I need help identifying this reddish growth on my rock...

[GIES2525]

I am just wondering if it is a good thing or bad? Will it take over/cover all of my rock if i leave it alone?

 

[roka64]

Possibly Predaea weldii. As with most macros, it thrives off of excess nutrient and can overtake a tank if not pruned.

 

[GIES2525]

Ok, so how do i go about getting rid of it? Any ideas...

 

[jessicasmarine]

cut out as much as you can, use RO water, watch your regular feeding amount, cut back on lights, same goes with any algae

 

[GIES2525]

But is it an algea? I use RO water, hardly ever feed, and my light are on 8 hours a day. Im not sure if its a good idea to lower that even more when i have a Anemone in there...

 

[mrg02d]

Do you buy your RO locally? Or do you make it yourself? You may want use a TDS meter to make SURE its pure water. I was dumping in "dirty" DI water thinking it was fine. A quick check one day with a TDS meter showed that my home RO/DI system needed to be flushed! (Hadnt used it in several days).

Other than that, maybe cover the tank with a towel to cut back on light from your home or from windows?

Matt

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

But is it an algea? I use RO water, hardly ever feed, and my light are on 8 hours a day. Im not sure if its a good idea to lower that even more when i have a Anemone in there...

Yeah... it's algae, but you're never going to get rid of ALL algae in a tank. With closed systems like ours, you can never eliminate everything algae needs to grow. Plus I don't think you'd want to - otherwise nothing else would survive.

My opinion is that algae is a fact of life, and all we can do is control it. Manually removing it goes a long way in eliminating the possibility that it ends up elsewhere and out of control. Think of it as weeding your garden. What successful garden does NOT have weeds... without human intervention?!

I would guess though that you do have some type of nutrient issue going on though... looks like there's a couple spots of cyano on your sand bed?

 

[roka64]

I agree with Kurt. I wouldn't try to get it all out (you really can't) plus is can be a decent free nutrient export......
Just trim it or pull it off. That's all I do.

 

[joy13]

Does anyone know if this macro algae will go assexual?

 

[GIES2525]

SO to trim it, must i do it while the rock is in the water, or can i pull the rock out of the water for a minute to snip it off, and then put the rock back in there? I dont have any sort of coral growing on this rock, nor any other life so it should be ok to pull it out, snip it, and then put it right back in correct?
I am having spots of purple pop up on my sandbed, is that called cyano? Is this a bad thing as well?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If it's easy to take the rock out, then yeah... that would be the best bet. Either trim with scissors or just pull it off by hand. Most likely, there will be some left in the nook/cranny of the rock, so it will come back.

If trimmed/pulled off while in the tank, then just have a siphon hose next to it to catch any stragglers that escape your grasp to keep it from spreading around the tank.

The red/purple I'm seeing in your sand looks like cyano. Here's an article...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/20/1/Cyanobacteria-AKA-Red-Slime-Algae-/Page1.html