Red Hair Algae on Sand Bed

[nugg79]

Guys,

I am having an issue with what appears to be some sort of red hair algae. It is not responding to any red slime treatments. The recent history of my tank is I had crushed coral as the substrate. I started getting this algae all over the crushed coral. I read around and found that sand has less issues. Enter the change of substrate. This temporarily solved the issue. I am am starting to see the algae again. The only thing that seems to affect it of course is no/less light. I am currently in the middle of a 3 day no light period to try to wipe it out but I am not sure what is causing it. I tested my water and got the following:

salinity -1.026
ph - 8.4
amonia - 0
nitrate/nitrite - 0
phosphates - 0

I do have an UV filter on my tank also. Below are some images of this algae.




Any help is appreciated.

[MARINECRITTERS]

Cyano bacteria, if you have algaes/bacterias it means you have nutrients for them to consume. You could test for nitrate and phosphate and get a reading of zero, this is because the algae is consuming the nutrients before you can test for it. To remove the algae you must have a very efficient nutrient export method, skimmer will remove small particles before they convert into nitrogenous and phosphorus wastes, refugiums will uptake nutrients, GFO reactors absorb phosphates, and water changes physically remove the nutrients. Make sure you have a RODI unit. To truly fix your problem you must get to the root of the problem ie, source water, overstocked tank, etc.
If you have tried all of these methods I would lean to believe that your rocks are leaching out small amounts of phosphates, although I am doubtful about this as you only have a small amount of it.
You could also try some sort of sand sifting/shifting animal.

[nugg79]

Thanks. I will look into some of these ideas and get back to you.