Help with red algae...

[Sduvall81]

Ive been battling this stuff for a while and cant seem to get rid of it. Anyone know what type of algae it is and how to get rid of it. It covers my sand bed and live rock on the bottom of the tank. Doesnt seem to make its way up the rock. Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

 

[Enderturtle]

Here's what you should do.

Test your nitrates and phosphates. (if you don't have a test kit bring it to any local fish store and pay them to test it)
-If these levels are high it promotes the growth of pest algae/cyanobacteria/etc

We need to know:
How old this tank is
What size tank
How many fish
How often you feed

My guess is you have a light case of Cyanobacteria. Typically due to any combination of excessive nutrients, lack of flow, excess light Don't try to treat something until you're sure what you're up against.

 

[wpeterson]

+1 to everything @Enderturtle said

Most tanks have a cyano bloom at some point in the first 1-2 months. Check your nutrient levels, especially phosphate. You can help lower them with water changes, but you'll need to balance your import (fish food) and export (skimmers, reactors, water changes) to keep the levels correct.

I had a ton of cyano on our rocks, sand, and glass at around month two with our tank. I've since added GFO and carbon reactors as well as a powerful UV filter. I bought a Hanna Phosphate checker and found our Phosphate levels were way high (0.30 ppm at one point). Feeding less and exporting nutrients, our phosphate is usually between 0.02 and 0.07 ppm and algae barely grows on our glass. The cyano hasn't come back and the green algae never grows enough to be visible on the rocks.

 

[Coral reefer]

Won't always show up on test kits as sometimes the cyano or whatever else uses it up and it tests low even tho there is more than enough for the algae to grow.

 

[Sduvall81]

Thanks for the info guys. I tested both nitrate and phosphates which according to my API kit are at 0 ppm. I think i've narrowed it down to just having bad flow in the tank. I had been waiting for Neptune to release the WAV pump so I was just running some cheap powerheads that I know were not cutting it. I finally got tired of waiting for Neptune and purchased two MP40's which I installed on Saturday. Hopefully that will help.

My tank is a 90 gal that is five months old. I have a yellow tang, a pair of clowns, five black axil chromis and a wrasse. I have an Apex auto feeder which does two rotations twice a day at the second lowest setting. I also give a cube of frozen misis every couple days and a sheet of algae for the tang. They seem to eat up all the food before the feed cycle is over.

Again thanks for the info.

 

[Coral reefer]

API test kits suck, really bad, especially the phosphate one. IMO of course

 

[Sduvall81]

I purchased a red sea algae control test kit and it showed my phosphates at .02 ppm and nitrates at 0. Im on my second go around with a chemiclean dose as the first one didn't seem to help much. I siphoned out as much of it as i could before dosing, i'm hoping this time it works.

 

[Enderturtle]

It should. Sometimes these things take time. I had a BAD case of hair algae that didnt go away for like 5 months.


Address the nutrient issue and flow and you will be fine. I think its mostly a nutrient issue since most people have a decent amount of flow.

 

[neuro]

Hey just my two cents about cyano:

1. Even with flow, cyano can be a problem. I have personal experience that adding flow does nothing to help with cyano on spots directly in the path of high flow.
2. You need to watch chemiclean. It has caused a direct crash in one of my tanks. I would highly advise against using chemiclean.
3. When I reduced feeding (I fed all kinds of stuff), it took about two weeks for the cyano to disappear.

My personal opinion:
It's best to reduce feeding and then suck out all of the crap using a hand pump with the other end attached to a filter sock.

 

[tchill]

I had a bout with this stuff too. I used Red Slime Stain Remover. 2 doses and it all but disappeared. I started feeding my clowns less food (I didn't realize I was over feeding) and made sure I only turned the day lights on 8 hours a day for a couple of weeks. I'm back to my normal 12 hour lights on schedule. I haven't seen a trace of the cyano in the 4 months since.