Red algea growth

[Lspooky4]

My friend has a salt water, and he has noticed a red algea growth on some of the live rock and the crushed coral at the bottom as well as a film on the surface of the water. Filtration is a protein skimmer and live rock/algea. What is this and what can he do to get rid of it?

[Ornatapinnis]

Need more info to identify. Is it a Like a "film" that easily comes off when disturbed or is it a hard algae that is tough to remove from the surface it is attached to?

Joel

[guppy]

This is not from personal experience but rather from reading I have done, If the red algae is tough and gritty to the touch it is coraline algar and a sign of a healthy tank, just scrape it of the glass an d otherwise leave it alone. If it is red slime it is a sign that you need to raise the intensity of your lighting a bit and check your nitrate and phosphate levels, both can be lowered by consistant water changes and the phosphates esp. by adequete protien skimming.

[Lspooky4]

thanks ill let them know and may be back with more questions

[grenaria]

Between the crushed coral substrate and the "film" on the surface, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the tank has too little flow and detrius and thus nitrates have accumulated in the substrate. The result is a mixture of cyanobacteria, diatoms, and dinoflagellates feeding off the nitrates and phosphates.

Has he been testing for nitrates and phosphates?

It's easy to tell the difference between cyanobacteria and coralline. Coralline is calcareous, hard to the touch, difficult to remove. Cyanobacteria is light and slimy and can spread much much faster.

Without knowing more information it would be tough to give you any help with a cure.

[romanmann]

this algae is very good, remove what doesnt look good to you ie. front of glass and surface and leave the rest on the rocks. possibly reduce amount of food during feeding. algae lives on the nutrients in the tank and if you get an overgrowth of algae i would look at your feeding amount

[skinnychinaman]

I dont think he is talking about coraline algae, I think he is refering to the pesty red cyano bacteria. They are really nasty and will cover the entire tank killing livestock. They are actually in the bacteria family and not algae, there are few reason they occur and a few solutions for them. the reason they occur : 1. Too much nutrients hence high nitrate, detritus, waste. 2. lack of flow in the tank, they occur mostly in the lower flow areas of the tank. solution: 1. most effective way - use the red sea "red slime away" , just be sure to follow the directions, it is invert save so there wont be any problem with corals and inverts. 2. turn off your lights for a couple of days and they will die off automatically (they are photosynthetic), dont worry about your coral and fish, they can live without lights for a couple of days no problem. hope this helps.

[Ornatapinnis]

My suspician was cyano too but wanted more info befor going into that. It can be tough to get rid of but a trick I found is low doses of eurithomycian kills it. The cheapest way to do this is with fresh water maracyn from Mardel. Ignore the instructions on the box for this purpose. I use 1 tablet per about 50 gallons of water. Turn off protein skimmers and remove carbon while doing this. Normally 2 treatment about 24 hours apart get rid of it. A word of caution though, although this get rid of the cyano, it does not fix what alloud it to happen in the first place. THat needs to be determined and corrected or it will be back again shortly. Water quality, as mentioned by others plays a huge roll in the production of nucience algaes, espcially phosphates and nitrates. Test for these and address accordingly, water changes are the best course of action to correct these. Lights play a roll in this as well. Incorrect lamps like cool whites bought at a harware store for example can cause this problem. Old light bulb will cause this, they need replaced ever 12 to 18 months even if they are still working. Or too much light like sun light or the lights being on too long (8-10 hours is about right for most) will cause it. Check into these things and see if anything needs adjusting or replaced and it will go away and stay away.

[MaJiKTeRRoR]

Sounds like nuisance algae. Do a couple big water changes and cut down the light period see if that helps. Lower your feedings. Get some inverts to clean up the rock and to stir up the substrate. Snails will clean the glass. Yum!

[Ornatapinnis]

if it is infact a cyano specie, snails and such will not eat it.

[carcinoma]

sounds like cyano bacteria to me. increase the water flow and minimize the feedings. if the bacteria doesn't disappear after a couple weeks, but even worsens, then you may want to try erythromycin tablets. The ones sold for freshwater works fine, ie Mardell.
"Slime Away" is based upon erythromycin. However, use it as a last resort. It can kill off some of the beneficial bacteria, pods, and corals also. Use half dosage. I used it and the cyano dissapeared after 2 days. Never returned. And my reef tank remained fluorishing. But this does not apply to everyone.

[H20Boy]

I to have cyano issues--Going on third day zero light, food. I will be doing A 30% water change on day 6.
I have also pulled my bio-balls and replaced with macro hope this turns out for the best.

[Alx510]

fox faced rabbitfish maybe?

[eng55]

I have a foxface in my 75g fowlr and he ate some of my cyano but not all of it. He mostly ate the stuff off the back wall. My turbos took care of the rest. Also sucked alot of it off the rocks during water changes. Another option is to reverse to flow in your tank some how and then it will eventually just get loose and you can siphon it off the rocks. Just what I have done in the past.

[MaJiKTeRRoR]

I have a foxface in my 75g fowlr and he ate some of my cyano but not all of it. He mostly ate the stuff off the back wall. My turbos took care of the rest. Also sucked alot of it off the rocks during water changes. Another option is to reverse to flow in your tank some how and then it will eventually just get loose and you can siphon it off the rocks. Just what I have done in the past.

What's that snails do eat cyano don't they? That's what I thought.

[ogre929]

if your friends tank is new, this is usually just part of the normal cycling of the tank and breaking in. It usually goes away pretty quickly however when i did water changes i just sucked it off with my siphon. I never medicated my reef tank EVER. Well I did once with this stuff that was supposed to get rid of cyanobacteria and did it turn out terrible. Never again. Just suck it off and increase flow in your tank. Flow is important in reef tanks and salt water tanks. It doesn't allow detritus to settle anywhere and cause things like this. My old reef tank used to have 3 or for 200 gph powerheads and algae grew like crazy. I put a surge on it and poof, no algae, ever. except on the glass. but thats different that cyanobacteria and dynoflagelattes. you can never have too much circulation in your reef tank. Seriously. I had a 4 gallon surge on my 50 gallon aquarium. you wanna talk about a vortex. my gigas clams stayed open every time and my rose anemone moved right in front of the surge opening.

by the way, i love posting pics, it makes everything make a little bit more sense and gives you a reference of where i'm coming from not just pulling stuff out me bum cause it sounds good.

[Mattcomptonassvanhorn]

If it is a new tank then that would be the biological filter cycling. Tell your friend that the Berlin method is good but it pays great dividends to add a power or canister filter.

[ogre929]

If it is a new tank then that would be the biological filter cycling. Tell your friend that the Berlin method is good but it pays great dividends to add a power or canister filter.

just as long as you don't put any media in it except maybe for mechanical filtration. remember flow is good