purple algae

[madtownguy]

My tank is a couple years old, it has definitely cycled. I've been having insane purple algae and just algae in general growth for a few weeks now. I can do a water change and hours later the sand is starting to cover in purple algae. The only difference I know of is that chiller broke a couple weeks back, not sure exactly when it's broke since it's kind of hidden but I would guess the tank is running a few degrees warmer consistently now. I added a sand sifting star fish also, which I haven't seen in awhile but I would have thought that would keep the sand at least clear. Any idea of what might remedy this? My corals are still growing well, it's just causing me more clean time which I'm not fond of.

 

[CodyRVA]

Sounds like cyano, nutrient issues.

 

[Tahoe61]

Going to need an image please. :-)

 

[madtownguy]

Yeah it's cyano. Does this mean it's time for a skimmer?

 

[CodyRVA]

+1 on the image. If you haven't had a skimmer and haven't had these issues before it's hard to say. Definitely need to look into excessive nutrients and flow issues.