Red Algae Problem

[Jenn1985]

Forgive me if I am not in the proper forum.....I have red algae growing on my live rock and I am wondering what i can do to get rid of it quickly as I was planning on adding some more items to my tank this weekend.

Thank you in advance
Jenn :thumb:

 

[GHill762]

what kind of algae? that will dictate course of action.

also, manual removal is many times the easiest and quickest method.. depends on the algae though.

 

[Jenn1985]

I do not have a picture of it but its only growing on my live rock, its actually kind of a dark maroon color and it is starting to get darker. I noticed it after we did a water change.

 

[Jenn1985]

Ok not the best picture but this is my live rock....with what i think is the red algae. Not sure, the white on the rock is sand nothing to worry about lol

 

[EdansClownHouse]

Hey Jen1985,

I'm pretty sure it is Cyanobacteria not actually an algae. "ChemiClean" is the best solution I have found to get your tank back on track. One way to know for sure if it is Red Slime (Cyanobacteria) is if you take a turkey baster and blow it...if it blows off the rock into pieces...then it is Cyanobacteria. It's easier to clean than hair algae.

I hope this helps

 

[mkoop]

3 days lights out once a month is usually sufficient to knock out the cyano. It can be caused by low flow areas / high nutrients and lives pretty much anywhere and everywhere.

I would caution using chemiclean in a new tank or a tank without a high functioning skimmer. The die off can nuke your tank if you are not cautious (depending on the amount of cyano you are dealing with).

 

[beaslbob]

3 days lights out once a month is usually sufficient to knock out the cyano. It can be caused by low flow areas / high nutrients and lives pretty much anywhere and everywhere.

I would caution using chemiclean in a new tank or a tank without a high functioning skimmer. The die off can nuke your tank if you are not cautious (depending on the amount of cyano you are dealing with).

+1

one time kill the lights and stop adding food until it dies off.

then adjust feeding and lighting so desirable algae like macros and corraline thrive but not the uglies.

my .02

 

[Reefing Madness]

Blow the stuff off or wipe it off, get some better flow in the tank, see if that helps out. Also, might want to get the phosphates down.

 

[fishroomlady]

with cyano, I would definitely try manual removal first....blowing it off and then removing it

 

[SantaMonica]

This may help...

Nutrient Export

What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.

So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients come from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.

Then the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on them consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crew, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

So whenever you have algae "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then, there is a problem).

So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals

 

[ryecoon]

What if you have "0" Nitrate, phosphate, nitrite, ammonia but still have an algae outbreak? Can this be cyano if it is in a hair form? About 2 weeks ago i got about 20 lbs of live rock from my friend and in result i think it spread som algae into my tank. Not to mention Right Before that i had a tank crash due to a kalk overdose because one of my turbo snails activated my ato sensor where i put my kalkwasser. Should chemi clean be the solution? thx

 

[ryecoon]

Hey Jen1985,

I'm pretty sure it is Cyanobacteria not actually an algae. "ChemiClean" is the best solution I have found to get your tank back on track. One way to know for sure if it is Red Slime (Cyanobacteria) is if you take a turkey baster and blow it...if it blows off the rock into pieces...then it is Cyanobacteria. It's easier to clean than hair algae.

I hope this helps

What brand of ChemiClean do you suggest? can you post a pic? also Do i add chemi clean into the sump? thx

 

[SantaMonica]

Usually when people have zero nutrients, but algae outbreaks, the algae is enough to be consuming all the nutrients. And if the new rock you put in had higher phosphate in them, then it would be coming out into your water, causing growth on those rocks.