Algae HELP Quickly please

revrick3

revrick3

Member
I have posted this in new hobbyists hoping to get some help quickly. Thanks in advance guys.
Tank 5 months old, 90gl. 120LR; 100 LS; Before you ask, I checked all levels Tuesday AM and all was well. I made water change yestday as I do bi-weekly of about 30gls. I noticed several of my zoas not looking too good on Monday, and I have a large green polyp coral that started looking peaked yesterday. Started noticing bubbles on lr couple of days ago but attributed it to heat. I put in new lighting 2 weeks ago. 500watts of MH and 220 T5. Set timers and am in middle of acclimating tank to them. Thought bubble were from heat. Temps have gone up since new lighting. High in afternoon has hit 82, back down to 79 at night.
Algae is brownish green and looks like hair. The bubbles are attaching to it and some of it is floating in tank. I have numerous hermit crabs and 2 emerald crabs, one yellow and one hippo tank. What am I dealing with here. Cant get photo, sorry I know it helps. This stuff is covering all my rocks and coral this afternoon when I got in, on sand and floating around. Like it appeared since last night. HELP, corals dont look too good, fish seem okay
 
cedarreef

cedarreef

Member
Does it look like strands of hair or like a film that covers stuff and has strands coming up from it ever here and there? Pics would really help...
 
revrick3

revrick3

Member
Dont have way to get picks now. It appears to cover the rock and has hairs with bubbles on the hairs. I blew a lot of it off with the powerhead and it floated to the top, probably due to bubbles. Some on sand, most on corals, zoas, and rocks, also on tank items such as overflows, etc. Thanks rick
 
jswan10

jswan10

Member
looks and sounds like a serious red slime/cyanobacteria. Im guessing your phosphates are out of control, probly your nitrates as well. What filters and media are you using? you may need to dose your tank with red slime algae remover? the product will stop it from spreading for awhile (week or so). you need to find ur root cause. run a test on ur nitrates, phosphates, alkalinity, and ph. let us know. keep your m.halides off for now too.
good luck
 
revrick3

revrick3

Member
Checked all my levels on Tuesday and they were great. Do not have a phosphate kit, will get one. I did cut out my MH yesterday as I figured the light had helped this grow like weeds. Have AquaC HOT skimmer that is running, started it running real wet yesterday to pull out more. Wet/Dry with refugium attached, full of chaeta and some live rock. I did add new filter media and a polyfilter yesterday along with a bag of charcoal. How long should I keep the MH off, Do I start over on acclimation with them again. I have also cut back on feeding as well. Didnt think I had fed too much but apparently it was. Thanks For all input. Rick
 
jswan10

jswan10

Member
You can cut back on ur lighting for a while, your tank will be fine with lower light for about 2 weeks before anything will die off, yes then u will need to re acclimate. The purpose of cutting the lights is to help slow the spread of the cyano. I would recommend redslime algae remover, do as it says and you will kill all the red slime in the tank, but again you need to find the source of this cyano. test ur phosphates, add redslime algae remover and let us know. I have used redslime remover twice with excellent success, but then i also found the source and cured the problem.
good luck
 
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