dark redish algae

[Pallen81]

hello.

I first had a brown (diatom) algae outbreak, my clean up crew made short work of that. Now I have a redish algae starting to cover parts of my sand. The hermits and snails don't seem to interested...

anyone know what this is? beginning of red slime? no? yes?

[USCavalry19d]

sounds like red slime "Cyanobacteria." How old are your lights? I had a small outbreak about 3 months ago and replaced the bulbs in my lights and it went away.

[Pallen81]

bulbs are less then 1 month old. just got 'em. just standard 25W bulb. nothing special.

[USCavalry19d]

hmm give the lights a litle time to break in and see if anything happens if not then check your nutrients, you may be feeding to much or your water flow may be dead in that area of the outbreak.

[johansonp]

just standard 25W bulb. nothing special.

Are we talking about a typical 25 watt incandescent lamp like you would put in a lamp in your living room?

Paul

[Pallen81]

hmm give the lights a litle time to break in and see if anything happens if not then check your nutrients, you may be feeding to much or your water flow may be dead in that area of the outbreak.

hmmm. okay. yeah I was just wondering. I'll see if it goes away or multiples. I checked my phosphates two days ago. 0ppm.

I only have one firefish and I feed him with a turkey baster to make sure he eats every piece of food, which isn't alot. so I'd be suspect to overfeeding, I hardly feed him! hehe.

I considered the flow part, but there is actually a good flow through out my tank. I have two powerheads, a HOB filter, and a protein skimmer flow in a 30 gallon breeder tank. my feather dusters are near the red algae and they are always flowing nicely in the current.

I'm not dissproving your ideas, just giving more information about my tank setup.

[Pallen81]

Are we talking about a typical 25 watt incandescent lamp like you would put in a lamp in your living room?

Paul

its just a standard bulb for your aquarium. flourscent i think.

[johansonp]

OK. My guess is an elevated phosphate level.

Paul

[Pallen81]

phosphate is 0ppm. i use an ro/di unit.

its not a bad outbreak of red algae, but its there is a few spots.

[USCavalry19d]

if it just started after replacing the bulbs im going to have to say its the bulbs trying to get broken in. There are some brands of bulbs that do this im not sur eof the brands but i remember reading about it. so just give it another month or 2 and see what happens.

[Germanman]

yea let the bulb break in. when i replaces my actinic i got some red slime in my tank, i replaced the phospure and carbons, and got my new pumps that increased flow and it went away the next day and has stayed away.

[ricsreef]

Will the same happen with new MH's?

[Germanman]

typically yes it will.

[Pallen81]

i just have a standard 25 w bulb. nothing special. its been running since april

still breaking in?

[Reefscape]

no, that will be broken in my now....lol