Something growing on the sand??

[seminoleranch]

Set up is a 20 gallon tank, sand and crush coral substrate with live rock. 50/50 lighting with about 150 watt out put. All water levels are correct, doing 20-30% water changes weekly. Temp is running about 74 now. Has one Lawn Mower Blenny, one true Percula Clownfish, one Sand Sifter Star (I know he will out grow the tank, will traded him in when he is too big) and two Anemones (one Rock Flower other is unknown). And tank has been running about 8 weeks now.
I did have a on going issue with Ick till this past weekend so I was using my UV from my 90 gallon in the tank I was also treating the tank with Kick Ick.
I also dose the tank with Instant Ocean Reef Accelerator once every other week and I use Brightwell Aquatics Phytochrom for filter and target feeding.
Here is the question, I have notices some very odd looking junk (??) growing on the crush coral/live sand at one end of the tank. It seems to clump the substrate and is a blue/gray in color. I stirred up the substrate in that area yesterday just make sure I did not have any type of "pocket" going in that area and it seems to be coming back today. Does anyone know what this stuff could be and is it going to hurt anything? Tried searching the net but did not find anything that looks like it.

[nacra99]

A pic would help.
Sounds like cyanobacteria to me. Is is slimy?

[seminoleranch]

Ok just tried (lol) to feel of the stuff and it looks like it more on the crush coral is self. Its is making the crushed coral look more like oyster shell. Not slimy and the crushed coral is very firm. It think it may have came back to the surface again because I found "Speedy" (the star fish) in the sand on top of the area. So maybe he brought it back to the surface??? Another note is he loves staying right in this spot.

[DustinB]

Could it be coralline algae? I know that it comes in all different colors.

[DustinB]

I also read somewhere else that if you have crushed coral substrate, it is possible the coralline will grow on it. It probably would help with a picture.

[nacra99]

Hmmm... quite interesting.
Yeah... pic will really help.

[seminoleranch]

You guys could be right, it maybe coraline. I will give a few days to come back better and post a photo of it.

[soymilk]

is it encrusting? or can you easily remove it? Could be cyano...

is it on the end with very low to no flow?

[seminoleranch]

is it encrusting?
No its not what I would call encrusted

or can you easily remove it?
Not really it just seem to kind of come apart unless I lift out sand and all

Could be cyano...
???

is it on the end with very low to no flow?

Same end as the power head is on, have my filter on one side and the power head on the other.

I just got photos of the stuff, did not take long to come back will post them on here later.

[soymilk]

http://saltwater-aquarium-guide.net/...-cyanobacteria

maybe a picture would help us all out lol. Could be detritus building up in that corner and giving the cyano food to eat. I had this prob with my last tank. Too much live rock and I couldn't get to all the nooks and crannies. Coraline is usually pretty hard stuff, i have to use my fingernail and literally scrap it off.

[seminoleranch]

Here are the photos:
On the area around my unknown Anemone (if anyone knows what he is please let me know)


Today has even moved around my Rock Anemone (you have to excuse him he was eating at the time of the photo lol)




And a close up of the stuff

[DustinB]

Looks like it might be cyano because it looks fuzzy. But you did say it was hard?

[seminoleranch]

If felt like it was on the coral but that could have been the coral, to be honest it hard to feel the stuff. Maybe if it builds up more by tomorrow morning I can tell better. Going to look up this cyano you guys are talking about now to see if it looks the same.

[DustinB]

http://www.reeftime.com/reef-articles/reef-health/cyanobacteria-red-slime-algae/48.htm

[soymilk]

I'm almost 100% sure its cyano. Use a 1/8" airline use to try to suck up as much as you can along with any detritus on the sand floor. Then I would recommend doing a water change.

You're either feeding too much or theres just too much poop on the sand floor. I did 4 things that helped me slow down the growth of cyano. Daily sandbed vacuuming with a small airline hose, 2x a week water changes, and a bought a skimmer, lastly I increased the flow in my tank.

With only 2 fish and 2 anemones, what are you feeding them and how often?