nasty purple slime stuff

[daniodude]

I had this nasty purple slime all over my rock and sand, so I cleaned it all off, but it seems to have come back. it's soft slime stuff and it's a dark purple. does anyone know what this stuff is?

thanx
DanioDude

 

[Navarre]

Cyano.
Cyanobacter is actually a Bacteria and not an algae. It prefers low flow areas so try to increase the circulation. If the tank is new then this is a normal part of maturing but if the tank is established then you may well have high nutrients in the tank

 

[Paul Robbins]

This has been the bane of my tank for a few months now.

I've now included a pair of powerheads on opposing sides of the tank and I think the inhabitants of the tank are grateful for the breeze now but the Cyano is as bad as ever and nightmare to clean as it's too heavy for gravel filter to pick up and "glues" the sand together. I end up scoping the top layer off (losing a small % of sand each time) to get the worst of it back.

One thing I've noticed is that is grows only in areas of light, under and around the live rock it's as white as white can be. I'm unsure if it's being accelerated by too much or too little light at this stage.

I'm going to fit a skimmer next when I find the best model for me and hopefully that'll pull more nutrients out of the water that Navarre speaks of.

 

[Navarre]

Cyano works on Nutrients mainly. Its a bacteria so the light doesnt really play a huge role in its growth rate. You will probably find you have either high nitrates or Phosphates. Do a nitrate test and phosphate test but remember to remove the water to be tested as close to the cyano as possible (it realy does make a difference).
If you have high Phosphates (any reading above 0.25 is considered high IMO) then use ROWAPHOS. This is an excellant tool and will reduce your phosphates to zero
With no Nurients and a good flow of circulation the Cyano should vanish. If you are still losing the battle then there is a product called "Antired" IT does work and is considered Reef safe. (I did lose a colony of Starpolyps and a Dendronepthya whilst dosing but im not convinced it was teh product that did it)

 

[daniodude]

My tank is about 8-9 weeks old, so I don't think the maturing theory would be it. I am going to take a sample of my water in to my LFS for him to test it. what exactly is ROWAPHOS?

thanx
DanioDude

 

[fraservet]

A tank 8 weeks old would still be considered to be maturing.

Rowaphos is a phosphate remover, it looks a bit like activated carbon and is usually placed in a filter.

 

[Navarre]

it takes a good 12 months for a tank to mature. There is a big difference between a tank cycling and a tank maturing.

A cycled tank means it has a bioload of bacteria to hand fish waste.
A mature tank means the water and liverock etc is very stable and has enough life/bacteria to keep fluctuations stable and at a minimum.

 

[daniodude]

Ok, sorry. I took a sample into my LFS and he said it was not phosphate. He said that it could be the build-up up debris on my rock, not getting filtered out. He told me to spray off my rock with a powerhead about twice a week and check the filter carterage to make sure I am filtering out all of the debris.

DanioDude

 

[Navarre]

Well the shop is partly right.. increasing water flow will help.. but it must be continous and not 2 per week! As forit not being phosphate then i would love to hear what they think it really is. Detrius does not make cyano. Rotting detrius does... but of course this means its turning to Nitrate or Phosphate.

If you take water out of the tank you usually get no phosphate reading. however, if you take water out right next to the cyano then you will find a higher degree of phosphate or nitrate