Algae on sand with micro bubbles

[markrj]

At the end of this 90 second video I show the algae in question.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4xRZ68vlkg&hd=1[/ame]

It's like a membrane on top of the sand and it has all these little micro bubbles on on. My one Blue Leg Hermit is munching away and releasing the bubbles to the surface.

Is this a problem? I have been doing 20% weekly water changes and finally got my Nitrates down to 5-10 after being elevated in the 60-80 range.

Last night's water test:

PH: 8.3
SG: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5-10
Phosphates .25

 

[marcah]

cyano.. not good, try to peel as much off as you can... how old are your lights? watermovement? feedings?

 

[markrj]

Lights are 1.5 months old.

Water movement is a Magnum 350 and two1200gph Hydor Koralia power heads.

I feed as little as possible or so I think. I cut off a couple of chunks from the frozen cubes and dissolvein tank water. Food does not hang around for more than 5 or 10 minutes.

 

[Washburn82]

I had the exact same stuff pretty bad as well. I just siphoned it off of the sand. It comes off pretty easy. Eventually it went away. Marach is correct though water movement is key to removing this stuff.

 

[Bebop]

I'm not a tome of knowledge or anything, but how's the heat in your tank? I've read that if the tank is consistently over 80′F or if the temperature fluctuates a lot slime algae can thrive

 

[markrj]

Temp is constant and right between 79 & 80 degrees.

 

[markrj]

I removed as much of it as I could with my hand. Is it ok to vacuum the sand in that area as well? I would like to get this under control ASAP.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[markrj]

Lights are:

ATI Blue plus, ATI Purple Plus, UVL 12,000K Actinic, and ATI Aqua Blue special.

About 3.5 months old.

In an Aquatic Life 48" with factory preset lighting schedule.

 

[SarahSmile]

I had the same exact thing pop up in my tank about a month ago Mark. Worried the heck out of me. One day it was on the sand, the next day it had covered a rock as well, it was bubbling and sinister looking and spreading fast. I took the rock out and scrubbed it, I cut the lights back to only 6.5 hours a day, I added a sleeper goby to sift the sand, and I noticed sunlight hits the tank right in that spot from a window 20 feet across the room so I started keeping that curtain closed. All of a sudden, the problem went away, I never siphoned or anything. So, I'm not sure if this helps you at all, and I'm not sure what I did that worked but I haven't seen any sign of the gross stuff since.

 

[FishyReef]

Sounds like you've got enough flow overall in your tank, but you might want to check to make sure the spot that is getting the growth also has good water movement and isn't a dead spot. If it is, then you can just re-angle the powerhead to increase movement in that area. Good luck!