red alge

cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
hey everyone! the past week to week and half my parents & i have noticed this red alge on one end of our tank and green on the other side. the green isnt that unusual, usually happens when our phosphates are up. we had a bubble coral that died, and not thinkin anything of it we just left it in the tank. i've been researching for few days and thought the red alge could be red calcareose (sorry if spelt wrong), diatomaceous or filamentous but couldnt find pictures.
our levels are:
ph: 8.3
trates: 5-10
trites: maybe .2
ammonia: 0
phosphate: .25-.5
kh:160
ca: 340
salinity: 1.023
temp: 76
we know why the trites are up so we working on that. the kh dropped only a little and we put some stuff to boost it up so no worries. as i said, we know the green alge is from the raised phosphate, which all we know to do is wait it out & stirring the sand.
the red alge is actually red/brown & , as my mom puts it, sticky. we also did a 10% water change just last night.
any help is welcome
 
mx mr bean

mx mr bean

Member
from what i kno red algae is actually corraline growth r u sure its not red slime mixed with brown diatoms? How old is your tank?
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
i'm gonna try to get a pic up tomorrow, but if my camera will work with comp then i prolly cant get it on here, even with the sticky on it. but i'll try!
i've read up on cyanobacteria, but is it bad bad? one site said it does phytosenthesis, so would cutting the lights back help?
it also could be mixed with brown diatoms, would cutting back lights help get rid of that if it is there?
thanks for the responses guys!
 
rylan1

rylan1

Active Member
Sounds like cyano... What type of water are you using?? You are going to need to do a larger water change, get a turkey baster and blow that stuff off, and remove as much as you can. The problem is your high phosphates and nitrates. Do you have a skimmer? There are also some chemical products you can buy to help, but you need to fix the water problem because this stuff will eventually come back.
 
mx mr bean

mx mr bean

Member
when i had red slime and diatoms i did bigger water changes and cut back on the lights a couple of hours (gradually of course) and everyday for a week i would scrape the sand and try pulling out as much as i could with my hands eventually i only had to do it everyother day then very two days and so on. its always good to scrape the sand just to move it around even when cyano is not out of control.
The brown diatoms should eventually go away with time and effort. lowereing nitrates help. from what ive been told brown diatoms are almost always present in newer tanks untill the tank matures a little bit. i like to call it the new tank syndrome but no worries theyll go away once they eat up all ur phosphates and u get rid of some to with larger waterchanges (also the red slime). Hope this helps. good luck!
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
o sorry guys, forgot some one asked how old it was lol its a year old, so not that new but not that mature either. we have a ro thingy that we get all our tank water from. fixin try to give ya'll some pictures, just so rents dont fuss cause i didnt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top