Algae troubles

[Clownfishman]

I have some algae in my tank covering most of the DSB... some of it is red algae, some in dark green/puple, and some looks like Detritus.. I guess snails should eat this stuff, but it seems thick... you can't stir the water around and get this stuff to move.... you have to actually stir the sand to get it to break up... is there anything that will eat this thick algae...

here are the pics.

[Clownfishman]

more..

[Clownfishman]

one more

[jimcfar]

looks like cyano to me...water movement will help get rid of some of it and then after that time will usually end this problem. It also a sign og too many nurtients in the water. Be careful to not be overfeeding your llivestock.

Cyano really loves those areas with little to no water flow. That's one of the reasons why many people supplement water movement by putting loose power heads in their tanks.

[Jimmer]

The red stuff is actually Cyano... Sand stirring critters like starfish, nassarious snails, fighting conchs will keep that under control.

[Clownfishman]

How do you create water movement on the substrate without blowing the sand everywhere.. I have one power head now... shoudl I move it to where it would cause some water flow there... Also my snails seem to eat it but now they are on the rocks.. I have 5 total maybe I need more..

[Jimmer]

What size tank do you have? What are you using for flow right now? Do you have any full length pics of your tank?

[Clownfishman]

its a 30 gallon... don't want to take a full pic of the tank until I get this algae under control..

[manderson0805]

When my daughter was born, I had a small outbreak turn nasty within 3 weeks. It took about 3 months to get down to to nothing, but what I did was:
Increase skimmer flow-wetter skimmate
decrease feeding
siphon Cyano patches out
Increase water flow throughout tank to decrease "dead spots"


Hopefully you'll be over this sooner than I was.

[clownfishcrazy]

Polyfilters take care of cyano-bacteria.

[Clownfishman]

I have a polyfilter.. i worry about siphoning it out... because under the LS is that bacteria that could be lethal to my fish... maybe it will eventually die off..

It shouldn't hurt my finish any should it? It will just make my tank look ugly

[Geoff]

the best thing you can do is siphon it out. this will remove the bound up nutrients that it contains. do not worry about releasing toxins unless you siphon deeper than a half an inch. even then as long as the substrate had not been disturbed for more than a year you will be fine.

G~

[Roy]

can cyano turn green too? cause i have similar pictures and from my tank and theres a lot of green build up all over the power head, skimmer intake and outtake, the back of the magnet window cleaner and allover my carbon bag. its green like gatoraid green lol.