red algae question???

[joshuacpr99]

my 75 gal tank with 90lbs of live rock has been set up for about a month now. i have 260 watts of pc's and 140 watts of metal halides.everything is testing within range and seems to be fully cycled and ready to go. i have a few scarlet reef hermits and some snails to keep unwanted algae under control. there is a bright red algae growing on certain pieces of my live rock and is starting to spread quickly. i dont think its slime algae because when i tried to clean it off one of the rocks with nylon brush it was difficult to remove. couldnt remove completely, almost like it stained the rock??? any ideas of what kind of algae this could be and is it worth keeping in the tank???

[Ninong]

Hi Joshua,



It's impossible to say what you have based on the information in your post. Remember that the appearance of cyanobacteria can vary tremendously, so it's possible that what you have is cyanobacteria. In general, the cyano that seems to pop up most frequently in reef aquaria is a dark reddish-brown in color and upon close inspection looks like soft hair-like strands that are matted together. It has a slimey appearance and doesn't look like red algae (Rhodophyta) at all when you inspect it very closely.

Is this "algae" only on some of the rocks or is any of it on the sand bed? How does it appear to spread? Look at the edges of the "algae patch" and see if you see anything that looks like runners spreading out across the surface of the live rock. Exactly how tall is this "algae" at its highest spot? Are we talking about 1/4" or 1/2" or what?

Regardless of whether it is cyanobacteria or some form of fast spreading red turf algae (Rhodophyta), you have a problem. Do not go any further with your new tank until you figure out how to deal with this potentially serious problem. It will be much easier to deal with it now than to wait until after you have introduced corals and other animals to your tank.

If you can't post a picture, then try your best to describe in detail what you're seeing in the tank. Does it appear to increase in volume after the lights come on in the morning? In other words, does it always seem like it's a little less in the morning than it was when you looked at it the previous afternoon but then within a couple of hours after the lights come on, it's back to where it was the afternoon before? That would be a clue that it's really cyanobacteria.

[joshuacpr99]

i have been trying to figure out how to post the pictures i took but i am a littl comp. illiterate. if its is not to much trouble will you instruct me on this matter. anyways.......no, it doesnt retreat after the lights go off at night. it doest look like hairs or matts. it is just a very thin layer of a bright red over pieces of the rock. it looks like little red dots about a 1/4 inch in dia. and about a 1/2 inch appart spreading over the rocks. i dont see any on the substrate or glass yet but thats not to say it isnt going to. ive read that red slim algae is a redish brown color.... this looks like a true red.

[joshuacpr99]

[joshuacpr99]

[joshuacpr99]

[joshuacpr99]

[Ninong]

I think it's a Rhodophyta (red alga) of some sort but my eyesight isn't very good and I'm afraid I can't ID it for you. Maybe someone else has an idea???

[Reefland]

Looks like a red turf algae to me Ninong, similar to what you had in the past.

[Ninong]

Looks like a red turf algae to me Ninong, similar to what you had in the past.

I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

I finally got rid of it after about a year but to this day I'm not exactly sure how I got rid of it. All I know is that it disappeared within about six weeks after I added three or four large Mexican turbos (Turbo fluctuosus) to my tank. I read somewhere that those snails would feed on it but a snail expert told me that wasn't so. I still don't know why it went away. All I know was that it was terrible and virtually impossible to get rid of physically. Then it just went away completely. (P.S. -- My foxface rabbitfish (Siganus vulpinus) grazed on it and kept it down to a height of about 1/4" but he could not or would not eradicate it.)

I'll look to see if I can find a pic of that nasty red turf alga that I had and attach it.

[Minh Nguyen]

It is a red turf algae. Long spine Sea urchin eat these in my reef. Keep in mind that These sea urchin also eat coralline algae and also graze and eat a bit of corals and SPS. In my reef none of my SPS surfer a great deal from my Urchin but occasionally it would graze a few SPS polyps down to the skeleton.

[weez1959]

I have some of that in my sump and a bit in my display and there seems to be no amount of water changes to fix it, it has gone down a bit in the past month so I'm hoping it's on a declining trend
By the way Minh, you have got to post a new pic of your sons on your website, they are too cute! Your older son looks so happy to have a little brother.