Red Algea?

benny503

I found two spots about a week ago. Now I am getting worry because it's getting bigger everyday. It's look like algea but it dark red/dark purple. Could someone here please let me know what is it and does it harm my tank? Thanks in advance Benny

benny503

I already found out it's Red Cyano bacteria, I am doing research on it. Admins and Mods, please delete this post. Thanks, Benny

SKAustin

No need to delete the post, This can be helpful to others as you were good enough to include the photos.

Yes, what you have is Cyanobacteria. Once it starts in your tank, it can be a bear to combat. Kent Marine makes a spot feeding baster that does a good job of sucking it off of the rocks. One trick Ive found most effective is to band an electric razor brush to a 24" section of 1/2" rigid tubing, and fit the rigid tubing onto a longer section of flex tubing (I use the hose from an old gravel vac). I then use that to brush off the rocks and siphon the Cyano into a filter sock in my sump.

Keeping the Cyanobacteria out of the tank is only half the battle. You will need to keep on top of your nutrient levels, increase your water changes and perhaps reduce your feedings. Keep on top of your Calcium and Alkalinity levels (and magnesium if you are seeing calcium precipitate). Coralline algae needs calcium to grow. By keeping your tank at levels optimal for coralline growth, you encourage the coralline to feed off of the nutrients that would otherwise feed the Cyanobacteria. You may also need to take a look at your flow within the tank, and perhaps relocate, reposition or add power heads to improve flow. Cyanobacteria growth can be not only indicative of excess nutrients in the water column, but also of poor water movement within the display.

As I said before, Cyanobacteria can be a pain to get rid of, but conscious, continued efforts to remove it, and eliminate the factors that contribute to it's growth, you can significantly reduce, and possibly eliminate it.

Hope that helped a bit.

benny503

Thank you very much SKAustin, I now understand where Cyanobacteria from and how to fight it. Best way is using turkey baster and water changes, more water flow. So far it's working very good. The question just came up to my mind is that could Cyanobacteria do any damage to my tank like corals, inverts and fish?

SKAustin

I'm not so sure it would do much harm to the fishes, but the excess nutrient levels that Cyano is indicative of surely could. Cyano can starve out other algaes as well which can be of detriment to the food source for some of your inverts. The biggest problem associated with Cyanobacteria is that it, if left unchecked, it can overgrow corals, blocking the light and killing off the zooanthelle algae within the corals, and eventually killing off the corals. This is really worst case scenario. As long as you keep on top of it, it should never get to that point.