Purple looking algae on my crush coral

[tired_boy_mike]

Hi everyone,
I have my reef tank set up for about 7 months now. Recently I notice some purple color looking algae growing on the surface of my crush coral. I tried to remove it by scooping out the purple algae but that did not work. No matter how I removed the purple algae, there always seem to be a little left. With the remain residuals of the algae, it starts growing again. Is this a common problem. Please Advise.
Reef Tank 100 gallons
100 lbs of live rock
Clean up Crew
175 watt Metal H.
Aqua-C 150 protein skimmer
2 anemones
1 Purple Tang
1 clown fish

 

[owlett]

my crushed coral is doing the same thing only my tnak hasn't been set up as long as yours. Do you have live rock in your tank? The coraline algae on my live rock is purple too so I think what is happening is the croaline might be moving onto the surface of my sand . . .I don't think it will hurt anything.

 

[tired_boy_mike]

I am new to the reef tank hobby. I really don't think that it is coraline algae growing. I am beginning to think it is red algae, maybe I need to find some information of algaes. Anybody have any recommendations on sources of information or books?
thanks

 

[j21kickster]

souynds like red slime algae aka Cyanobacteria- it can be maroon in color- i have had good luch with a product called Chemi Clean-in my reef tanks- also i have seen different hermit crabs and sifting gobies eat it.

 

[tired_boy_mike]

Good advice,
I noticed the red/maroon looking algae apearing after my hermit crab population was decreased due to a mean dottyback. I will order more hermit crabs to try to prevent this in happening in the future? I currently have about 10, I use to have 50.
What do you think? Buy more hermit crabs and a couple of Gobies?

 

[oceanjumper]

MIke~
I read also that overfeeding can cause RSA as well. Before adding chemicals you might want to see if cutting back on the food helps you (if you suspect that might be the case).
If nothing else, people that have used RSA removal chemicals had not noticed anything bad happen to their other creatures.

 

[tired_boy_mike]

Currently i only have two fish, One purple tang and one clow fish. I feed it a 1/4 a cube of frozen brine shrimp every other day. I think that should be ok since i have the nite crew to clean it up. I think I will go ahead and use the chemical but I would also like to know the precautionary steps to prevent this.
Thanks for the advice

 

[azonic]

The cyanobacteria feed off excess nutrients in your water. Things like phosphate, nitrate, etc. It's sort of a half algae, half living creature sorta thing.
Some causes of it are overfeeding as was metioned...Also, do you use TAP water in your tank for water changes and/or top-off? Tap water is USUALLY high in phosphate which will feed the bacteria.
Another way of reducing it is to cut back the light your tank recieves....
I had a major problem with red slime last month...i tried crabs, several fish, tried manually removing it. I finally bought a product called Red Slime Remover by UltraLife. It was very easy to use. mix the amount of it with some tank water in a container....turn off skimmer and/or anything running carbon....dump the mixture in the tank. After 48 hours it SHOULD be all gone completely...if not, after the 48 hour period you can treat the tank ONCE more with the same method and then wait another 48 hours for results. You can only do 2 treatments at a time without doing a water change. Mine disappeared by the morning of the 2nd day and it hasn't come back at all. It's a little pricey....one container only treats around 200 gallons of water or so....and it costs around $10-$15. but well worth it. I also noticed no ill effects on any of my fishes/corals/inverts.

 

[tired_boy_mike]

Thanks Azonic,
My protein skimmer is my only source of oxygen to the tank as of right now. I usually leave my metal hylides on for 8 hours a day and the actnic lights on for 10 hours a day. Does the protein skimmer have to be off? If it does than I guess I will have to use a different method during the algae process.

 

[azonic]

When you put the red slime remover in the tank, the skimmer MUST be off...otherwise it will skim it all out....which would be a waste.....
Your lighting sounds fine, I wouldn't reduce it.
Do you use tapwater?

 

[tired_boy_mike]

thanks Azonic,
Before I did a 20% water change every month. Now I do it 20% water change every 3 months. The guy at the local fish store told me that if I had a good protein skimmer that I could get away with doing a water change once every 3 months. I have a aqua-C 180 for a 100 gallon tank. When I do a water change, I buy water from the purified water store about 20 gallons at a time. I then mix it with a saltwater mix then I add it to the tank. I have a RO system but it takes such a long time to produce 20 gallons of water ( all night ) that I decided to sped 5 bucks to get the purified water.
Is this a good process? Tell me what you think.
Thanks

 

[azonic]

It's a good process as long as the water is pure. If you have a GOOD Lfs around you, take some of the water and get them to test it for phosphates....or buy a testkit yourself.
IMO, if it takes a full night to get 20 gallons of RO water that shouldn't be a problem...just start making the water a day or two in advance from when you are planning the change.

 

[tired_boy_mike]

Thanks Azonic,
I test my water once a month. I have to admit, recently I have been lazy testing the water I will do that soon.
thanks

 

[tired_boy_mike]

Sorry about the water movement part. Didn't even realize that water movement would cause this. Here it goes.
I have a return from sump to tank which is a RIO 2500 on the top middle of the tank. I also have 3 rio 2100 pumps.
The first one is located at the top right of the tank.
The second one is located at the mid-bottom left side of the tank.
The third on is connected to PVC pipiing which i drilled holes through which my live rock sits on. I extends almost the entire length of the tank. I am pointing the drilled holes on the PVC piping up. Do you think I should point them down to cause more water movement on the bottom?
thanks.

 

[tired_boy_mike]

I would have to say yes. I have crushed coral on the bottom of my tank. There might be some water movement on the bottom but I am not sure. But if there is water movement , it is not stron enough to move any crush coral around. Hmmm.... maybe there is not water movement at all, I will have to check that.