Burgundy soft velvet algae.. What and why?

[Scott.h]

so far it's on the rocks only, and popped up over the last few days hard. Bosses tank, moved and reset up about a month ago. Nitrates are a little high at 25, but everything else it within spec. point of sale reactor, cheap LED lights but good water movement in the tank. Tried to Peel some off some in the tank in the pic. It's pretty stringy too in some spots.

 

[cloak]

It looks kind of like Cyanobacteria IMO

http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

 

[Scott.h]

When it popped up the other day that was my first thought too but it didn't really look like that. And it's in high flow areas, not on the sand. It looks like a new high nutrients tank with green algae only red.

 

[Supurderek]

Definitely cyanobacteria. They do not like high flow but CAN exist in high flow areas. Just work on reducing nutrient levels and manually removal.

 

[Scott.h]

Is this a candidate for peroxide? What causes it? Just nutrients? Wonder if I should start carbon dosing

 

[Supurderek]

It's a combination of excessive nutrients and lights. There are many methods to rid the tank of the cyano(black out tank, chemiclean, but for long term it is as I described above).

 

[Joshua Hurst]

Is this a candidate for peroxide? What causes it? Just nutrients? Wonder if I should start carbon dosing

So I had some very similar to this. I did a black out for 3 days, and turned the lights on for a day for my corals, and then did another black out for a few days. If anything is left scrub it with a toothbrush and do a huge water change. Like 40%

 

[Scott.h]

Ok it's all softies so no lights for 3 days wont hurt. Well do a water change and probably start vodka dosing to lower the nitrates long term. Thanks for the insite

 

[filbie70]

Check out blogs on mangroves. Also, vinegar can be used for carbon dosing to remove nitrates.