advice on getting rid of this red algae stuff?

[Adam Montana]

Attaching a picture, I've gotten 8 different suggestions from 8 different fish store employees... so I figured I'd just come to where people actually know what's going on. :P

[twisted]

hi adam. looks like you have cyano. it can be a real a$# pain. the best way to get rid of it is with a turkey baster or syringe. most imprtantly though is you need to remove the cause of it. this is from a high nutrient content in your water. at what point are you with your tank in the cycle? or has this been a recurring problem

[twisted]

after looking at the pic again, it looks like you have already cycled? or is it newer rock already with coraline?
alot of ppl say to remove the rock if possible and wash it off but i feel that spreads the spores around and recontaminates the rock elswhere. it comes off really easy in sheets with a baster just try to get it all. i had a prob with it and it shows up in my fuge every once in a while, but my hermit crabs get rid of it pretty quick.

[Adam Montana]

I've had it for several months, I believe the cause was due to a problem with my water.

I've recently spliced into my drinking water supply (reverse osmosis'd) and I'm using that now, it's helping a bit - at least, the algae is not getting worse. I believe I have the water issue under control, now I just need to get rid of the last of the algae.

It's a bit tough and won't rip off the rocks easily. I need to either kill it or find something that will eat it.

[twisted]

I've had it for several months, I believe the cause was due to a problem with my water.

I've recently spliced into my drinking water supply (reverse osmosis'd) and I'm using that now, it's helping a bit - at least, the algae is not getting worse. I believe I have the water issue under control, now I just need to get rid of the last of the algae.

It's a bit tough and won't rip off the rocks easily. I need to either kill it or find something that will eat it.

tap water will definitly encourage that stuff. good move on the ro....mexican blue leg hermits are good at removal. if thats the only spot it is maybe pick up a few and drop them on top of it and let them much away, it works for me

[Parrothead]

+1 twisty,

Adam just try to siphon it off, and also I'm assuming you do have a good protein skimmer on the system, getting off the tap water will make a huge difference, now it's gonna just take same patienence and work, and you should be good to go, we've all fought it at one time or another

[gregony]

Twisty and Parrothead's right. Just remove it. If you're tank isn't overstocked it'll never get so bad that you need to add some expensive piece of equipment. Mine all went away once the macroalgae settled in. I look over my tank every time a see a cyano post and I don't see any in there, and I don't do anything special to control it. Whatever you do, don't use anitbiotics (meracyn). That will just make it go away for a short while. Remember, a little bit of this stuff here and there is kinda natural.

[Adam Montana]

fantastic...

I dropped some cholerpa in the sump and did a one time cyano treatment, the red algae seems to be under control...

and now I'm growing GREEN algae.



What now? Thanks ReefCentral'ers

[twisted]

lawnmower blenny are great for that stuff. one of my favorite fish in my tank

[zhenya]

fantastic...

I dropped some cholerpa in the sump and did a one time cyano treatment, the red algae seems to be under control...

and now I'm growing GREEN algae.



What now? Thanks ReefCentral'ers

We are not Reef Central... We are Reefland!

What kind of treatment did you use for your cyanobacteria issue? I hope it wasn't bacteriocidal in nature because it usually does more harm than good.
Did you post your water parameters anywhere?

[gregony]

Your rock doesn't look mature. It's spotty with coraline algae, which doesn't happen naturally (unless you have more than one urchin). My guess is you're still going through the algae cycle. Diatoms, filamentous, hair, then coraline and macro. Wherever you see bare rock, some form of algae will try to grow there. What kind of algae depends on many factors. The first and foremost algae that will attempt to grow there will be filamentous algae or cyanobacteria. It will eventually be usurped by hair algae, or sometimes the calcerous algae will beat the hair algae to the punch. But by removing the filamentous algae by hand, you are harvesting the nutrients that the filamentous algae contains. If you nuke it with meracyn those nutrients stay in the tank. There is no treatment for cyano other than meracyn, so I can only conclude that you used meracyn. Shame, shame, shame. This can cause green filamentous algae to explode in your tank. You think the red crud is bad. I've been on that episode of Oprah myself and several months later (of hand removing the slop), I wished I had never taken that route. The LFS' never tell anyone to just wait (well, the really good ones will). They've always got something you need to take care of "the problem" right now.
For reference, my tank is very bright (which yours appears to be) so I don't get red coraline algae on the top of the rocks, I get it on the bottom. But its continous, unless the urchin has rumbled through recently. If you've got Marshall rock you'll probably get the kind of purple algae that grows on top in the bright light (forms cool rippling plates). Green calcerous algae grows on the top of my rocks, with all sorts of other critters growing from every crevice. I don't see this development on your rock which leads me to believe that it hasn't fully matured - particularly in the picture of your first post.

[Adam Montana]

I've had the tank and the rock in it for over a year, is it possible that the rock still hasn't matured?

[Steve McKay]

I've had the tank and the rock in it for over a year, is it possible that the rock still hasn't matured?

No,your rock is mature.Coralline algae grows like that (in spots),the spots will get bigger and bigger until they grow together to form one mass.In higher lighting you might have less coralline and it will be of lighter color.Sometimes more flow on the infected area can help.As far as getting rid of nutrients,a good skimmer will help considerably.

[gregony]

If you've had it year, I guess I'd have to agree with Steve. It does grow in spots, but after a year it should probably be close to filling in if not filled in already. Oh well, maybe that's why I've been reading people say the rock isn't as good these days. I've only added a couple of small pieces in the last 6 years. It took less than a month for them to fill in. Of course, something new pops up all the time, so rock is never truly done maturing, but your rock looks kind of bare to me. Do you move it around a lot? Did you start with totally uncured rock?

[Steve McKay]

The rock is probably bare and the coralline algae a lighter color because of higher lighting with less true actinic lighting.I have lost a lot of coralline and a lot has turned a lighter color because of this,I have no pure actinic bulbs.I have 4 Aquablue+ and 2 Actinic+ Giesemann bulbs.

[Parrothead]

Actually Gents,

As Gene mentioned above, a post of water parameters including cal and alk would be a beautiful thing