dakotap Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Hi, I am having trouble determining if this is cyano or coraline. It looks like coraline to me but I am wondering if this is something that I should be concerned about. My tank is 2 months old and is a 28g Nano cube intermediate led. I am using aragonite live fiji pink sand. Any feedback on what it is and If it's something I need to worry about would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment
M&C Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Definitely cyano. What fish do you have? Feeding and maintenance schedule? Tank parameters? Link to comment
LarryMoeCurly Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Don't often hear of coraline on the sand, but it just doesn't look like cyano to me. Could be wrong though. Link to comment
urbaneks Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 It's either diatoms or cyano. Diatoms are typically brown and the stuff in your photos looks red. I would also say cyano. I'm 100% sure it is not coraline. Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 Livestock is a pair of occelaris clowns, purple firefish, 15 hermits, 5 snails, peppermint shrimp, emerald crab and various coral. Tank parameters: ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, calcium 420, phosphate 0Kh has been up to 13 from 11 I believe. Weekly 10% water changeFeed small amount several times a day of mysis and combo mysis, brine, spirinula. I have a brain coral that I just moved and the sand under was white whereas everything around was purple. Link to comment
nanoreef-R Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Tank parameters: ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, calcium 420, phosphate 0 Kh has been up to 13 from 11 I believe. Which test kits are you using? Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 I am running a tunze 9002 skimmer in the main chamber and have dropped a bag of purigen in there as well. Cut some pieces of filter padding and put in front of the overflow and in chambers 2 and 3 to grab big particles since the skimmer uses up all the main basket space. Which test kits are you using? API saltwater master kit and API reefmaster kit. Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 I have never really vacuumed the bed as to not stir up nitrates. My water change is coming up, should I vacuum? Link to comment
reefone Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 how long are you running your lights? cutting back on your photo period will help.i would cut down the feed to 1 time a day and maybe look into a pellet like new life spectrum and keep the mysis for and others for occasional feedings. mysis and the others you are using are very messy and if you are not rinsing them before feeding it you are putting a bunch of unwanted crap into the tank. also try upping the flow as that will help to get rid of the cyano. this is a fairly new tank and will need to go through a algea blooms as it matures. so what you are seeing may just up and disappear after a bit. your tank is still pretty new so you could get away with vacuuming the sand. if this was an old tank and you never vacuumed the sand then you wouldnt want to stir it up as it may release all the trapped bacteria and other crap in the sand and cause a mini cycle. 1 Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 Lights are currently running 9 hr a day. I will look into a pellet food. Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 After some more research I think I will do a 2-3 day lights out period as well as only feeding pellets once a day for the time being. Boy my clownfish certainly don't like not having the moonlights. Will do my weekly 10% water change and maybe try to vac a little up. Link to comment
Coco66 Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Looking closely at the pictures it looks like every grain of sand is covered individually. Cyano looks more like a slimy mat doesn't it? I'm still pretty new to saltwater but to me that looks like some of your sand grains are starting to be covered with coralline. 1 Link to comment
Lawnman Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Coralline covered sand. I have this as well. What kind of sand Tropic Eden? This happened to me about 5-6 months after my tank was set up. I thought it was cyano but after 2-3 chemi clean treatments I figured it out. It's either diatoms or cyano. Diatoms are typically brown and the stuff in your photos looks red. I would also say cyano. I'm 100% sure it is not coraline.Expand the pictures and look closely you will be surprised. Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 I do find that it is encrusted on individual grains. There is no "slime" per say on the sand. It's like the individual grains have changed color to purple. I do have coraline started to expand more on my rocks as well. This is why I thought it was coraline. Link to comment
Acielot Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 I have only ever seen coralline grow on sand twice. Both in pico tanks and it was that thick plating kind encroaching onto the sand. Link to comment
gulfsurfer101 Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 I'm gonna disagree and say cyano bacterial infection I would get that junk on my sandbed every time I used livesand. I started using dry aragonite and have never came across that since. Try vaccing your sandbed with every waterchange to reduce decomposition. I'd say 30% at a time and you should see this stuff dissapear over time. Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Coralline covered sand. I have this as well. What kind of sand Tropic Eden? This happened to me about 5-6 months after my tank was set up. I thought it was cyano but after 2-3 chemi clean treatments I figured it out. Expand the pictures and look closely you will be surprised. It is Caribsea arag-alive Fiji pink sand. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Could be coraline but be safe and dont stir it in the sand because if it os cuano it will just be twice as hard to get rid of it Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 So should I be on a lights out period or just keep an eye on it? Link to comment
xerophyte_nyc Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Scoop some sand into a cup with water and mix it around. Cyano should come off easily. Coralline will stay put. Link to comment
dakotap Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Scoop some sand into a cup with water and mix it around. Cyano should come off easily. Coralline will stay put. Just got a chance to do this. Swirled it all around about 5 times or so emptying a little water at a time. Nothing comes off the sand, this is a pic of what it looks like after. It is the exact color of the coraline on my rock. Link to comment
LarryMoeCurly Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Let the record show I was right. People saying "100% sure it's not coraline" and "definitely cyano". You use strong language and have high certainty, but are apparently dead wrong. Link to comment
rO.oster Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 hey, you bought figi pink sand. don't hate that its getting pinker! just kidding, never seen this before! Link to comment
opaquelace Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 I've never seen coraline grow on sand before, but when it's in the cup it doesn't look at all like cyano. Yay for pink/purple sand Very nifty. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.