red fuzzy moss growing on liverock

jeff2

New Member
I've been getting this red fuzzy moss stuff growing on my liverock. someone told me its red hair algae, but it is short and fuzzy and hard to scrape off. I bought 2 urchins and changed my t5 lights. sorr I don't have a picture but has anyone had this problem?
 

mrmaroon

Member
Do you have some more info about your tank? What size, whst kind of filtration, water params, stocking, etc.
 

weberian

Member
I bought a spiny urchin for green algae, and it was great. But it didn't eat the red fuzz. My red fuzz is way better lately but never gone completely. It gathers most on the macroalgae, especially when I had feather caulerpa in there - but it kinda likes cheato too. Just a tiny bit around the bottom of some live rock. I treat it like any excess algae now, green, red.....same thing.
 

jeff2

New Member
my tank is 77 gallons. with about 70 lbs of liverock. I only have a tomato clown, green bubble anenome,
manderine goby, dwarf lion, cleaner shrimp, blue starfish, 2 urchins and a bunch of snails. I'm using a wet dry filter
 

bonkuba

Member
I have the same issue.....being the red fuzzy algae in my 90 Oceanic. I also have a little of the dark green "fuzz" along with it. I have had hair algae in the past......this is more like a peach fuzz...ha!
My phosphates are around 1-1.5 I believe. I know I need to strive for zero. I have phosguard in right now.
One thought I had is this. I still have my bio-balls (original Oceanix sump) in. Do I need to remove these? I do have a lot of live rock......the tank has been up for almost 3 years now.
Sorry if I hijacked this thread....but this is so similar to mine it is funny.
Sean
 

fishy7

Active Member
Originally Posted by bonkuba
I have the same issue.....being the red fuzzy algae in my 90 Oceanic. I also have a little of the dark green "fuzz" along with it. I have had hair algae in the past......this is more like a peach fuzz...ha!
My phosphates are around 1-1.5 I believe. I know I need to strive for zero. I have phosguard in right now.
Sean
I had the same issues. The urchin took care of the main algae and the hermits keep it under control as we speak.
I did find out that the phosphates need to be at 0. Mine came from feeding to much and natural sunlight. I took care of the issues and now I have 0.
Did you guys find out why the phosphates are at elevated levels? :thinking:
That is where I would look.
 

bonkuba

Member
I am actually stumped where mine are coming from to be honest. I feed every other day and change my water about every 2 week (10% approx).
I do not have a fuge.....have a wet/dry with Bio Balls. Now the bio-balls appear to be clean. For the life of me I cannot find a census on whethe or not to remove these things.....some will say "YES, remove them they are terrible for nitrate and phospate"....others say no. Again, at a loss.
I try to use phosguard and a spnge but I would sure as heck like to figure out why I have phospates in the first place.
I do have a chiller as well....just fyi. The temp ranges from 74-79. My VHO lights are only about 4 months old (approx). The tank has been up for about 3 years and I have always had some sort of algae prob seems like. I went through a HUGE hair algae prob about a year ago.
I just cant seem to get rid of this red fuzzy (and green/brown) algae. I know I need my phosphates to be zero (or really close).
In all honesty the tank sits by a door....about 4 feet away. There is never any direct sunlight on it but of course some light does get to the tank (again no direct).
My lights are on from 2pm -9pm.
Any other ideas?
I REALLY appreciate the feedback.
Sean
 

jeff2

New Member
I was just recently told to use ro water. about half my tank is ro water now. my tank to is close to a door with a little sun. I never had a green hair algae problem but if anyone has any other suggestions it would be great. I also cut the lighting down to about 9 hours a day
 
A

anothrname

Guest
it sounds like red slime algae to me.. i got some.. there are things that eat it. I have changed the salt I use and it seems to have helped, although could just be coincidence...
 
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