Broun algae on sand bed

[eddie pr]

BROWN ALGAE ON MY SAND
I have a 90 g mixed reef and for the past 2 to 3 months i been fighting this brown algae on my sand bed ..is not diatoms ! I do water change every 2 weeks ((30 gallons) . I run gfo .carbon in dual reactor .also have a cascada diy ats on my sump with ligjts runing 16 hours .opocite to my main lights i vacum it and on 2 days it come back . My sand is 2” dip
My lights are 2 hydras 52 non hd thats go on at 8:30 am and reach max output at 11:30 to 6 :00 pm when start sun set .
White light runs 22%
Royal blue at 85%
Blue 65%
Green and red @ 7%
Also have 4 t5’s that go on at 11:40 to 5:40 pm 3 blue+ and 1 super actinic
Any ideas ?

 

[Troselaw]

Any pics?

 

[this is me]

How long has the tank been set up?
Did you do any recent change?
FWIW, I use conches to clean the sandbed and I think they do a great job at it.

 

[eddie pr]

Tank is been set up for 3 1/2 years

 

[Johnson556]

Welcome to the world of dinoflagellates.

 

[eddie pr]

There not algae problems anywere else .but in the sand

 

[eddie pr]

Aint dinoflagellates look like a air bubble alike ? This looks more like cyano .but it confuses me cause is green and brown .and stay caind of low profile like diatoms ! So im not sure .

 

[plinko60]

sounds like dinos to me..... but you need a microscope and a good pic.... I did a 5 day black out and 2 doses of dino max.....but you have to confirm what you have before you do that method.

 

[Johnson556]

Not always, theres three types, Im going to botch the name but what I have/had is amphidinium. Sticks to the sand and doesnt float in the water. I never let it get to the point to produce bubbles as I always siphon out and dump a bunch of pods in. Stop doing water changes, and toss the GFO. If youre running an ATS there should be no need anyways. I have an ATS, 18 fish and feed 4 cubes a day and can barely get PO4 detectable.

 

[eddie pr]

Well i think im runing too low on nutrients .cause my ats is growing broun like algae and deatach from the net very easy . And i only got 7 fish ... im curious why you said stop the water changes ?

 

[eddie pr]

Also i been looking for those conches but around here on the south coast i cant find it .

 

[Johnson556]

Dinos thrive in low nutrient systems when there's no other algae competing for nutrients. All your water changes are doing is feeding them trace elements and allowing them to thrive. That happened to my ATS for a while, now I harvest an absurd amount of algae from it every few weeks.

Remove the GFO, stop water changes for a month and possibly tune back the skimmer. Make sure everything is done in baby steps, to quick of a change of anything can be problematic especially if you keep sensitive corals. A 48 hour blackout helps too, for some strains kills them entirely, that suppressed mine and allowed me to finish the task with pods and some sand removal.

 

[eddie pr]

That sounds like a good plan ! Always was asking myself why that algae with so low nutrients .thank you for your help !

 

[Troselaw]

Don’t listen to Johnson 556, he has no idea what he is talking about.

If you do a search, you will see a post where I had/have a similar problem. I think running my UV Sterilizer along with my ats for to long a photoperiod killed off everything and brought out this funky brown algae/clumpy sand. Johnson 556 was supposed to bring his fancy new microscope over to confirm Dino...

 

[Johnson556]

Don’t listen to Johnson 556, he has no idea what he is talking about.

If you do a search, you will see a post where I had/have a similar problem. I think running my UV Sterilizer along with my ats for to long a photoperiod killed off everything and brought out this funky brown algae/clumpy sand. Johnson 556 was supposed to bring his fancy new microscope over to confirm Dino...

@Troselaw ha ha ha. I forgot to text you this, but I was about to pull trig on a UV sterilizer for my dino. Before I did, I sent a video of my findings to some guy on Reef2Reef. He confirmed its the type that sticks to the sand bed/surface of things and does not get effected by UV, saved myself a couple hundred there. It's imperative to find out what type it is before you create a plan of attack.

 

[Troselaw]

@Troselaw ha ha ha. I forgot to text you this, but I was about to pull trig on a UV sterilizer for my dino. Before I did, I sent a video of my findings to some guy on Reef2Reef. He confirmed its the type that sticks to the sand bed/surface of things and does not get effected by UV, saved myself a couple hundred there. It's imperative to find out what type it is before you create a plan of attack.

What’s your plan of attack?

 

[Johnson556]

Since its amphidinium (still dont know how to spell it) and sticks to surfaces, not a UV. I've sucked about a half gallon of sand out of the tank while recycling the water. That coupled with a few servings of pods from EuropeanAquatics and everything seems to be doing well.

The next phase would be to dose silica but as stated before, baby steps for everything. I also dont need to do that at this time