Red Film looking algae covering rocks

[roxsburyrage]

I don't have any pics yet of it.But I noticed today there is alot of this Thick layered Dark Maroon looking algae covering my rocks and bubbles are coming up from it.What would cause this all of a sudden.Phosphates are none detectable Nitrates are 10ppm.Alk is 10dkh Calcium is 410ppm. Ph is 8.2.I feed the same over the past two years.I also noticed in my sump red hairy balls growing.
I was away on Vacation for a few days.I didn't feed the tank.So I don't know what could have happened.

 

[waxy]

Cyano Bacteria. Just provide more flow withing the inhibited areas. It should go away in a few days if not overnight.

Cyano appears in many "dead zone" flow areas.

Goodluck!

 

[roxsburyrage]

I don't think flow is a problem I have two Vortech on each end with 3/4 power and 1 Hydro 3 in the corner and two outputs from my pump doing 800 gallons per hour in a 90 gallon tank.But maybe I am wrong

 

[uscharalph]

How old are your light bulbs? How high are you nitrates?

 

[roxsburyrage]

Bulbs are about 6 months a little less Ushio 10k 250 watt and 2 Super Atinic 110watts.Nitrates are 10ppm

 

[crvz]

well you probably have plenty of flow for the tank, but is the film collecting in the lower flow areas (the dead zones like waxy is mentioning)? What you're describing would be either cyanobacteria or dinoflagellates, not sure what else it could be. In either case, they'll an issue due to excess nutrients. I'd recommend increasing the water change frequency and volume for the long term, and maybe seek out an immediate solution to the problem (potentially chemi-clean?).

 

[Al Bendiksen]

Keep me posted on how you deal with it. I have been dealing with cyano bacteria for about a good month and a half

I ended up sucking up the first ''layer'' of sand in my DT and taking out most LR and scrubbing them down.

But it still came back!!!!

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

scrubbing and cleaning the rock will not help with cyano,

 

[DougBushBC]

Scrubbing/sucking is just a temporary (like a day) fix, just treat the problem, either high nitrates, bad lights, poor flow, or general poor tank conditions. If its a major problem there is a chem called "chemiclean" but it is pretty harsh, so dont use unless all else is failed

 

[Al Bendiksen]

Well i don't know about my nitrates, but my light fixture was bought back in late April. And i have 3 K4's and an Eheim 1262 giving about 600gph. So about 4,200gph on a 120g DT and 35g sump

 

[waxy]

I got crabs, a few hermits. Blue Legged ones. I had a lot of those diatoms and hair algae along with some cyano about a year go.

It was gone in a matter of 2 weeks. The crabs dont eat cyano, they walk right over it. But I noticed they eat those dust bunny looking things that appear in your water.

My problem was mainly flow, yet to this day I still continue to use 2x Koralia 4's with no problems. Not a single trace of algae.

I started using a phosphate and carbon reactor too, it was working too good. But keep in mind that you are taking away the nutrients from your system. So you have to shut it off when you are adding goodies.

Goodluck!

 

[waxy]

Oh, it could also be from too much light. You're feeding those germs Trial and error.