Green/Purple

[tattooedlife]

A have a 55 gallon tank with two 40 watts. A 50/50 and Actinic Blue. I leave my lights on about 8-9 hours a day. Every things doing great. Most of my back glass is covered in green algea.No problem there. But my gravel and some of my rock has a purple, (really looks black) hair algea growing on them. Is this a good sign or a bad sign? I went and bought 5 turbo snails to go with my 10 blue legged hermits to help with the clean up. Whats the best thing to git to help stir my crushed coral. Is this purple-ish black algea, something I need to git rid of as soon as it pops up?

 

[cooder]

Hi Tattooedlife, Id say the purple-ish black algae is cyanobacteria which is not really a algae at all. Remove as much of it as you can. Make sure your protein skimmer is working good. If you are using tap water try and use R/O water instead (you can buy it at grocery stores). Cut back on your feedings. Check the web for sites about cyanobacteria control. Lots of good info in books on the subject (The Reef Aquarium Vol 1, The Conscientious Marine Aquarist) just to name a couple. Read, Read, Read! JMO Cooder

 

[the rock]

the rock says...
bad sign, waste in your tank which could be from a number of different sources. siphon it out and pinpoint the problem to prevent it from reoccuring, use distilled or RO water when you do your water changes