Green hair algae is now red?

[westwind77]

I purchased lr from a person who was breaking down their very large aquarium and turning it fresh. I put the lr in my holding tank 75g for a few weeks while I set up the 110g. Now, this is my stupid fault, I saw some 'nice green growth' on a couple rocks and left it there, I never knew what hair algae was because I never encountered it before. Anyway, it quickly migrated its way around to the other rocks. I bought a 'clean up crew' and have also been adding API's AlgaeFix Marine. The AlgaeFix looks like it has been killing the algae, but a lot of it is just very red now and does not seem to be dying off too fast. Is this normal? Is there a fix besides using chemicals or taking out all the rock/sand? What does the Hair Algae thrive on to grow? Can I starve it of certain nutrients that it needs to survive without hurting the rest of the tank? Should I be cutting back on the light? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[spanko]

Do use the search button at the top of the page and search for Cyano or red slime. What you probably have here is an addition of nutrient from the new rockwork causing the cyano outbreak.

 

[vince-1961]

I know some folks on here will say otherwise, but leaving all lights off for two days solved the problem for me.

 

[westwind77]

After doing a forum search on Cyano, could it thriving off the decomposition of the Hair Algae that I am killing off? To me it looks like the Cyano is coving the sand, rock, and even the hair algae. I have never had a problem with Cyano with any other tanks before, but like is said, I never had hair algae problems before either. Could the 2 be related at all? Thanks!

 

[spanko]

Yup! Good call Westwind!!! The dying algae is releasing it's nutrients back into the water column. Heavy wet skimming, a increased change of filter materials will and perhaps and increase in water changes and or volume would help to export the additional nutrient.

 

[steelytom]

For future reference, it is always better to get to the cause of the problem than using a chemical solution. If you have an algae outbreak you need to fix the nutrient problem and maybe get a couple mexican turbo snails. I would add some kind of phosphate removing media. I have used the phosphate removing sponges dropped in my sump and they worked well. Once you get rid of the phosphates the cyano will die off. It can sometimes creep back in very low flow areas even with low nutrients. Just about everybody that has ever had a reef tank has dealt with hair algae and cyano