Red Algae ID & how do I get rid of it?

[phytofish]

Basically what the title says.. some algae popped up recently in a few spots on the sand bed.
My first thought was cyano because of the red color but it’s in a spot with plenty of flow..
It also has red strings coming out of it like hair algae. Any ideas?

 

[phytofish]

Basically what the title says.. some algae popped up recently in a few spots on the sand bed.
My first thought was cyano because of the red color but it’s in a spot with plenty of flow..
It also has red strings coming out of it like hair algae. Any ideas?

Forgot the picture

 

[BoomCorals]

It's cyano.

 

[phytofish]

It's cyano.

Ok! Just surprises me because of the amount of flow it’s getting. Would you use Chemiclean?

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Sand sifting gobies work well, as well as a complete 3 day blackout and a low photoperiod for a few following days

 

[aKlevans]

I had some, got a diamond goby and he cleaned the entire sandbed in less than a day.

 

[phytofish]

The goby would solve the sand cyano issue but it’s also spread onto the rocks a bit. Any natural solution to fixing that issue?
Would a 3 day blackout not kill coral in the tank? I assume if it kills algae, it’d also be pretty bad for the coral

 

[phytofish]

Looking worse today

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

It would not kill the coral, maybe set it back a little, what species do you have?

 

[phytofish]

It would not kill the coral, maybe set it back a little, what species do you have?

I have a lot of euphyllia, a couple heads of duncans, some zoas, blastos, acan frag, branching gsp, and two birdsnest frags

 

[brandon429]

you merely have a challenge of tank access. No pico reef or nano reef would have to endure that, only a large tanker.

simple cleaning of the entire sandbed system will rid your whole tank of that, a rip cleaning. we have massive threads with a good 20 examples doing it, meds are secondary to simply cleaning out a reef system. You've not a single thing important in that sandbed that a cleaning would harm, it would only remove the detritus fuel

we'd clean the rocks off too, easily all in one pass. Top to bottom cleaning, with water change as well.

any number of ways will fix it, including bluing the lights and reducing white spectrum for some systems. in the end, that thorough cleaning can't be beat if this tank is accessible

 

[phytofish]

So i did a 3 day blackout and killed the cyano and now a week and a half later it’s back.. Should i just do another blackout or keep doing water changes and hope it fixes something?

 

[Jd250]

So i did a 3 day blackout and killed the cyano and now a week and a half later it’s back.. Should i just do another blackout or keep doing water changes and hope it fixes something?

I've used anti red in the past worked a treat !

 

[Scorpius]

Have to find the source of nutrients that's fueling the Cyano. I have it myself currently along with some other algae. Carbon, gfo, water changes, and limited fish feedings are in order.

 

[ccbobafett]

I would check all your parameters to make sure everything is in check what about phosphates. Do you use rodi water? That could also be the issue. I too was fighting cyano and a full clean of the sand bed with a vacuum and manual removal plus rodi water solved most of it. I also used a phosphate remover like phos guard and this helps too if you have high phosphates. All this plus the cleaning should solve it. If you solve all the excess nutrients you should not have much algae issues. And be careful with sand sifting gobies. If you have a deep sand bed they will destroy it. They eat all the small creatures that live in it and those creatures are the ones that eat your detritus and such keeping your tank clean.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So i did a 3 day blackout and killed the cyano and now a week and a half later it’s back.. Should i just do another blackout or keep doing water changes and hope it fixes something?

Cyano feeds on many things. N/p. Dissolved orgaics, light , co2.
Dissolved organics makes ammonia and n/p. Bacteria food.
So look at your tests , your flow , your ph. Water changes and cleaning help all of those.
I usually reccomend bottled bacteria as an add in. It competes with the cyano for the am, n/p. As the bio filter matures , it competes with the cyano for all the above except the co2. Cuz it's not photo synthetic.

Chemicen is a sort term bandaid as it's an anti biotic but only in cyano not the spirulina variety. It'll Kill if the stuff maybe till the bio filter matures. Cyano always comes back(you just won't see it)

So chemiclen or patience. Or both!

 

[brandon429]

I have a good guess as to where the nutrients are/ blackout leaves them in.

To verify: make a vid of reaching into tank with a stick and stir up only a tiny section let's see if it clouds. In tanks we forced out cyano, we like them to grab two handfuls and drop it down to see cloudlessness we imparted during the cleaning. if we dropped two handfuls as a test pre-cleaning, that's harmful to many tanks either as invader fuel or as a direct source of ammonia rot given enough compounding but your system doesn't look near that bad in closeups. I bet it's just time for your first sandbed cleaning. More are required

If this is a large tank then that's a lot of work. If this is a nano, that was fixeable easily. Change your lighting into blue heavy and not as white during the fix up phase as blue v white is a constant in our cyano cure threads.

 

[phytofish]

Brough my lights down to 35% at peak during the day and added carbon.. i’ve been busy this week with school but hopefully will do another water change and sand bed siphon during that within the next few days..

The cyano is growing like crazy in my refugium on the glass! With a powerhead in there too. What the heck.. and my chaeto hasn’t grown since the day I got it. The refugium has grown some hair algae and now cyano but won’t grow my chaeto. Might need to look into changing things up down there.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Any change in the co2 / ph or an additional food like aminos or carbon dosing ?