red algae

[ktoledo]

I have had my tank up and running for about 4-5 months. I can not get rid of the red algae in my tank. Any suggestions?

 

[viet-tin]

Red algae is cyanobacteria. there are many threads on these forums that will tell you all about them. Need to find what is causing the stuff to grow. What type of water are you using? Water params? Any direct sunlight? How much flow? Any deadspots?(area with no flow) Type of lighting? How many fish and how much do you feed them. These are some of the questions you can answer to help find whats causing the cyano to grow.

 

[ktoledo]

No direct sunlight
Regular water from tap and added salt
Pretty good flow but none going directly to the bottom
We have 6 fish, 1 shrimp, 3 crabs
We feed them 1/2 shrimp block every other day
He has two lights that he bought with the tank
What do mean by water params?

 

[fedukeford]

they mean what r the levels of ammonia nitrates nitrites, salt, calcium, phosphates, and anything else you test..... the cause is probley the tap water, try to start switching to RO/DI (reverse osmosis, or distilled) and that should help

 

[bigarn]

Stop using tapwater and switch to either RO or distilled. How big is the tank? You need to get some flow going near the bottom ... you probably have dead spots, this is where cyanobacteria takes off. Do you have any powerheads in there?