Red algae?

JamesTh

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Hi all,

firstly sorry for the terrible pictures, I think I need to buy a filter in future! But I have what appears to be a red algae spreading in my tank, and it’s starting to cover my rocks. Initially I’d dismissed it as my tank starting the ugly phase. It all started about 3-4 days ago, it tries to grow on my glass, and is now working its way along the filter section wall inside my wb 25 peninsula AIO tank (90 litres). It started in the sand bed I believe, and there’s some blobs of it throughout the sand. does anyone know what it is? When the light shines on it, it can be a bit glittery. My tank is about 5 months old. It has 2 corals, 3 fish, 2 Halloween hermit crabs and 2 turbo snails.

recently I have made the following changes:

1) I added my first corals 2 approx weeks ago. They’re softies, so I turned my Kessel light on for the first time. I realised tonight that my light stays on during the night, I’ve now changed it to switch off, so it’s now on for only 12 hours! Doh! I’m sure that this has contributed to the algae formation.

2) when I did my weekly maintenance, on Sunday. My phosphate has reduced from 0.5 to 0.3, and my nitrates are still quite high. I was feeding my fish 3 times a day. I stopped doing this about a week to 10 days ago. Now they only get fed once a day, which probably accounts for the phosphate lowering. I added 0.1 ml of tropic Marin elimi-np tonight, but I think that can take a bit of time to properly start working?

If anyone has any ideas as to what kind of algae it is, I’d be grateful. I’m trying to work out if I should just leave it (as the tank will sort itself out) or if I need to treat it, really. I know it’s down to a couple of rookie mistakes in my side, so fingers crossed :)

Many thanks!

IMG_2716.jpeg
 
Hi all,

firstly sorry for the terrible pictures, I think I need to buy a filter in future! But I have what appears to be a red algae spreading in my tank, and it’s starting to cover my rocks. Initially I’d dismissed it as my tank starting the ugly phase. It all started about 3-4 days ago, it tries to grow on my glass, and is now working its way along the filter section wall inside my wb 25 peninsula AIO tank (90 litres). It started in the sand bed I believe, and there’s some blobs of it throughout the sand. does anyone know what it is? When the light shines on it, it can be a bit glittery. My tank is about 5 months old. It has 2 corals, 3 fish, 2 Halloween hermit crabs and 2 turbo snails.

recently I have made the following changes:

1) I added my first corals 2 approx weeks ago. They’re softies, so I turned my Kessel light on for the first time. I realised tonight that my light stays on during the night, I’ve now changed it to switch off, so it’s now on for only 12 hours! Doh! I’m sure that this has contributed to the algae formation.

2) when I did my weekly maintenance, on Sunday. My phosphate has reduced from 0.5 to 0.3, and my nitrates are still quite high. I was feeding my fish 3 times a day. I stopped doing this about a week to 10 days ago. Now they only get fed once a day, which probably accounts for the phosphate lowering. I added 0.1 ml of tropic Marin elimi-np tonight, but I think that can take a bit of time to properly start working?

If anyone has any ideas as to what kind of algae it is, I’d be grateful. I’m trying to work out if I should just leave it (as the tank will sort itself out) or if I need to treat it, really. I know it’s down to a couple of rookie mistakes in my side, so fingers crossed :)

Many thanks!

IMG_2716.jpeg
Here’s a better picture taken under white light!
 

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Your picture does not help much. Does it look like the photo below? Is it loose and easy to remove?
FB9E20A6-A6FC-4B08-91F8-2071B8A5F8E0.jpeg
Just taken a picture for you under white light. For right or wrong, I’ve only kept my light blue since I switched my Kessel on.

No it doesn’t seem easy to remove, but happy to give it a try tomorrow!
 
It doesn't look red, it looks rusty brown, I think that is diatoms, it is the first algae stage. It usually passes in a couple of weeks.
 

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