What is this? Red Algae?

[bubba60tackle]

Searched the forum and haven’t seen anything like this so far. Popped up after a couple months of no water changes and two fish that went missing, just did a 40% water change and cleaned everything up. Wondering if I should pull this piece of rock. This is growing fast, currently isolated to this one piece.

 

[vetteguy53081]

cyano bacteria which generally comes from elevated waste levels including both phosphate and nitrate are the leading reason why this slimy red film grows in your tank. Lack of proper water circulation and old light bulbs also cause excessive growth of Cyanobacteria.
You can blow loose with a turkey baster and net or siphon up and reduce white light intensity for 3-5 days. Test phosphate and nitrate levels.
You can also add a pouch of chemipure blue to keep those levels in check.
Once gone , add a few snails such as Astrea, cerith, nassarious and trochus to stay on top of it.

 

[bubba60tackle]

This is presently isolated to a piece of rock, does it make sense to pull it and bleach it?

 

[bubba60tackle]

Alright, pulled the piece of rock, rinsed it off and all the red algae came off pretty easy. Still, dropped it in A container of RODI and added some bleach, I will eventually put it back in.