stuff growing on chaetomorpha PIC

[Sundiego]

This red stuff seems to only be in my fuge, not in the display. Is it algae or cyano?

How do I get rid of it, what causes it. Should I remove the chaeto, and save what I can? Never had this stuff before.

Mark

[dragonforce]

Just rinse it from the left over water on your next water change. It's caused by high nutrients and low flow. Most reef aquariums have cyano present but you can see outbreaks if the forementioned events exist.

[Sundiego]

I have 0 nitrates, and according to a Salifert test 0 phosphates. I even run a phosban reactor with GFO.

I will try to rinse it.

Mark

[scaryperson27]

Cyano lives off of nutrients in the tank. The nutrients may not be present now, but were they...

[Sundiego]

I have never really had high nitrates. I have had this fuge set up for about 2 months. I got the chaeto from a fellow reefer at the time the fuge was set up. Maybe he had more Nitrates?

Its just strange that it showed up in the last 1-2 weeks.

[reefD]

all plants grow from a food source....thats nutrients...u obviously have them or u wouldnt have algea growing like that.....its undetectable cause its being consumed. i would make a hard point of making ur water prestine.....water changes nmore often,,,feed less....dose less...clean equipment more often.....be more diligent about maintanace ...a few weeks of this will reduce the nutrients and the lack will burn out the algea.

[scaryperson27]

Yeah. It could also be due to your Alk being low, lights being old, other sources of filtration being past due for replacement etc.

Whats fueling it is a good question. What have you changed recently in the tank.

How long has it been since you removed some chaeto?

[reefD]

considr this if it only on the macro in your pic what may be occuring is the macro isnt liking your tank, for whatever reason, and is dieing which released nutrients and is feeding this new algea. if this is so just remove the cheato and try another macro,,,,when one is happy it feeds alot and doesnt let any other algea attack or outpace it.

[reefD]

my best advice is if its in your sump and not the display then dont sweat it...i think of my sump as where all algea should grow...wanted or not...sump should look like swamp thing and the display should be abscent of algea. with that said tackle the issue but be happy its in the sump. thats not a biggie!

[reefD]

if the sumps new then the bloom is expected. the sump surface is being established. these blooms like diatoms will go away with age.

[Sundiego]

Well my fuge hangs on the back of my sump, and it is hard to keep an eye on(limited space). I have not cut the chaeto back for ahwile. It was packed in there..

I removed about 3/4 of it, now my powerheads in there are making way more flow. I just think it was overgrown.

I maintain my Alk very closley at 9.5-10dkh, as I dose two part solution for my sps.

I cannot believe how fast this stuff grows! Hopefully it will be fine now.

Also I had some halimeda in there, and some of the red macro in there (forgot the name). Well they are both gone. The chaeto took over, and smothered them. Maybe the dieoff from the other macros caused high nutrients in there.

Mark

[scaryperson27]

Yeah, that would be a good guess. Do you remember the last time you changed the bulb(s) over the refugium?

The macro uses nutrients and phosphates to grow, so trimming it down a bit should help. It's natures way of reducing bad elements in the water. When the Chaeto grew out to it's maximum size, that's what probably gave the Cyano Algae the liberty to grow.

[scaryperson27]

I'm curious to see a picture of your tank. Do you have one you could post?

[Frick-n-Frags]

that's cyano (which I wish folks would quit acting like it isn't microalgae, since it acts like microalgae WHATEVER the classification)
I would harvest it. perfect opportunity for nutrient export.
It doesn't look like your chaeto is dying, actually looks very healthy, so the cyano isn't there due to nutrient release from dying chaeto(or is there another seemy side to this fuge story with fizzling chaeto ? heh)



....actually, before I hit enter here, Do you stir up the chaeto wad to knock all the dust out every couple days?
Almost forgot: chaeto=mother nature's filter floss. Man can that wad catch a lot of debris = monster nutrient machine.

on one hand, couldn't think of a better place to release nutrients then dead center of a chaeto wad, but on the other hand, the cyano would tell me elChaeto is over capacity

[c.rob]

One more thing here.....Cyano is a BACTERIA not an algea!

Do a search on Wet Web Media for more info.

[Frick-n-Frags]

Originally posted by c.rob
One more thing here.....Cyano is a BACTERIA not an algea!

Do a search on Wet Web Media for more info.

^ I rest my case.....
Exactly my point haha. try reading my post again, just a little slower