is this something to worry about?
Looks like the beginnings of cyano bacteria.
Vacuum it out, increase flow in that area.
It can grow quickly, and smother out coral. Try to siphon as much of it out as possible with your next water change.
Funny part about cyano is that it goes away at night, an hour or 2 after lights out the sand is perfectly white. When the lights come back on it pops back out.
They do make a chemical that can kill it, but overall unless you can follow directions to the letter, and can babysit your skimmer for an hour after the treatment (seriously - walking away to pee is out of the question), than nutrient reduction, increased flow, and siphoning is your best bet.
Thats what I thought it was. I wasnt sure if I should disturb it for fear it would make it spread. I slacked on my water changes. I tested the water just before I did my water change last week and the ammonia was up. I am guessing with the ammonia being up this is what caused it?
Not necessarily ammonia, nitrates maybe. It’s a bacterial bloom not algae. It will usually pop up when there is a “dead spot” and food and poop is allowed to accumulate and break down causing a spot of high nutrients.
Siphon, increase flow, water change, maybe cut back feeding. That will get you back on track.
I just tested my nitrates and ammonia. ammonia is at 0 and nitrates are between 0 and 5. I feed twice a day. Flakes in the morning and frozen in the evening and seaweed in the evening. Is that too much feeding?
That really depends on how hungry your fish are. If the flake are making it to the bottom of the tank then it’s too much flakes. If they don’t finish all of the frozen then it’s too much frozen. If the nori breaks up and decomposes before the fish finish it, then it’s too much nori.
Some tanks are lightly stocked and can get by on 1 feeding every 2-3 days. Others are heavily stocked and need multiple feedings a day. It really depends on your fish.
The flakes dont make it to the bottom. I dont put much of those in there. The nori is eaten before decomposing but some of the frozen may make it to the bottom. I used to feed them every other day then I bought an anthias and was told it need to be fed every day twice a day. Its a 90 gal and I have a yellow tang, kole tang, coral beauty, clownfish, firefish, algae blenny, foxface, ,yellow tail damsel, anthias, and a coral banded shrimp.
My experience with cyano has always been me feeding the tank too much. I cut down on feeding to one time a day and add more flow to the tank especially the bottom part of the tank. After several water change and cut down on feeding the cyano stayed away.
I’m not sure about the husbandry of anthias and why do they need to be feed several times a day. I would just feeding the tank once a day and see how the anthias react. Are they getting any of the food when you feed the tank? I don’t think they would starve to death if you feed them once a day. Then again I’m not anthias fish biologist.
Mike from the fish bowl said it needed to be fed twice a day every day. The anthias is the first fish to eat. He is a piggy. He is there as soon as the food hits the water. Crazy fish!!!
Anthias are plankton eaters in the wild that spend most of their time eating micro stuff while burning significant energy doing it. I kept dispars (Pseudanthias dispar), lyretails (Pseudanthias squamipinnis), green (Pseudoanthias huchtii), and purple queen (Pseudanthias tuka). All but the purple queens acclimated to flakes (never ate at all -tried everything). Once they were on a higher volume of eating (in a feeding period) they did well. Usually I would start to give small feedings 3 times a day, morning less than evening. After about a month they ate flakes. Biggest problem I had was they like to jump. If yours eats well I would just reduce amount, or if staying at 2x a day or feed once and keep a watchful eye on health. Does it spend most time in the open or hide and dash out to grab food? This dictated to me if they were ready to switch from 3 small to 2 slightly bigger. If you go to once, slowly reduce amount of one of the feedings. Or option 3- stay with current feeding and increase nutrient export. There is many ways to do so. Water changes, algae scrubber, wet skimming, bio pellet/carbon dosing, fuge, carbon/resins. With all these things you can do you should certainly be able to keep the fish fat & happy and the tank clean.
Here some good reading about anthias and their feedings.
[quote=“Scottman81, post:11, topic:6733”]
Anthias are plankton eaters in the wild that spend most of their time eating micro stuff while burning significant energy doing it. I kept dispars (Pseudanthias dispar), lyretails (Pseudanthias squamipinnis), green (Pseudoanthias huchtii), and purple queen (Pseudanthias tuka). All but the purple queens acclimated to flakes (never ate at all -tried everything). Once they were on a higher volume of eating (in a feeding period) they did well. Usually I would start to give small feedings 3 times a day, morning less than evening. After about a month they ate flakes. Biggest problem I had was they like to jump. If yours eats well I would just reduce amount, or if staying at 2x a day or feed once and keep a watchful eye on health. Does it spend most time in the open or hide and dash out to grab food? This dictated to me if they were ready to switch from 3 small to 2 slightly bigger. If you go to once, slowly reduce amount of one of the feedings. Or option 3- stay with current feeding and increase nutrient export. There is many ways to do so. Water changes, algae scrubber, wet skimming, bio pellet/carbon dosing, fuge, carbon/resins. With all these things you can do you should certainly be able to keep the fish fat & happy and the tank clean.[/quote]
+1
[quote=“reefman66, post:12, topic:6733”]
Here some good reading about anthias and their feedings.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=268[/quote]
Thanks!
[quote=“Scottman81, post:11, topic:6733”]
Anthias are plankton eaters in the wild that spend most of their time eating micro stuff while burning significant energy doing it. I kept dispars (Pseudanthias dispar), lyretails (Pseudanthias squamipinnis), green (Pseudoanthias huchtii), and purple queen (Pseudanthias tuka). All but the purple queens acclimated to flakes (never ate at all -tried everything). Once they were on a higher volume of eating (in a feeding period) they did well. Usually I would start to give small feedings 3 times a day, morning less than evening. After about a month they ate flakes. Biggest problem I had was they like to jump. If yours eats well I would just reduce amount, or if staying at 2x a day or feed once and keep a watchful eye on health. Does it spend most time in the open or hide and dash out to grab food? This dictated to me if they were ready to switch from 3 small to 2 slightly bigger. If you go to once, slowly reduce amount of one of the feedings. Or option 3- stay with current feeding and increase nutrient export. There is many ways to do so. Water changes, algae scrubber, wet skimming, bio pellet/carbon dosing, fuge, carbon/resins. With all these things you can do you should certainly be able to keep the fish fat & happy and the tank clean.[/quote]
Yes it eats very well. Has eaten flakes from the day I got him. He never hides. He is always out in the open only goes into hiding at “bedtime”’