red hair alge? Cyno?

new2salt2 · 06-17-2004, 09:03 AM

i have recently noticed one half of my tank appears to be gettig bottom covered in a soft red alge. It is under my hangon "waterfall" style filter. My trates are about 5 now and other levels good. is it caused by poor lighting? too much light? or possibly overload in my filter since it appears to be concentrated under that?

next .. how do i get rid of it? i have done water changes and it still in tank.

reefman_MC · 06-17-2004, 11:22 AM

Usually cyano is caused by your lamps getting old. How old are your PCs? In a reef you usually want lamps to be in the blue-green wavelength and when they get older they go into the red wavelength. Cyano prefers the red wavelength. Also cyano grows where there is little or no water movement. So if your PCs are 6-8months old replace the bulbs and that should take care of it. If they aren't that old just get some water movement onto the cyano and that should take care of it. If all else fails try this http://www.championlighting.com and go into products then additives then boyd and their is stuff at the top called Chemi-clean. It works great.

karlas · 06-23-2004, 01:51 AM

there are a lot of factors that can cause cyano like old lighting and low water flow. but also nitrates, silicates, over feeding, over stocking. It is one of the harder alges to get rid of i think. adding power heads for water movment will help, smaller more frequent water changes, you can use a turkey baster to help suck it out of the tank. this doesnt get rid of it but helps to get a handle on it while trying to get rid of it.

there are chemicals to help get rid of it but thats up to the reefer wheather they want ot add them to there tank or not.

da colts · 07-03-2004, 01:00 PM

i have used chemi clean, and on occasion i have even used myracyn, they both work myracyn works very fast but it will drive your skimmer crazy,chemi clean takes a little longer to work but the results last longer.(i know that myracyn is an anti biotic but you don't use it at full strength and it doesn't stress the bacteria bed very much at a small dosage)

hottielover14 · 07-07-2004, 11:40 AM

i think i might have some on some of my LR and i saw some red spots on my glass walls i'm not sure if it's red hair algae or coralline. My PC's are practiclly new.

JohnO · 07-07-2004, 12:39 PM

Oh dear :-)

Here is a good link on Cyanoacteria written by a friend of mine

http://ozreef.org/reference/cyanobacteria.html

John

new2salt2 · 07-07-2004, 01:35 PM

i found what my problem was. i had removed the carbon filter cartiges from my hang on filter and replaced it with filter floss. I forgot to change floss and had a big build up of gunk that i am sure fueled my problem. started to realize that the cyno is mainly on rocks under filter

Matt Rogers · 07-07-2004, 06:30 PM

Nice! Way to go.. good detective work.
Makes me want to clean my filter right now.

new2salt2 · 07-07-2004, 07:03 PM

lol thanks.. i am for hire . payment one 300 gal drilled tank with sump for this i come look at tank and give you what you want to hear

hottielover14 · 07-08-2004, 10:29 AM

i've heard that cyno has bubbles in it mine doesn't it's just red hair algae. I don't know if the red spots on my glass are cyno or coralline because cyno likes no water circculation but the red algae is growing in my outlet on my filter in direct so it might be coralline.