What is the GREEN DARKNESS!?

I cant seem to ID this nor get rid of it, it's like wildfire..

 

a type of cyanobacteria

 

Solution?

 

is this a empty/cycling tank?

if not what kinda fish load and filtration do you have?

 

Where do you get your water?

 

if there's no livestock, lose the light for 48-72 hours. Cyano blooms are normal after the diatom bloom.

If there are fish (no coral, or no demanding coral),
1. reduce the light cycle per day by 2-3 hours (7-9 instead of 10-12)
2. install a small fuge with chaeto or if you have a wet/dry with space put it there. Chaeto competes for the same chemicals in the water as cyano, but it's controllable and does not spread. Tf you still can't get it dead cheat and put a cheap 6.5k CFL bulb on the chaeto (make sure this light doesn't bleed into the tank), Chaeto is algae too, and it loves the stuff. As the Chaeto grows cut it back down to size and throw the rest away, or give it to a friend with a salt water aquarium (it's the gift that keeps giving!
3. direct flow from a ph onto the algae, they don't like water that moves.

People will blame not using RO/DI water, and that will ALWAYS make your cyano problems harder to manage, but salt water aquariums were kept long before RO/DI. This is not to say that you shouldn't be using RO/DI... you should.

 

+1

You know there was a time that a guy could come on this site, get a few quick ids and move on. Then sostoudt ruined the fun for all of us.

Not many species will eat that type of cyano. Get your phosphates down.

 

maybe you can ask @ a LFS for a bag of their water....
you will just come back for the fish later !?!?!