Help!...Red areas taking over my tank and fish.

[mcardenas]

Help!...Red areas taking over my tank and fish.

[Dkuhlmann]

Probably Cyano. Does it come off of the rocks easy and slimy or is it hard.

[mcardenas]

It appears to come off easily. I also have it on the glass and skipper but that's a little harder to come off.

[scooter31707]

looks like you a mix of cyano and coralline algae.

[MeghanisradxD]

Looks like cyano to me too. Best way to defeat cyano is to starve it out. Cut back on the light cycle for a while and keep your phosphates as low as possible.

[tripdad]

Lots of info on here about Cyano, do a search and read. A lot of it is contradictory so you will have to look for the common threads that keep coming up. we all get it sooner or later, just another challenge to be dealt with. Good luck.

[mcardenas]

I only have a octopus skimmer in my tank. I know i'm lacking some stuff but what else would be crucial for the tank? what can help with this?

[Bent]

Biggest thing I've found to combat cyano is increase flow to the affected areas. Buy a small power head and point it at it.

What kind of flow do you have?

Cyano is a bacteria btw.

[Dkuhlmann]

Just vacuum the cyano once a week and do a 20% water change. You can increase flow and lower lights but the long and short of it is, the cyano won't leave until it's done it's cycle. That is usually 4-6 weeks.

The coralline is desirable to most, it will turn purple as it matures.

[mcardenas]

I have a Hydor Koralia Circulation Pump-850gph. By lower lights do you mean less wattage? this happens often. I have also notice my yellow tang at times having some reddish on him. Similar to the ones on the rocks/glass/skimmer.

[BrianKC]

Lower lights = less hours per day. I'd cut by 30-40% (e.g., if you're at 10 hours a day go to 6 hours a day). Like Dkuhlmann said, vacuum it out when you do water changes.

What are you replacing water with? If you aren't filtering your tap water, consider a RODI unit or buying ready-made from a reputable LFS.

Is your circulation pump in a sump returning water to the DT? That's probably plenty unless you have a huge tank, but you want additional powerheads in the tank moving things around. I have a 65g with 4 additional powerheads on a wave maker.

Last...what kind of cleanup crew do you have? They eat up the leftovers to make sure the nasties don't have a lot to eat...in my 65g i have ~50 blue leg hermits, ~50 snails, a couple shrimp, and another ~40 porcelain crabs (these came as a free bonus with my live rock...side note: If you need live rock, go with Tampa Bay Saltwater. Fantastic. I have no affiliation with them but they are great).

[Relativity]

I would just buy the stuff that kills it. a-balance or that other life stuff

[rsisvixen]

Lowering light, running dark for a few days, adding chemicals etc only minimizes the visible cyno temporarily. It will only come back once you return to your regular routine. The only way to deal with it on a permanent basis is to get to the root cause of the issue.

Eg: a leaky pipe that causes wet floors, you could put a bucket under it and thereby not have wet floors, but it doesn't really fix the leak

[reefbroao]

There really isn't anything that will kill it, chemiclean is hit or miss. and it is extremely hard to get rid of in most cases
+1 to increasing flow.