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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / October 2007Colerpa or red microalgae in new tank?
OK, so those who have read my previous posts know this is my first go round with a reef tank...so here's where we are at this time. 72 gallon tank, setup with sump, skimmer (currently off), 2 power heads, and 85 pounds of live rock. It's been that way for about 3 weeks now, and has completed an ammonia/nitrate cycle (hooray). It was setup using R/O d/i water, and I had all my measurements checked at the LFS and everything is ready to run. That having been said, I have noticed a growth of red hairs over a majority of the live rock and some of the overflow box itself. Thin, red hairs. I've discussed with the LFS and they seem to think it is likely to be red microalgae, and that adding a couple of algae eating organisms (snails, crabs etc) will help...but the other option they'd mentioned is that it could be colerpa. So the question is this...how do you tell the diff between colerpa and red microalgae, in it's very early stages? The growth is red, filamentous, and seems to be broadening into leaves at the very tips of the growths. Any thoughts, before I add the snails etc? Mitch Is it Slimmy red or hairy red? Slime, ( cyanobacteria). is easy enough to get rid of, Chemi-clean, it's reef safe and works over night. If its not cyanobacteria, then a good clean up crew will do the trick. I purchased 15 blue claw hermits. 10 Turbo's and 3 emerald crabs.. At one point, they were working overtime. I had a dead goby, the carcass was gone before my ammonia spiked > OK, so those who have read my previous posts know this is my first go > round with a reef tank...so here's where we are at this time. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Mitch > Is it Slimmy red or hairy red? Slime, ( cyanobacteria). is easy enough to > get rid of, Chemi-clean, it's reef safe and works over night. If its not [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Not sure to be honest...it's still very short but from what I can see, it looks to be hairy rather than slimy. Put it this way, the powerheads are generating enough circulation that it's 'flapping in the breeze' so to speak...dunno if that helps or not. It's probably just a red hair algae. Nothing red is calerpa. Wayne Sallee Wayne@WayneSallee.com Big Habeeb wrote on 10/23/2007 10:36 AM: > OK, so those who have read my previous posts know this is my first go > round with a reef tank...so here's where we are at this time. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Mitch there is some red version of grape calerpa, and my LFS has some red "stuff" in his macro algae tank, that looks to be caulerpa, but im not sure what species. but definetely sounds like hair algae to me too, i have not had a single case of red hair algae that i can recall in my time. must have been a culture that got into your tank from a live rock or something that had a bit of ammonia, or nitrites to feed on while the tank was cycling before other bacteria or organisms had a chance to keep it at bay. or im guessing possibly your light, Peter Pan, could possibly going off spectrum? are you running NO's? ahh, i think it is Gracilaria at my LFS now that i recall > my LFS has some red > "stuff" in his macro algae tank, that looks to be caulerpa, but im not > sure what species. hehe yep :-) Wayne Sallee Wayne@WayneSallee.com wolfdogg wrote on 10/29/2007 12:36 PM: > ahh, i think it is Gracilaria at my LFS now that i recall > >> my LFS has some red >> "stuff" in his macro algae tank, that looks to be caulerpa, but im not >> sure what species. |
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