algae on aragonite

My tank is cycling. I put a purple urchin in to provide some ammonia, and a hermit. The chemical levels are doing just what you guys said they would! Rise in ammonia, fall in ammonia+rise in nitrites, fall in nitrites+rise in nitrates. But there is this orange/red algae stuff growing on my (live) aragonite. This is your common stuff that you see on the sand/gravel. But what exactly is it, and does its presence signify something?

Thanks!

 

cyanobacteria... a good indicator of your tank going through the cycling. It'll go away. It will not benefit your tank to keep it lingering around, make sure you stir it and rid it everytime it appears. Because of the instability of your tank parameters, it will thrive. All the nitrates help it bloom.

 

So just stir the sand until it disappears, and keep doing that? When you say it will go away, what do you mean will cause it to do that? Detritus eaters like hermit crabs, some chemical cycle...?

 

Excess phosphates will be skimmed out, waterchanged out, bound in the body of another living animal or bacterium, chemically bond to Calcium ions in the water to form Calcium-phosphate, chemically bond to Magnesium ions to form Magnesium-phosphate, chemically bond to your aragonite (CaCO3) LR or LS. In short, once there's less phosphate available, the population of cyanobacteria will slow down it's reproduction rate. It will disappear and you'll be happy until you get your diatom bloom (if you have sulfates in your water). ;D Then you will see the diatoms start to disappear once these crazy white sponges start growing in your sump, overflow, under rocks, etc. These are harmless Scypha sponges and they will steal the sulfates from the water and the diatom bloom will disappear too.

Remember....every time you feed your tank, you are adding phosphates. Even if the food container say it doesn't contain phosphates that means they didn't ADD any phosphates. That's one of the reasons you should NEVER overfeed your fish. The other is obviously Nitrate problems.

 

Cyano is a tough one to get rid of and usually takes a while. It has a habit of forming in areas with low circulation try adjusting your power heads to move around the water flow. Regular water changes will help once cycled i prefer small weekly ones. Also i used a turkey baster to suck it out when i could. It takes a while but it will eventually go away with some work.

 

I still have my turkey baster, in case the cyanobacteria come back!

 

If your tank is still cycling, I would remove the urchin from your tank...They will not be able to handle a cycling process. They aren't that hardy(that is to go through a cycle, especially. Really, there isn't much that can go through a cycle except for certain Clowns possibly and Damsels. Urchins are good water indicators-if your water isn't up to snuff, it will die. If your water is good, your urchin should be fine in your tank.