Red algae

[axelrod12]

I dont know a thing about salt water since i only have fresh tanks so i need some advice. my brothers pico salt tank has developed a red looking algae on it. The guy at the lfs said it looked like red slime algae and recommended ultralife red slime remover. He dosed it once and then again 3 days later. The algae is still there. Any suggestions as to the cause or a solution?

 

[Khemul]

If it is cyano then it usually depends on the tank. It could be a sign of excess nutrients. It is often the sign of inadequate flow.

I have it in my refugium, but never thought much on preventing it since I feel it does no harm except looking bad.

 

[greech]

Kind of looks like coraline (not an issue) since it's on the glass/acrylic. Does it "scrape" off or is it soft and slimey?

 

[axelrod12]

He said its soft and slimey

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[greech]

Then it's cyano bacteria fueld by excess nutrients in the system. Increase flow as much as you can and perform water changes as often as possible using a good source of pure RO/DI. This is one of the disadvatages to running a pico as small tanks just don't have the buffer/water volume to dilute nutrients.

How old is this pico and what kind of flow/filtration is being used? Is there any livestock in the tank yet? You can use all the Chemiclean (or equivalent) that you want but if your source (too large of a bioload, infrequent water changes, tap water, excess feeding) doesn't get resolved, the cyano will continue to pop up.