Red Algae

[dawhits]

Hi, I have had my tank set up for about 2 years, although the last 5 or 6 months have been very hectic for me with family medical issued, and school, and the tank has kind of just sat, other than feeding the 2 fish in it, (clarkii clown and blue velvet damsel) and adding freshwater when the salinity was getting high. Recently my life has calmed down and I am trying to get the tank back together in good order and everything and hopefully adding to it.

It is a 55g with a t8 actinic and a t10 ocean sun 10,000k lighting. It has about 35 or 40 lbs of lr and the 2 fish, other than that not much. When I scraped all the algae off the front to see how it was doing, it was completely covered in a dark red algae, that looks kind of like a thick softer coraline algae. I noticed the powerheads I have were blowing the algae off very easily, and if you angled them a bit towards the sand it would stir it up and the white sand underneath showed. I did all this on Monday, and since then, the tank has been completely covered with the red algae except the front glass. my test conditions were: Nitrate:about 3 Nitrite:0 Ph:around 8.3 (is this a bit high or is that reasonable?) Ammonia:0.25.

Any Idea what is causing the algae??


P.S. I didn't come on here again to be yelled at for neglecting my tank, I tried but my life has been pretty dang hectic with family medical issues and school and life in general. I know I neglected the tank, and I'm trying to get it back on track.
thanks,
Erik

 

[Lynden]

Sounds like my worst enemy, cyanobacteria. Not an algae per se but a form of photosynthetic bacteria which has been on Earth for over two billion years (and yet it still haunts me). It is said to be the source of the chloroplast, through endosymbiosis, in true plants.

It typically fixes pure nitrogen as a fertilizer (meaning it can survive even in well maintained tanks) and if additional nutrients are present it becomes a real nuisance. It produces a potent toxin, and not much eats it. Your best bet for reducing it's mass is manual removal and the addition of competitors (corals, macroalgae) or GFO (granular ferric oxide).

 

[dawhits]

If I use the granular ferric oxide will that harm the lr or the fish in the tank?

 

[SkiFletch]

No not at all, GFO is a very "safe" product to use. GFO removes phosphates, the presence of which (as Lynden alluded) really speeds up cyanobacteria growth. Cyano is a common problem in reef aquaria and unfortunately very difficult to stop. I'd start by siphoning off as much of it as possible and vaccuming the sand bed as much as possible. To siphon it off, I've found just using a 1/4" line for the siphon and using the bare 1/4" hose works the best. The stuff will kind of "peel" off the rocks, sand, and glass.

Once its siphoned/vaccumed, see if it comes back and how quickly.

 

[dawhits]

http/www.petstore.com/ps_ViewItem-idprod...3335-tab-5.html

are these what you were reffering to?


Also I was reading online and one place mentioned a protein skimmer to help get rid of the cyanobacteria....is this worth looking into? and if so, what brands or types should I be looking for?

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow I wouldn't use that stuff. Strong oxidizers... Yikes. GFO can be found either under the retail names of Phosban or Rowaphos, or you can buy it in bulk from twopartsolution.com. It's all the same stuff from the same manufacturer in Germany.