rainbow sand

[jujubees]

:poke2:

[FishinInTheDark]

That looks like cyanobacteria to me. It is otherwise known as red slime algae. There are tons of posts on it around here, so a quick search should get you lots of results. It's a normal thing for a new tank, but decreased feeding, increased circulation, and/or a refugium with macroalgae will help.

[Doctor_Reef]

Ditto's on the diagnosis!!! That is what it looks like!!! Ditto's on the cure....

[Sugar Magnolia]

One other thing you can do is suck it out with a turkey baster. You'll want to do this a couple times a day, or at least once daily until it starts to go away.

[jujubees]

THANKS! :thumbsup:

[clemsonfrk11202]

i have found that a product called chemi-clean really takes care of it... i had three patches and they were gone in two days, its bye boyd enterprises, inc. i would really look into it its the easiest way ive found to get rid of it.

[MikeS]

The best way to beat cyano is to starve it of its fuel, namely nitrates and phosphates. You can do this by using RO/DI water, skimming, water changes, not overfeeding, ect...it takes time, be paitent.

On the Chemi-Clean...I discourage against using it for a few reasons...first, it will kill off the outbreak, but it does absolutely nothing to solve the underlying problem that caused the bloom in the first place. Actually, it can make the underlying problem worse, because as the cyano dies off, it re-releases all the nutrients it has stored up back into the water. Also, repeated use of it can create a chemical resistant strain of cyano in the tank that will be unaffected by chemi-clean. I had this happen to me many years ago in a fish only tank...not pretty.

Second...Chemi-Clean is an oxidizer. Using it can be potentially dangerous in high bioload tanks that have a lot of accumulated wastes. The rapid oxidation of these wastes can plummet saturated O2 to dangerously low levels, possibly harming or killing all O2 dependant life in the tank. Save the Chemi-Clean as a last resort....

Mike

[Doctor_Reef]

I also am not fond of the chemical attacks on the cyno...agree with Mike on the problems that this creates and the fact that you have not fixed the underlying problem of too many nutrients in the tank....Attack the problem like Mike has explained!!! It will work!!! :)

[Condiman]

I am also with mike on that I am also not a big fan on chems. They are only a temporary fix untill the main underlying problem is fixed