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Red Slime Algae I Think

A

Alcohol120

I just got back from vacation and the tank seems to have been taken over with this reddish/brown slime algae. it forms in long strings and made its way on top of off most of my coral making them all unhappy and closed. my nem has completely closed up to the point where it can't host the clown anymore and mostly everything else has really poor polyp extension. i think i had this happen about 6 months ago but im not sure if i let it be or cleaned it up myself. i also had a lot less to lose 6 months ago.
what to do? i think im going to siphon out as much as i can and do a water change. any other ideas or remedies?
thanks
 
A

Alcohol120

im pretty sure it all spread from a zoa colony i bought from captivating coral. the rock had a very small patch of algae on it when i bought it about 6 months ago. i thought it would die but it continued to grow so i tried to remove it. it spread from that point on. the zoa rock is almost indistinguishable now because the algae has completely taken it over. not to mention i try to pluck the algae off the rock every few weeks or so. first pic is of a kenya tree, second is the zoa rock, third is a corner of the tank, and the fourth is a close up shot of a drain with the algae all over it.

kenya.jpgzoa rock.jpgbottom.jpgdrain.jpg
 
A

Alcohol120

i should probably add that while i was gone i had my brother and mom feed the fish. i didnt want to inconvenience them too much so i just told them to defrost a cube of mysis and squirt it in over the next few minutes. that being said, the tank has probably been overfed. i also wasn't able rinse the mysis before i left also
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
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That is not Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria). Cyano is more mat-like, and easily lifted or blown off.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures (maybe because I have a little netbook), but I’d search dinoflagellates or maybe Calothrix.
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

Looks like hair algae covered in dinoflagettes. Are your snails dying? dinos are poisonous so nothing eats them. trying blacking out the tank for a couple of days.
 
drtyjrzy

drtyjrzy

Looks like hair algae, I just got rid of mine, check you magnesium it may be low. Mine was, once i started dosing mag and microbacter and decreased photo time it all went away.
 
A

Alcohol120

i did a bunch of cleaning yesterday and i really think its red slime because i can siphon it off the walls, LR, and corals but then in a few hours there is slime over them again. its really affecting my zoas and torch coral. once the slime goes over the zoas they just dont want to open up. right now i just have a constant siphon running from my DT to my filter sock in the sump so i can siphon out any of the slime that redevelops. i think i may have some excess nutrients as well from the overfeeding which is feeding the algae now. im kinda hoping it will just all go back to normal once the nutrients get out of the water.
 
A

Alcohol120

it keeps coming back a few hours after i siphon it off. im noticing it really likes to develop in areas with low flow. it basically floats around the aquarium until it finds something to catch on. it either catches on the algae on the corners or the back of the tank or the polyps of my corals which seem to be quite good at catching the algae, better than they can catch food. anyone know of anything that eats this stuff?
 
A

Alcohol120

here are some better pics
i wish i could use photobucket or something to make the pictures larger but it seems that the rules have changed on here or something. the picture manager on here is great but i just dont like how it shows a thumbnail size photo, especially when they need to be pretty large to see the algae. anyway you can see it on the top of the kenya tree (i know its a sorry looking piece of coral but thats because i recently removed it from the LR it was attached to), the left side of the red monti, on the GSP, and on the piece of branch LR. i know i have other algae growing that can be seen on the GSP rock but i think that is just a mini cycle after i moved the rock around. i think it will die off eventually. my whole tank was covered in that stuff for about 5 months and then one day it finally started to disappear. now i had to rearrange some rock and it started to grow on the rearranged rock again.
im just trying to figure out this slimely/stringly stuff that doesn't encrust to the rocks
 

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kschweer

kschweer

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It's hard to say definitively, in some of the pictures it appears to be dinos and in others hair algae. A few days of lights out can help along with manual removal. Also keep upon your water changes and cut back a bit on feedings until you have this under control. I have has success dosing hydrogen peroxide for both dinos and hair algae. You can dose up to 1ml per 10 gallons.
 
Daniel

Daniel

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Before you put anything in to try to clear it up and that will only hide your problem. Check you Phosphates. If your Phosphates are up that can cause all kinds of algae problems. You might need to run GFO to get the Phosphate down. When Phosphates come down the ugly algae will go away.
I think you have high Phosphates.
I say Phosphates should be no higher than .03. If it is then there is your problem.
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

Blacking out the tank will kill the algae whether it's cyano or dinos. Be sure to test your make up water for nitrates or phosphates so your not feeding the problem with water changes. Testing the tank water for phosphates may not show anything since typically the algae is consuming it and the nitrates. So if you have an algae problem you can safely assume that you have a phosphate & nitrate issue in the display tank.
 
A

Alcohol120

This is true. ^ Not my first time battling with algae. The last time I tested for no3 and po4 they were reading 0. I've found that time and proper husbandry works the best. I try not to get in the mindset of "oh there's a bunch of algae, I need to get rid of it immediately." As I remember my last battle I'm pretty sure that this same thing happened about a month or so before the algae declined and eventually was gone. Maybe it could by my hair algae or whatever I have dying off and floating around? Anyways I think I'll reduce feeding to as little as possible and wait a few weeks to see what happens. If not it looks like ill try that stuff that mat suggested, worth a shot at $10. Things that seem to good be true usually are :)
Edit: found that stuff on amazon and couldn't resist throwing it in with my textbook order. Should be here on Friday and ill give it a try over the next few weeks.
 
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kschweer

kschweer

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Not sure of any specifics of your system but if you are running a skimmer I usually recommend skimming a little on the wet side when battling algae outbreaks
 
hcker99

hcker99

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Alcohol120 said:
it keeps coming back a few hours after i siphon it off. im noticing it really likes to develop in areas with low flow. it basically floats around the aquarium until it finds something to catch on. it either catches on the algae on the corners or the back of the tank or the polyps of my corals which seem to be quite good at catching the algae, better than they can catch food. anyone know of anything that eats this stuff?
Click to expand...


That sounds alot like dinoflagellates
 
M

Mike S

Yep it kind of sounds like dinos. I battled the for several months about a year ago. I could blast them off with a turkey baster and they would reappear in a few hours. Are they string like with bubbles on the end?

I tried 2 or 3 days of lights out a few times but they came back after a few weeks each time. I then tried dosing hydrogen peroxide with little effect. After they started taking out some of my sps frags I wrapped the tank in black trash bags to block any light and turned my lights off for for a week. I also dosed hydrogen peroxide and cut off my water changes for several weeks. This took care it but I lost several frags in the process.

If you verify that they are dinos, it would probably be a good idea to run carbon while you are attacking them. They are said to release toxins when they die. As others said check your nutrient levels in diagnosing the problem although there is a school of thought that they do well in low nutrient systems. In my case my phosphate and nitrate levels were zero and I had no other nuisance algae. I couldn't even grow cheato in my fuge. Dinos can be a bear to deal with but you can beat them with some persistence.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
 
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