Purple-nasty and all over

[EXVISOR]

For some reason i'm getting purple hair alea all over my glass and rock
I use to do corals so and I don't know if this matters but I noticed since I let my calcium drop as im just doing fish and rock right now, this purple algea grows all over, if I don't take it off the glass it will bubble and start coming off like bad paint and boy is it nasty
When taking it off some comesoff in a nice size so it can be netted but allot of it brakes u into particles so little that it slips right threw the new ,I have to use my daughters fine little gold fish net to get it out so it don't get all over, still vervy messy
To night I cleaned the side glases of the tank tomorrow im thinking of dong the back
The side glass still has green algea on it, thinking maybe time to scrap it down to the glass as the green gets coverd with purple or the green is turning purple, one of the two
Thinking taking it off completly will stop it, its even growing on my rock
Looks like ourple strands of hair, neal nasty to get out of tank

[EXVISOR]

Also not only glass and rock but getting purple algea spots about hte size of a queater on my sand, loks like ufo's had landed and left, sort of like crop circles

[MikeS]

Sounds like cyano to me....get the phosphates and nitrates down...that will help...

Mike

[EXVISOR]

THANKS FOR INFO

[Doctor_Reef]

Agree, the nutrients are causing a banquet for the cyno!!!

[EXVISOR]

other then making it a pain to keep clean does this harm the tank/fish or etc.

[EXVISOR]

also should I clean the rest of it off he tank or leave it?

[Doctor_Reef]

I will not in itself hurt the fish or tank but shows that there is a nutrient problem... I would clean off what you can....your tank will look better with it gone!!! :)

[EXVISOR]

What nutrient could I be missing?, i do a water change every week, I change 10 gal a week which is easyier then waiting until the end of the month to do all at once, I'm no longer adding trace elements or calcium because I decided to not do corals right now, andI only have one fish in my tank, its a big one but htats all I want for right now,maybe I should add a tang, I remember when I did tangs they would pick the tank clean including the rock

[FishinInTheDark]

Tangs won't eat cyanobacteria. You need to reduce nutrients, and adding a fish right now would only compound the problem: you add the fish, you feed the fish, the fish digests and expels waste, and the cyano eats it. I think your puffer is a big eater, right? You may have to start doing larger water changes to keep the nutrient levels down. Have you tested for phosphates and nitrates?

Cyano also hates high flow. A macroalgae refugium would help consume some of the extra nutrients in the water too.

When you pull the cyano out of your tank, you are also removing the elements that it has "injested" too. Thereby, it is a nutrient removal system itself.

[EXVISOR]

I have high flow also my puffer eats 20 krill a day, he's not bad, he dos not make a mess like others, he swollows it whole, when he lets it out I net it as well as clean the bottom of gravel with out disterbing anything so I keep the tank clean ,the gut at the pet store states phosphate will cause red algea, i was thinking killing any extra nitrates with help like maybe a nitrate sponge but he says its not by nitrates, cant see how phosphates would casue this

[Doctor_Reef]

Wow...20 krill a day??? That guy has a big appetite...Puffers are inherently messy eaters if you got one that isn’t that is really a miracle!!! The amount of waist alone could be causing your phosphates and nitrates to climb…. I would agree with Conni in her advice.
Having high Phosphates will work like adding fertilizers to a field… Phosphates will grow cyano- really well!! I like refugiums and some kind of phosphate absorber… I am using a phosban reactor and phosban… But you can use a different one and get the same results….Lower or no phosphates….