red bateria??

[roseann]

I have a red growth that keeps reappearing in my tank on my rock and gravel and tank walls. ALso, I cant keep my nitrates down, they run extremely high 40 to 60 and I do not over feed. I cannot keep snails either, the die after a few weeks. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I do tank water changes every two weeks, about 15%. The local store told me to do a big change of 50%. I did and think this actually hurt my tank. What should I do?

 

[elfdoctors]

Welcome to the boards!
The reddish growth is probably cyanobacteria if it is maroon colored and seems to be more noticeable after your lights have been on for a while.
Do a search for cyanobacteria. You will learn lots of tips to help with this problem. This is not really a disease so not too much information is in this particular forum. I found that switching to RO water helped this prob immensely in my tank. Some tap water is also contaminated with nitrates and you may be actually adding these to your tank. You might be able to improve both problems with RO water.

 

[roseann]

Thank you for the welcome!! I will google the bateria and check into an RO for the nitrates!!!