07]

I would guess diatoms....normal cycle of events in "new" tanks. But i can not say for sure without seeing your tank.


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[jamesonwhiskey]

I would guess diatoms....normal cycle of events in "new" tanks. But i can not say for sure without seeing your tank.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/chemistry/95969-diatoms-dino-cyano-help.html

Here's what I have and they said it was diatoms in this thread.

Any pests I should be on the look out for after a crash? I have A LOT more brown spaghetti worms on my live rock now than I ever did before. In the past it was just a few crops of red ones in my sandbed near the edges of my live rock.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

Ok, I looked more closely tonight. I have what looks like cyano (dark red sheets with air bubbles) on a lot of my live rock.

On my sand bed I'm not sure if it's diatoms or more cyano. It's greenish-brown but not in sheets (at least not yet).

I'm going to change out my phosban and carbon. Changed both when I added on the refugium on new year's day. How often does everyone change their carbon and phosban??

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Might be going through a mini cycle.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

Might be going through a mini cycle.

My Ammonia and Nitrite levels have been at 0 for over a month now...

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Let's us know how that works out for you.Could just be high amounts of Po4.

 

[gholtmeyer]

How new are your test kits. I am not sure how tests can be 0 if you had that big of a die off. Have you done any water changes? And yeah, I would think that you are going through a cycle. Good luck, this too will pass.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

How new are your test kits. I am not sure how tests can be 0 if you had that big of a die off. Have you done any water changes? And yeah, I would think that you are going through a cycle. Good luck, this too will pass.

I got all the Red Sea kits this week. If you find my other thread about my crash you'll see that it was well over a month ago and cycled completely, also did 50% water change and a bunch of 20% ones... nothing has been high other than nitrates for over a month as well.

I just tested my phosphates with an API kit at .25. That's not high enough to cause a big cyano outbreak is it? The red cyano on my live rock has definitely gotten worse over the past few days. My nassarius snails are mixing the sandbed and the brown on there has gotten better.

I'm still going to change out my carbon and phosban this morning and do a water change. Any other suggestions? Someone mentioned adding Special Blend which I have... it couldn't hurt right?

 

[jdnumis]

You may be overfeeding. That sometimes maybe the case. Nothing that your CUC can't handle. If it gets worse and you get red slime, get red slime remover. It works the best for me, just shut off your skimmer.

All the best,

James

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

You may be overfeeding. That sometimes maybe the case. Nothing that your CUC can't handle. If it gets worse and you get red slime, get red slime remover. It works the best for me, just shut off your skimmer.

All the best,

James

It's definitely cyano on my live rock. Replaced my carbon and phosban yesterday and doing a water change today. When I do the water change I'm going to try scraping and siphoning off what I can.

Anyone have any luck with Dwarf Zebra Hermits? I heard they are one of the few CUC that will eat it...

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

People seem to drop off threads quickly on this site, but if anyone is still reading...

Here's some pics taken last night... it's definitely gotten worse since the weekend. I almost bought red-slime remover but read on here that it kills good bacteria too and that I should turn off my skimmer. The bottle says to keep skimmer on though?? Should I dose Special Blend if I use it?

You can kinda see the "spaghetti" worms growing on my LR now too...

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

trying again for pics

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

I put the red slime remover in last Sunday and by Weds it was completely gone... but it's starting to come back. I still have the brown (diatoms) growing on the sandbed as well. I've cut my feeding to every other day and I have a lot of Nassarius snails living in the sandbed, I don't know what else to do!!

KH 10.5
Nitrates .75
Calc 460
Salinity 1.026
Am 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphates .25

 

[dherrera83]

I shut my light off for 2 days, changed my gfo and it removed everything!... All the red stuff was gone. Now im running my light for just 5 hours, i use to have them on for 8 hours. Not much affect on corals at all. Most opened up right away.

Theres a thread on here that i read about shutting off light for 3 days; i did it for 2 to see how it works since mine was not as bad and it worked great. Hope it stays that way.

 

[mbg75]

are you running a phos reactor?

 

[Boogie Man]

could it be Dinoflagellates?

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

No phos reactor but i do have GFE in my sump. I've turned the lights off for today and tomorrow so let's see what happens.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

could it be Dinoflagellates?

it doesn't seem to be...

 

[dherrera83]

You need to keep the lights off for atleast two days to see a difference and also it depends how bad you have it. Do a 10% water change before you shut off lights and then again after you turn it on. Make sure to change the filter sock too... I followed what the thread said and its worked great. Still has not returned yet but if it does I might do it again. You will also need to change your lighting schedule for a bit. I also run a phos reator