Red algae help please

[mojojones]

I have had some red algae between the glass and live sand for a few months, now it seems to start being present on the glass and floating at the top of the water like a bunch of tiny spots, not a film, it also completely turned a dead piece of coral I have in the tank red. Starting to become concerned, please advise corrective measures and possible problems associated with this red algae. I have my light cycle on for about 6 hours nightly, two 10K 50/50 white/actinic bulbs. Should I reduce the cycle time?

[leebca]

You'll find by microscopic examination that it isn't an algae per se. They are microbial lifeforms.

You control their presence by NOT providing them a pleasant existence. So, what don't they like?

1. Circulation. A proper circulation of water prevents them from taking any kind of foothold. Rearrange water circulation; increase circulation; avoid dead spot.

2. Disturbance. These microbes like to be left alone, undisturbed. So. . .disturb them! The substrate should be cleaned periodically. I suggest cleaning it every 4 to 6 weeks. If you've never done this before, don't do the entire substrate at one time -- start by cleaning a third of it every other week, then clean the whole substrate area on the 8th week, then every 4 to 6 weeks thereafter. In addition you can employ biological 'disturbers.' Bottom dwellers that stir the substrate works well. These include some snails, bristle worms, and some substrate sifters (fishes and invertebrates). With large systems, a benign cucumber is a good addition.

3. Food. They not only care about lighting, but organics in the water. You really can't regulate them effectively by adjusting your lighting. Nature has made it a point to allow its own to adjust to various light levels. But what these guys need too are dissolved organics. A system with a properly sized and maintained skimmer and carbon treatment makes it harder for these guys to get a foothold. Also effective is to reduce the systems bioload, clean up/maintain substrate more often, rinse foods, use foods that are totally consumed (avoiding pellets and flakes that contain products fish don't digest but just add to tank pollution), rinse foods of liquids which aren't consumed, and remove uneaten foods promptly.

4. Water quality. Besides the things above that influence water quality, start reading up on properly balancing the system. Get additional information about this from this post: What is Water Quality. Look to your source water purity and other sources of undesirable components to your tank.

5. Maintenance. Besides the maintenance on the substrate, skimmer, and carbon filtration, you've got to move landscaping around and get settled 'detritus' that begins to hang around. This is more important as your system ages.

6. Lighting. Vary it, but keep in mind that it really doesn't have that great of a deterrence to these microbes.

Hope the above helps.

[mojojones]

Thanks Lee, very informative response, I really appreciate it. I have taken most of those into account, I do have a few snails and one or two bristle worms, I am thinking of getting a goby or some other sand sifter also. I do clean the sand bed every time I do a water change, every 2 to 3 weeks. I vacuum it and let the sand fall back out of the tube while the silt and finer matter gets removed. I do think I need some more circulation, I will also be adding a small fan soon to increase circulation. I have been feeding frozen cubes of brine shrimp, thaw them out in a shot glass and my LFS gave me some supplements to pour onto the food as it thaws and let soak for a while, maybe I should strain the food out instead of dumping the cup into the tank, ther is always a cloud from the supplement vitamin stuff, so that's probably something to stop. Thanks again, take care.

[leebca]

You definitely want to strain brine shrimp. Beside being a low nutritional source for marine fishes, they 'leak' when frozen. Thaw in a cup of salt water (unused). Strain through a brine shrimp net. Put strained food into dry cup, add supplements and then some water. Then feed slowly. I would change your choice of food, though, for sure. Read through this if you haven't already: Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

I'll make a sticky out your post since this might be helpful to others with this concern. Thanks for asking/posting!

[ocreef]

Hello,

More than likely it is Red Cyano Bacteria. The reason it usually gets out of hand is because of high nutrient levels, containing phosphates and silicates. Most of it gets introduced from the foods we feed our fish and from the replacement water we use to top off our aquariums. Note: make sure your top off water is filtered water, through ozonation, or reverse osmosis or both. It has been documented that old light bulbs may contribute to Red Cyano Bacteria growth, but I'm not sure if this has been officially tested and documented. Your lighting cycle for your reef aquarium should be between 8 -12 hours depending on the type of reef aquarium life you keep.

There is a few options to help keep this bacteria at bay.

1. Try some blue leg hermits. I put 15 small hermits in a gross looking 40gal and they had it all cleaned up in 2 days.

2. Running a phosban reactor with GFO aka Granular Ferric Oxide is one of the best man made methods; this material will last around three months before needing to be changed out. The Two Little Fishies company makes the Phosban Reactor, but you can use GFO in any aquarium reactor. You can also use it in a fine mesh bag and place it in the sump, overflow, or in a hang-on style filter.

3. A deep sand bed filter will definitely help with denitrification of phosphates. An alternative for reef hobbyists who like bare bottom reef tanks with live rock only is to use a Hang-on live sand fluidized bed filter, they work perfectly, I've used them in the past. Pentair Aquatics Lifegard makes one.

4. Lastly, try growing some Macroalgae such as Halimeda, Caulerpa, and/or any other large celled algaes in a refugium or sump area w/light. These are valuable additions to a saltwater aquarium. Macroalgae reduce the available levels of phosphates and nitrites/nitrates, which makes an excellent form of natural filtration. Also it's a great natural food source for tangs, angels, and other herbaceous fish animals.

I use a combination of the above methods for our reef tank, although I still have a little Red Cyano Bacteria growth, it never gets out of hand. Remember some Red Cyano Bacteria is good and is part of your reef aquariums natural ecosystem. Hope this info helps. Let me know if you have any further questions. I'm here to help.

[leebca]

This thread began some time ago and I'm closing it.

The above (last) posit is in considerable error in some cases and less than optimal advice in others:

1. Don't need nor use crabs. Crabs are about the last/low end of the clean up crew you want to use. Search and you'll find why they don't make good additions to a community tank.

2. Reactors are absolutely not needed with regards to controlling this. As stated above the only reason(s) are dead spaces in circulation. These bacteria don't like water circulation. Increase circulation is all that's needed.

3. Phosphates are not the prime problem so controlling them (for this bacteria) is not the solution. Reducing organics will help.

4. Macro algae consumes phosphates, micro elements, and organics. Again, phosphates aren't the problem. See 3. A properly sized skimmer and use of carbon will handle the organics.

These bacteria are relatively easy to control. Once the aquarium has matured some, just find where they are growing and remove them (physically) and change the circulation in the tank so that the area where they were are now in flowing water; also you may increase circulation overall or for specific areas.

NOTE: These bacteria do not use silicates. Diatoms use dissolved silica to form their shells. Diatoms is what makes up 'brown algae' that often plagues newly setup aquariums.