Red thread algae HELP

[reb]

A couple months ago I decided to start up a small frag tank. I bought a 20 gallon long tank, with a heater, a powerhead, a hob filter, and the 165 watt Chinese led lights. I put egg crate in the bottom and filled it 3/4 with my main tank's water (great water, been running 4 years) and 1/4 with new saltwater. I fragged a bunch of corals (zoas, mushrooms, xenia, nepthia), dipped them, then rinsed them, then put them in the tank. I have my lights on 30% intensity for colors, and 60% intensity for blues. They run 7 hours. After about a week or so I noticed some single strands of red algae (like thread) with one end attached to the glass. 2 days later I came back from out of town and my ENTIRE tank was coated in a film of algae. I left the lights off for 2 days and it seemed to kill it.

I bought a new tank, threw out the egg crate, sterilized the filter, heater, and powerhead. I used all water from my established tank and added 1 more powerhead. I dipped and rinsed every coral frag and put them back in. Today (4 days later) I have some algae covering a few zoa frags, a little growing on the egg crate, and a few threads attached to the glass. I have had red slime algae once before (8 yeras ago) and I have googled pictures and this doesn't seem to look like that. My water parameters all check out and the main tank upstairs is doing great. I will try to get pictures if I can. Any ideas???

 

[flower]

A couple months ago I decided to start up a small frag tank. I bought a 20 gallon long tank, with a heater, a powerhead, a hob filter, and the 165 watt Chinese led lights. I put egg crate in the bottom and filled it 3/4 with my main tank's water (great water, been running 4 years) and 1/4 with new saltwater. I fragged a bunch of corals (zoas, mushrooms, xenia, nepthia), dipped them, then rinsed them, then put them in the tank. I have my lights on 30% intensity for colors, and 60% intensity for blues. They run 7 hours. After about a week or so I noticed some single strands of red algae (like thread) with one end attached to the glass. 2 days later I came back from out of town and my ENTIRE tank was coated in a film of algae. I left the lights off for 2 days and it seemed to kill it.

I bought a new tank, threw out the egg crate, sterilized the filter, heater, and powerhead. I used all water from my established tank and added 1 more powerhead. I dipped and rinsed every coral frag and put them back in. Today (4 days later) I have some algae covering a few zoa frags, a little growing on the egg crate, and a few threads attached to the glass. I have had red slime algae once before (8 yeras ago) and I have googled pictures and this doesn't seem to look like that. My water parameters all check out and the main tank upstairs is doing great. I will try to get pictures if I can. Any ideas???

Hi,

I don't think it was wise to use your tanks water, there is very little good bacteria in water...it's all on the surfaces. Sterilizing things didn't help because you killed the good bacteria you did have.

Check the nitrates and phosphates, Both will feed nuisance algae.

New tanks go through a process, and until it's established (about 1 year) your parameters will be all over the place. Keeping track of the NO3 (nitrates) and NO4 (phosphates) and trying to keep it at 0, or as close to that, will help keep the nuisance algae away. The lights off for a bit will kill it, but until you get whatever is feeding it out...it will just come right back.

 

[pegasus]

Could be either Gelidium, or Lyngbya algae. If parameters are good, the fuel for this algae may be coming from your cheap Chinese LED's. I avoid these lights like the plague. While the price point makes them attractive, the quality standards are a giant red flag. Who knows which off-the-shelf emitters were used, and just how good are the drivers that power those emitters? Are the emitters anywhere close to the proper spectrum? Not likely even at 100%, but when they're dimmed, typically by voltage reduction on these fixtures, they go much farther out of spectrum. In other words... they're crap. You'd be better off using clip-on lamps with spiral florescent daylight bulbs.

Good lighting, good flow, good parameters, and a properly fed frag tank should be no trouble to keep clean. Just my 2c...