DodgerDave Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Hi all So I noticed a slight red colored area on some of my live rock. I look over to my right and notice it all of a sudden turned into a bright red color. I've had diatoms before, kind of resembles that, but the color is very unique to me. What say you? How to solve this problem? I'm thinking about taking the rock out and scrubbing it down! EDIT: Wanted to add my tank is a little over a year old. But there was a big change recently as I had to change the entire sand bed. My heater exploded and all this black powder covered a lot of the sand....made the decision to change out the entire sand bed. Link to comment
Bingo1213 Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 To me it looks like coraline algae. Ive had bright red coraline in my tank before. Also diatoms usually only show up on the sand bed. If you rub it with your finger or a tooth brush does it come off easy? Diatoms should scrub right off where as coraline would not. Link to comment
DodgerDave Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 To me it looks like coraline algae. Ive had bright red coraline in my tank before. Also diatoms usually only show up on the sand bed. If you rub it with your finger or a tooth brush does it come off easy? Diatoms should scrub right off where as coraline would not. When it was a lighter red, I thought it was coraline too. But looking today when it got brighter, I could see small bubbles on it which makes me think it's diatoms. I will check again tomorrow to see if this red stuff is slimy or tough. Thanks! Link to comment
Bingo1213 Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 If it has bubbles chances are it is diatoms or possibly cyano just try cleaning it! If you think its cyano try chemiclean. Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Scratch it and see if it comes off easily? Coralline is quite durable, hence the name. Link to comment
opaquelace Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Hi all So I noticed a slight red colored area on some of my live rock. I look over to my right and notice it all of a sudden turned into a bright red color. I've had diatoms before, kind of resembles that, but the color is very unique to me. What say you? How to solve this problem? I'm thinking about taking the rock out and scrubbing it down! EDIT: Wanted to add my tank is a little over a year old. But there was a big change recently as I had to change the entire sand bed. My heater exploded and all this black powder covered a lot of the sand....made the decision to change out the entire sand bed. red algae.jpg Looks to me like you have some bubbles underneath it which would indicate that it's red cyanobacteria. Does the area get a lot of flow or not? The heater exploding could have caused some die off which would explain the sudden bloom. Change your water, siphon it out if you can and then add more flow to the area. If those are not bubbles and I'm mistaken try scratching at it. If it's hard and flaky it's coralline. If it rubs off and feels scummy it's cyano. Link to comment
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