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Red algae...is it diatoms?


DodgerDave

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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.

 

post-85399-0-89650600-1415589379_thumb.jpg

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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.

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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!

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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.

 

attachicon.gifred 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.

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