At my wits end with Red Dusty Algae

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Im battling some red dusty algae all over the sand and rocks in my tank. I have never seen diatoms or cyano present like this so im not sure what it is or how to treat it. Its a fine dust that settles into a sheet on the rocks. Its not the typical dark purple/red of cyano. Its fire engine red. Any ideas what this is and how to fight it?

 

[brandon429]

i have a thread for that cause/fix one sec

 

[brandon429]

post #29
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/everything-is-brown.752817/page-2
we literally fought it and won right there in pics. it doesn't matter if you have cyano, spirulina, diatoms or dinos notice we didnt ID anything there, we just effected the win. if you have a 150 gallon system and that type of one pass cleaning isn't feasible, dang. but for any tank about forty gallons on down a very strong fix option is shown.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I have a small system but I have so much coral and so many inverts that type of cleaning is not something I can do. Ive done it before but only in extreme cases of tank collapse or a tank crack last year.

 

[brandon429]

You sure can do it heres hundreds some are highly complex sps systems

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/

deep cleaning isn’t a start over it boosts all systems. We had been prior trained that to deep clean is harmful. But there it is, fifty pages of great outcomes

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

You sure can do it heres hundreds some are highly complex sps systems

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/

deep cleaning isn’t a start over it boosts all systems. We had been prior trained that to deep clean is harmful. But there it is, fifty pages of great outcomes

Id really like to do that man but its honestly more than I can handle with the way my reef is setup. Im looking for a natural solution or one that doesn't involve a complete tear down of my reef.

 

[Timfish]

You might try manual removal with paper towels and stainless steel straws. The sand you siphon out you can soak in H2O2 rinse in freshwater and returned. This is will need to be done repeatedly but I would not do it more than once a week. Here's videos of how I use them.

Steel Straws


Paper towels for algae

 

[Garf]

I have a small system but I have so much coral and so many inverts that type of cleaning is not something I can do. Ive done it before but only in extreme cases of tank collapse or a tank crack last year.

I’m bettin your system ain’t smaller than Brandon’s :)

 

[Garf]

Im battling some red dusty algae all over the sand and rocks in my tank. I have never seen diatoms or cyano present like this so im not sure what it is or how to treat it. Its a fine dust that settles into a sheet on the rocks. Its not the typical dark purple/red of cyano. Its fire engine red. Any ideas what this is and how to fight it?

Are you running blue lights? Most on your build thread are blue.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Are you running blue lights? Most on your build thread are blue.

No I run whites, colored LEDs, and blues. The blues are my night lights that go out around 10. Most of the day is white or colored LEDs.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Defeated the Cyano!! I have 5 trochus snails and about 30 Cerith snails. this combo over the last month has decimated the cyano in my tank. The trochus especially are destroying any issue I have.