red algea with air bubbles taking over please help

hart.thomas

Reefing newb
so my tank has been setup for a few months now and this algae has been growing for awhile. it has now basically taken over the tank and i dont know what to do. can someone please help
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20120518_211055.jpg
    IMG_20120518_211055.jpg
    38.1 KB · Views: 644
  • IMG_20120518_211106.jpg
    IMG_20120518_211106.jpg
    36.5 KB · Views: 635
Looks like cyano to me. We gotta ask you a bunch of questions before we throw out a bunch of answers. lol. Whats the water source? Whats the params? Feeding schedule? Would love to help you with this cause DAMN THATS NASTY!

For the meantime you can direct a little more flow in that area and do some manual removal by siphoning with airline tubing and probably cut down on the feeding.
 
I put flake food in the tank twice a day. Water source is tap water run through a Britain filter. I don't have the money to buy ro water every time I need to do a water change. Last time I checked the parameters everything was pretty much at zero. I'm going to do another test now and post the details
 
The flakes and tap water are contributing to your issue. Running the water through a filter isnt going to remove the stuff that causes cyano to grow, and those filters are only good for about 5 gallons. You will need to get a better source of water if you want to fix these issues.

In the mean time, switch to a quality frozen food (like rods food or marine cuisine) and only feed every other day.

And the reason your parameters look ok is that they cyano is remove the nutrients before the tests can register them. The ugly algae are extremely efficient at up taking nutrients. If you have algae issues, your water parameters are off somewhere.
 
The ammonia was slightly up I think it was .25. The ph was 8.4 and nitrites and nitrates were at zero. And phosphates were at zero what can I do to remove the algae is the an invertebrate or chemical I can use?
 
Tap water (even through a filter) is a recipe for algae problems. There isn't any animal that will eat the cyano, and there is a chemical you can use (called ChemiClean), but it will keep coming back until you fix the root of the problem -- tap water and overfeeding with flake food. Tap water usually contains heavy metals, nitrates and phosphates -- everything algae needs to thrive.

RODI units cost about $125. I highly suggest you save for one if you want your tank conditions to improve. The quality of water we put in our tanks is probably the most important factor that determines success in the hobby.
 
Thanks for the replies but our coral beauty just died and the girlfriend wants to dismantle the tank and get rid of the livestock. So I'm done for now it seems. But maybe I'll be able to try again. We have just had to many problems. Thanks for the help though
 
Back
Top