Need help identifying....

[msk007]

...if this is a nusance algae or something good.... It's a really pretty maroon/purple and seems to be staying only on the bottom of the tank... It almost looks like seaweed to me, but I'm not sure...
I've never found anything like it, so I'm not sure if I should trim it out or leave it...
Tanks on the same sump are: 125, 220, 75 with 150gal sump... This is ONLY in the 220...
Water:
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 2 (Yes, know it's high.... Been trying for months to get it down from >15, almost there!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgyiUf9Re10

Ideas?

 

[SushiGirl]

Looks like a bad case of cyanobacteria. Common in new tanks. Suck out what you can, get those phosphates down. Obviously flow is not an issue :lmao:.

 

[msk007]

Thanks: Never had a cyano outbreak... After googling pictures, that looks exactly like what it is.... Thanks! Right now we're doing 10% water changes every other day (Can't get the RODI water any faster!) and it has a blue fin reactor with pelletted FO in it... I was out for 3 days and the pet sitter called me on day 2 to say something purple was there and when I got back yesterday: Here's how it looks! Weird though that it's only in the one tank: Not in any other tank or the refug... Another tank had the buble algae and now that that's under control something else wants to grow somewhere else... Here's to more crap sucking out!

 

[sneaton]

how did you get the bubble algea under control?

 

[msk007]

how did you get the bubble algea under control?

Manual removal with a LOT of dedication! I took a freshwater gravel cleaner (basically a hard plastic tube ~1.5" that goes to a 0.75" flexible tubing: was about $5 at Petco) and hovered over the bubble algae and had the tubing draing into a 3" sump sock that led to a 5 gallon bucket. When the bucket got full, dumped the clean water back in. (Note: At first I wasn't using the sock but that was wasting a LOT of water, someone suggested I use a sump sock and that worked great!). I did this when I woke up before I went to work and before I went to bed... The first time took about 3 hours (was a 125gal tank) and afterwards about 30 minutes each. It took about a week before I didn't see anymore! I tried the 3 day darkness, that didn't do anything to the algae but killed some of my softies.... Will never do that again unless I move the corals out to something else first! Apparently I didn't think enough in that I should have covered the tank too, because we have a lot of windows and algae don't need much light to grow! Tank lights off alone weren't enough...