Red carpet alge type of sort of stuff

[bob`_your_dog]

This red alge stuff is slowly taking over my tank, one rock at a time. I must admit it really does look quite nice,blends well with the other colours on the rocks, but this stuss looks set on taking over my entire tank! I have seen many of my LFS's tank susbstrate absolutely covered in this stuff, and now i see it's started getting to work on mine, it's also attaking my glass! But only the front window, and not the side, which is extremely annoying cause i want the glass to get covered in well what ever will cover it really, but just not the front piece. I have to clean it off everyday!

Anyway, does anyone have this stuff, maybe even knows what it's called, anything really?

 

[Navarre]

Its not an algae its actually a bacteria.

Cyanobacter (or just plain Cyano).

Not wanted in the tank and can choke corals etc. If the tank is new then this is just part of the maturing process as it uses up nutrients in the tank. But if the tank is older then it means something else is wrong, (i have the same problem with mine at the moment).

Cyano doesnt do well in low circulation so directing powerheads at the cyano should remove it. However this means it might come back in other areas. Try to cut down onfeeding, increase the flow and when you do a water change try and syphon out as much as you can.

"If" all else fails then there is a product on the market caller "Antired" Its reef safe and does the job nicely.

 

[bob`_your_dog]

Yet anouther quick and wise reponse from our new mod

I haven't got the most circulation in my tank at the moment, about 7X me volume, so i think i'll head down to my LFS and pick up anouther powerhead. Hopefully that might tame the beast that is Cyanobacter, which i now hate! Also i heard that goby's are good grazer's, a friend of mine set up a tank and all his reef-bones turned a horrible brown, he set a bi-colour goby loose and withinh 2 weeks got his rocks looking decent again, will this little lawn-mower help my problem at all, cause i really like them aswell and was thinking of getting one?

But my tank has only been running for a month and a half, and my nitrite is at 0.1 on the way down from it's stupid cycle, so do you think it will slowly die off as my tank matures? And could it be in anyway connected to my natural water supply?

 

[Navarre]

very few creatures will eat cyano. Some people say theyhave had success with emerald crabs or even certain snails eating it but i think this is more the personal taste of the creature rather than the normal behaviour.

If the tank is new then it might just be its maturing cycle so do as you mentioned and try to increase the flow in the tank as this will definately help.

Each time you do a water change try to remove as much as possible, their is little point in sirring it up as it will settle again quickly and grow literally within hours.

 

[hyrookin]

yeah, as navarre said, it is def. cyanobacteria. since I do not like to
recommend any chemical treatment, I will just say that I had this problem
a few years ago, and used a product called "chemi-pure", which worked
great with no ill effects.---keep in mind this was a FISH-ONLY tank, with
no corals in it.

 

[1152 Flying Fish]

ive had the same prob for 3 months now and thought it was noramal. just kept scraping it off. well now its about time the c-word stuff is gone for good. thank you for posting and repliying, need some power heads now, and some liquid stuff.

 

[Great Lakes]

Quick note here.
I don't know if anyone else has ever discovered this, but when I ran power compacts, I had ridiculous cyano problems.

Picture this. I had my 125 main tank plumbed to a 100 gallon sump/refugium. Over this, I had two 25 gallon grow out tanks.

I started with a 6x96 wat PC over my 125, with VHO over the sump, and NO flourescent over the 25's. I had serious cyano troubles in the 125 and was really disappointed with the PC's. So I went with VHO and halides over the 125 and the cyano went away, and everything did well. I then realized I had 6 96w PC lights going to waste. So I put two of them over each 25 gallon tank. Bam! Cyano.

IME the crap followed my PC lighting. Hey, you guys be the judge, but I am now have little need for PC unless size and space dictates it so.

GL

 

[1152 Flying Fish]

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

 

[bob`_your_dog]

Interesting, cause this crap seems to be digging my lights aswell, maybe it's the 6500K sunglo? i wonder, maybe i should take it out and see what happens.

 

[blout]

im having the same probs in my sump and its now going in my tank, my sump is 24/7 and the cyano is going crazy on the fluresent tubes i hate this stuff if it gets worse maybe chemical would be best

 

[J-Money]

anyone have any pics? I have some nice velvety (?) lookin' dark red or deep purple stuff on a couple of my rocks. I thought it was fine, doesn't seem to be expanding (the 2 rocks aren't really near eachother). After reading:

Each time you do a water change try to remove as much as possible, their is little point in sirring it up as it will settle again quickly and grow literally within hours.

I tried to at least stir it up with my scraper and it seems pretty attached to the rock... My tank is still maturing and I've been waiting for the cyno stage but I don't know what it's supposed to look like. These rocks have shown this velvety stuff for at least a few weeks now. )