Pink/Red algae??

[Brazzy]

So I have a 75g tank its roughly 40w x 24D with about 80lbs of live rock. It is ran by a fluval 405 canister filter with bioballs and carbon. Tank has been up and cycled for about 2 months and I came home to this new algae on my rocks and some pinkish algae spots on my sand bed. My water tests are all normal....I even took a sample to the LFS and had them test it just to make sure that I wasnt missing something. My white lights run for about 8 hours a day and then my blue lights stay on about an hour more than that. I have 2 red flame fish and 2 yellow tail damsels. I also have around 12 blue leg hermit crabs, 7 snails, a small conch, a mushroom, and a zoanthid. I feed my fish on a M/W/F schedule. I also do about a 7g or so water change once a week with RODI water. Just wanting some ideas on how to treat this and what might be the cause of it? Don't want it to get out of hand.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Looks like cyanobacteria to me..
Normal part of the ugly phase.

My water tests are all normal....

What are the numbers?

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

I had a pretty bad breakout not long ago..I cut down my feeding, decreased my light cycle, used ultralife red slime remover and added a uv sterilizer...all gone without a trace within a week....(salty helped me out with good advice...good dude...thanks again , appreciate ya)....just some things to try, worked for me

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So I have a 75g tank its roughly 40w x 24D with about 80lbs of live rock. It is ran by a fluval 405 canister filter with bioballs and carbon. Tank has been up and cycled for about 2 months and I came home to this new algae on my rocks and some pinkish algae spots on my sand bed. My water tests are all normal....I even took a sample to the LFS and had them test it just to make sure that I wasnt missing something. My white lights run for about 8 hours a day and then my blue lights stay on about an hour more than that. I have 2 red flame fish and 2 yellow tail damsels. I also have around 12 blue leg hermit crabs, 7 snails, a small conch, a mushroom, and a zoanthid. I feed my fish on a M/W/F schedule. I also do about a 7g or so water change once a week with RODI water. Just wanting some ideas on how to treat this and what might be the cause of it? Don't want it to get out of hand.

Oh and Welcome to Reef2reef!

 

[Brazzy]

Looks like cyanobacteria to me..
Normal part of the ugly phase.

What are the numbers?

PH 8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate >10

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

PH 8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate >10

Any idea what you phosphate is?

I'd guess it's just new tank stuff.

 

[Brazzy]

I will check it tomorrow and let you know.

 

[Brazzy]

I will check it tomorrow and let you know.

So I checked the phosphates and they are really high at around 4.0 ppm. Going to change the poly in my canister filter and do a water change and see if I can get them back down to normal. Any other suggestions?? Thanks!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So I checked the phosphates and they are really high at around 4.0 ppm. Going to change the poly in my canister filter and do a water change and see if I can get them back down to normal. Any other suggestions?? Thanks!

def retest and get a lfs to compare. that's VERY high. so id confirm that before taking any other action besides cleaning.
I still believe its just your particular ugly phase.

 

[Brazzy]

def retest and get a lfs to compare. that's VERY high. so id confirm that before taking any other action besides cleaning.
I still believe its just your particular ugly phase.

So I had it retested at the LFS and it is at 3ppm after my weekly water change. Still high. They suggested that I remove some of my live rock but that just seems a little backwards to me??!!?? Any suggestions?

Also got a new gravel siphon to manually remove the cyno that is on my sand bed. Still battling that as well. Tank is clear and all of my fish are healthy so that's a plus! Lol

 

[Brazzy]

So this has pretty much taken over parts of my sand bed and is gradually moving onto my live rock. All water tests are good excepts phosphate, which is still high. Any clue as to why?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So this has pretty much taken over parts of my sand bed and is gradually moving onto my live rock. All water tests are good excepts phosphate, which is still high. Any clue as to why?

Cyano. New tank stuff.
Low ph, high No3 po4, young bio filter, high dissolved solids etc.

water changes, clean the sand etc......

 

[fishhippie75]

Increase your flow. You could add phosguard to your filter that might help