blackish,red algie on sand

[fishamajig]

Hey
I have never had this problem before. I have a blackish, red(maroon) algie growing on the surface of the sand. what can I do to treat this cause it is real ugly and a real pain to clean.

 

[erik314]

Sounds like a bacteria infections. Try antibiotics for 5 days.

 

[bang guy]

It's either a Dinoflagillate Bloom or Cyanobacter. My guess is Cyanobacter.
This is caused by excess nutrients in the water column like Nitrate and/or Phosphate combined with inadequate waterflow. The typical reason is overfeeding but there are many sources of these nutrients including detritus buildup, tap water, or something dead.
Have you tested for Nitrate or Phosphate? What does your waterflow look like in terms of turnover rate?
Adding an antibiotic to a reef tank could spell doom for the entire tank in my opinion.

 

[acekjd83]

no antibiotics! those are not true bacteria, and antibiotics will do nothing but kill beneficial nitrifying bacteria. bacteria will not be visible in a marine environment (unless you threw a dead cat in your tank and let it sit for a week or so...) so anything you see is a protozoan or plant, which are immune to antibiotics.
it really sounds like cyanobacteria, so try to reduce your dissolved nutrients, since that is the root of most algal blooms. if you dosed with antibiotics you would actually compound the problem since it would kill the bacteria that are trying to remove the nutrients.:nope:

 

[fishamajig]

Funny that it is caused by excess nutrients
I HAVE NO SKIMMER
as retarted as that may sound I ordered one and I pick it up tomorrow. I noticed a film on the top of my water. anyway there is plenty of flow to the whole tank so it cant be that. Ill do a water change and after the skimmer do you think I will be ok?

 

[acekjd83]

film on top of water is indicative of high levels of nitrates and other organic end-products in the water. the film on top of the water is exactly what the skimmer removes by sticking the waste molecules to bubbles in the skimmer chamber. no one can say for sure that a skimmer and water change will FIX the problem, but it will remove a lot of excess nutrients in the water, which is PROBABLY what is causing the algal bloom, so it will PROBABLY fix the problem in time. good luck!

 

[bang guy]

Right. The problem probably took months to develop so don't look for an overnight solution. Siphoning out the Cyano sheets will actually export a significant amount of nutrients, it's just a pain.

 

[clarkiiboi]

Originally posted by Bang Guy
Right. The problem probably took months to develop so don't look for an overnight solution. Siphoning out the Cyano sheets will actually export a significant amount of nutrients, it's just a pain.
Do you mean siphoning it out will cause more problems?
edited Never mind, I just re-read it and understand what you meant.

 

[who dey]

No, he meant it's a pain to do. use tubing and suck it out with the siphon when changing water.