what is red algae?

mr.clownfish

mr.clownfish

Active Member
i have it growing all over my sand and glass.
i tested my phosphate and it was about 2.0 so i bought phosphate remover and nothing has changed. could it be copper?
 
michaelwb

michaelwb

Member
most likely cynobacteria, is it stringy on the sand and slimy on the glass?
How long has your tank been set up?
what's your flow like?
How much are you feeding?
what's your lights, and light schedule
 
sickboy

sickboy

Active Member
Yes, check all of the above. however, I had luck just using phosphate remover, but this is not always the case.
 
m0nk

m0nk

Active Member
Originally Posted by dmyers557
http:///forum/post/2837273
cyano attack for sure. You need to increase your flow and do more frequent water changes.
This will sometimes help, but it doesn't exactly address the cause. Most of the times it's just something that naturally happens with newer tanks and you need to get into a "groove" for it to go away. That means adjusting your feeding/lighting periods so that you don't have too much excess nutrients in the water, or too much light. That also includes outside light. Increasing flow in an area will help keep it from building up there, but if you substitute your flow in one area from another, the cyano will just build up in that other area. Do some water changes, shorten your light cycle, increase flow, and cut back feeding .... all slowly, and that should help get it to go away. Once you figure out what works in your tank, stick to that pattern.

Also, if you just want it to go away completely, you can cut your lights off for 3 days. It won't affect any coral or fish negatively and it will make the cyano go away. The catch is, it'll come back if you don't address the cause.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
My take on Cyano and flow.
Flow does not take away cyano. Cyano is a result of excess nutrient in the water, sand, rock. The cyano grows on these areas of excess nutrient. The reason I talk about flow when trying to help people with cyano is the flow to the affected areas will help to keep the things that are supplying the nutrients suspended in the water column for removal by filtration, skimming etc. When the nutrient is removed, the cyano goes away. This is why you should also with each and every water change take a turkey baster and lightly blow on the rockwork. You will be amazed at the amount of detritus that will blow up off of the rock. This again will suspend that nutrient rich detritus into the water column for removla. Oh and an added benefit is that when you do the rocks it also gets some of the nutrient to the coral.
Remember that the idea is nutrient export, mechanical, chemical, biological filtration, skimming, macro algae and water changes are all part of good husbandry to remove nutrient. Not only helps limit or eliminate cyano but also nuisance algae.
Dilution is the solution to pollution!!!!!
 
mr_x

mr_x

Active Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2837354
My take on Cyano and flow.
Flow does not take away cyano. Cyano is a result of excess nutrient in the water, sand, rock. The cyano grows on these areas of excess nutrient. The reason I talk about flow when trying to help people with cyano is the flow to the affected areas will help to keep the things that are supplying the nutrients suspended in the water column for removal by filtration, skimming etc. When the nutrient is removed, the cyano goes away. This is why you should also with each and every water change take a turkey baster and lightly blow on the rockwork. You will be amazed at the amount of detritus that will blow up off of the rock. This again will suspend that nutrient rich detritus into the water column for removla. Oh and an added benefit is that when you do the rocks it also gets some of the nutrient to the coral.
Remember that the idea is nutrient export, mechanical, chemical, biological filtration, skimming, macro algae and water changes are all part of good husbandry to remove nutrient. Not only helps limit or eliminate cyano but also nuisance algae.
Dilution is the solution to pollution!!!!!
+1.
if the red stuff is hard, and down't come off easily, it's just coralline algae. nothing to be alarmed about.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
PO4 at 2.0 is very high. that is definitely part of your problem.
i noticed when i had high PO4, and just threw some bags of PO4 removal media into the semp, basically nothing happened. however, when i put the media in a reactor, it is MUCH more effective at removing the PO4. however, it still takes time so be patient. test the PO4 every 2 days or so to see what happens.
also, if your tank is old, or the LR was purchased used from somebody else's tank, it could have absorbed it's quota of PO4, and can no longer absorb any more, leading to a build up of PO4 in the water column. that is the common "old tank syndrome" that people used to complain about it. if that's the case, you can add new LR, or switch out some of your LR for fresh pieces.
also cyano is not the only reddish macro-algae out there, just the most common. take a look for some pictures to make sure that is what you have. also answer the first responder's questions.
 
michaelwb

michaelwb

Member
the reason i mentioned flow is becuase if he had any dead spots in the tank where excess waste and food can just sit and linger til they cause problems.
I would also suggest getting a timer for your lights they're 5 bucks at walmart, this way you can have a same set schedule everday not getting too much one day and too little the next.
 
mr.clownfish

mr.clownfish

Active Member
WOW! ok
i have pretty good water flow through out the tank.
my skimmer provides most of that flow and i have just a normal power head for extra flow.
i have power compacts and i leave them on for about 12 - 15 hours a day. is that too much?
i feed my fish once every day or sometimes every other day.
its is getting more and more every day. its so ugly i have a pic im going to post it in a few minutes.
 
mr.clownfish

mr.clownfish

Active Member
and some more info.
i dont think its from the red algae but my xenia is almost completely dead. chunks of it is breaking off
and 1 of my leathers has this brown slime comeing off of it, im guessing thats dieing too.
 
fish4rudy

fish4rudy

Member
I had this problem after my lights were running to long.I did notice that the algae was worse where the flow was less and I have adjusted for this. I have had my lights off for the past 3 days and it is almost gone. I will be extra carefull about feeding in the future. I have the lighting worked out now and I do monthly water changes. I will see first hand how well this works. It really sucks that this happens. The tank went from "wow" to W.T.F.!
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
cycle off the lights for 3 days. on the 4th day bring them back for 11 hours.
also what powerheads do you have? what is your total GPH inside the tank?
 
mr.clownfish

mr.clownfish

Active Member
ok i did the turning off the lights thing for 4 days most of it is gone. but there is still a little left should i leave it there?
 
pete159

pete159

Member
Even though I have 30lbs of live rock, an emperor 280 filter a good protein skimmer and water changes i got green hair algae and red carpet algae. So i added a small canister filter and in it i put kent nitrate sponge and eheim pro substrate and left the sponges. now my live sand it totally clear and nitrates hardly go over 5 even after 2 weeks. So in a sense I use the canister filter as a de-nitrate unit with some extra added bio filtration.
 
mr.clownfish

mr.clownfish

Active Member
this is the most annoying algae ever!!!!

i bought red slime remover. its reef safe. and it costed me the anemone i wanted to get
ill buy the anem next week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top