I am having a real hard time beating this stuff, or even finding out what it is.
Its quick growing, black to very dark grey, almost feathery and whispy lookign, and last time grew to over a foot long in only a few days. its too feathery/slimy to make me think its hair algae, but too long to be cyano (from what ive seen on the net anyway) Pictures at end of post.
I had my tank establised for a while as just a marine tank with no LR. THis stuff took over, and I wanted to do a reef tank anyway so I started over, drained all my water, added some LiveRock and all new RO water and started cycling the new tank with just the LR. Its been about 2 weeks, and its going as expected, brown diatoms just starting to break out, which is fine, but yesterday I noticed this black feathery stuff starting to grow back again. Its driving me nuts, I need to know what it is and how to get rid of it.
My PH is 8.2, SG 1.025, no phosphates, no amonia, nitrite and nitrate are skyhigh but thats expected - and am doing daily water changes around 20%.
temp is 78, DKH is a little high at the moment at 17 or 18, but that shoudl be down soon with a few more water changes, I just added a bit too much buffer when I did a water change one day. calcium is 300+. Im doing lights about 3 hours a day right now.
the dark areas of sand are kind of a thin film of it, and then it is growing tall where you see the feathery stuff.
Help!
Regards,
Ryan
Its quick growing, black to very dark grey, almost feathery and whispy lookign, and last time grew to over a foot long in only a few days. its too feathery/slimy to make me think its hair algae, but too long to be cyano (from what ive seen on the net anyway) Pictures at end of post.
I had my tank establised for a while as just a marine tank with no LR. THis stuff took over, and I wanted to do a reef tank anyway so I started over, drained all my water, added some LiveRock and all new RO water and started cycling the new tank with just the LR. Its been about 2 weeks, and its going as expected, brown diatoms just starting to break out, which is fine, but yesterday I noticed this black feathery stuff starting to grow back again. Its driving me nuts, I need to know what it is and how to get rid of it.
My PH is 8.2, SG 1.025, no phosphates, no amonia, nitrite and nitrate are skyhigh but thats expected - and am doing daily water changes around 20%.
temp is 78, DKH is a little high at the moment at 17 or 18, but that shoudl be down soon with a few more water changes, I just added a bit too much buffer when I did a water change one day. calcium is 300+. Im doing lights about 3 hours a day right now.



the dark areas of sand are kind of a thin film of it, and then it is growing tall where you see the feathery stuff.
Help!
Regards,
Ryan