is red film algae bad?

[billaweed]

Im asking because I have some spots on my LR that are growing very quickly.. Nothing seems to be affected by it yet, but I dont want to take the chance. So should I get rid of it or not worry about it? And if I need to get rid of it how do I do so?

Ive searched the forum for information but couldnt find anything. I heard that a big waterchange then leaving the lights off for 48 hours works. But sounds kinda off to me.

thanks
Brandon

 

[Katchupoy]

I think it is because it will overun everything and it will block water flow and light to anything including corals. Did you just started your tank? do you have snails? I mean lots of them?

 

[billaweed]

I think it is because it will overun everything and it will block water flow and light to anything including corals. Did you just started your tank? do you have snails? I mean lots of them?

no.. I have no snails actually. I've had my tank for about 8-9 months now. I used to have a lot of snails but I got some bad tapwater in my tank with copper and it killed off all my coral and sails.

do the snails eat that red slime algae?

 

[jeffnewt]

The snails do nothing on the cyno, at least not for me. I have 2 diffren types.

I too am getting some cyno breaking out in some spots again. I hate it so much... Enough to use the red slime remover...

Allthough it is true that if you remove excess food/nutirents and control how much light it is getting, you will stay on top of it. That can be hard to do for your phototophic life...

 

[caseyb21]

they wont eat the cyno, but they will eat rotting food that turns into nutrients the cyno depends on. Still though from what everyone says, lowering nutrients, providing more flow, etc is supposed to help keep it in check. So far its jut been moving around our tank for about a month or more

 

[billaweed]

currently I'm not feeding and im only putting the lights on for 7hrs a day. I'm goiing to try a 10 gallon wc and lower my light time. I'll see if that works

 

[Katchupoy]

I have astrea and they have been very good to me....

now my question is are we on the same page?

Is this what you are talking about?

if yes then astrea can take care of it for you. And you will see where they have been because of the clean path you see on the rocks.

And here is a good example of it... the astrea is on the upper right of the rock and you can see the path from the sand going up.

.

 

[jeffnewt]

Oh yeah, i forgot. One of the guys at teh LFS told me to squirt the pockets with hydrogen proxide. Haven't tried it yet, he assured my its perfectly safe...

 

[Katchupoy]

If you can as much as possible keep it simple and naturally, so much the better. Then if not.... locate the source of the problem.

 

[Damsel13]

I was going to suggest a turkey baster but that stuff looks stuck on pretty good. That snail did that? Wow I am impressed. I had a pincushion urchin that cleaned my rocks up really nicely the only thing was since they are not held together I had many rock slides.:shock:

 

[jeffnewt]

Dang, thats an impressive snail...

 

[chadmace]

What is your water quality?

If you have 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and 0 Nitrate then I would look to your lights to solve the problem.

I had some really bad Cyano that was mistaken for something else....none the less in the end what was feeding the Algae was nothing other than some Halides that were past their life. After changing out my lights I syphoned out what was left during a water change and the rest is history.

Good luck.