red algae and air bubbles

[glassnug]

we got through the "cycle" finally and the green algae is barely a problem anymore. instead we now have this red algae all over everything. its red algae and air bubbles hanging on to them. what would be the culprit? all of our levels are fine. could it be something wrong with the protein skimmer? i'll get some pics sometime tonight. thanks for the help.

[Telco Guy]

Sounds like Cyano to me. You need to add some Mexican Red Leg hermit crabs. They will help control this.

[glassnug]

this is the red algae pictures.

[Doctor_Reef]

Yep...red slime...Try to physically remove as much as possible...The reason you are getting bubbles is because there isn't enough flow...You need to increase the flow in the tank and reduce the nutrients and physically remove as much of that stuff as possible....

[gman0526]

Agreed, also it will eventually subside once you cut your nutrients down and the fuel available eventually runs out. This is normal on newly setup tanks so do not despair my friend.

[glassnug]

how do i reduce the nutrients? what does that mean? thanks for the hel p guys

[Doctor_Reef]

Several ways to reduce nutrients....water changes with RO/DI water, reduce the amount you feed, add a protein skimmer, add macro-algae...the nutrients are dissolved organics, phosphate, nitrate...they are a fertilizer to the bad algae...so you need something to compete for the nutrients, like the Macro-algae...and something to take out the nutrients, like a protein skimmer...and water changes with the RO/DI water.... Hope that helps!!!

[Telco Guy]

Again, some Mexican Red Leg Hermits would also help to keep the Cyano in check.

[Doctor_Reef]

Nick is right...for some reason the Red legers will eat that stuff!!!!

[Telco Guy]

Make sure they are Mexican Red Leg and not Scarlet Hermits. The Mexican Red Legs are the ones that will eat Cyano.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Agreed, my scarlett hermits won't touch it.

There are some critters that will eat cyano's and a number of them are listed above. However, this is like giving your kid cold medicine to cure a cold instead of making your kid wash his hands often to prevent a cold. One of the things that never gets asked is how did I get my cyano bloom.

Cyano's are heterotrophic bacteria which basically means they get their food from dissolved organic compounds. Well, we certainly introduce a lot of those to our tanks don't we? We can remove some DOC's with Granular Activated Carbon and water changes but we can remove even more with a properly sized protein skimmer.

You can use E.M. to help rid yourself of cyano but it really is a band-aid approach and that's why I don't recommend it EVER unless someone is so frustrated they want to leave the hobby. Not only that, there are unintended consequences such as bacteria dieing that we want to live. E.M. doesn't only kill cyano's. It's an equal opportunity killer.


Because cyano's are a blend between an algae and a bacteria, you should also do the normal things you do to prevent algaes. Such as......
Do not overfeed----ever. Normally, this revolves around uneaten food but in this case, the major problem IMO is excess fish waste (which will degrade into DOC's).
Always use RO/DI water if your municipal water supply adds phosphates to their water (as most do). You can request a water report from them.
Never overstock your tank.
Use a quality protein skimmer.
Check on the photoperiod you are using and make sure your bulbs aren't so old that they have experienced a color shift.
Increase circulation to get the waste suspended in the water column for your skimmer to pick up.

BTW....cyanobacteria is a great nutrient exporter. If you can handle looking at it for a couple of days, let it build up some and then siphon it out. You'll be taking excess Phosphates, DOC's, and Nitrogenous Wastes out of the water along with the cyanobacteria. The bubbles exist in it because they are able to "fix" their own Nitrogen.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Great post mantis!

[Doctor_Reef]

Very nice mantis!!!! :)

[glassnug]

we've been keeping our lighting on for 12 hours on, 12 hours off. we set it now to 10 hours on, 14 hours off. we think it might be that the water is getting to warm from the lights being on too long. we also just completely cleaned out protein skimmer and bought some mexican hermits. hopefully we can get to the root of the problem and get this algae to stop spreading so quickly.