Purple algae. Please help!

Kimcala13 · Feb 18, 2022

I have a 180 gallon tank that’s been running for about 18 months. I started getting this algae about 3 months ago and I try everything to get rid of it and I can’t. Can you identify what algae this is? Thank you so much in advance!

Tonycass12 · Feb 18, 2022

Thats not algae thats cyano bacteria. Increase flow, and you are probably overfeeding.

mbmax · Feb 18, 2022

It is cyano bacteria , very common in new systems . Many times it will go away by itself , it might take some time or you could use something like Chemiclean .

SiD · Mar 31, 2022

It may be Coralline.

thatmanMIKEson · Mar 31, 2022

SiD said:
It may be Coralline.

Lol.. 99.99% its cyano

SiD · Mar 31, 2022

thatmanMIKEson said:
Lol.. 99.99% its cyano

The color though is misleading....Cyano usually has more red in it.

thatmanMIKEson · Mar 31, 2022

SiD said:
The color though is misleading....Cyano usually has more red in it.

Maybe, I've seen it dark purple like that I believe its not "healthy " like when its full and more red.

Coralline algae is a calcareous algae so its hard and shell like, I can almost see that blowing in the current and it is very stringy. And its covering some other algae.