Algae turning red?!

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brunettebaby4571

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Messages
596
Location
WV
Ok so a day ago after I did a water change and vacuumed the sand I noticed a few hours later that some of the hair algae that I have in my tank turned red?? When I cleaned the tank I took out the main plant that had most of the algae on it and tried pulling some of the algae off and tried wiping some off. Is this what made it turn red? Does that mean it is dying? Thank you! Oh also some of the fish are eating it (their poop is the same color red as the algae) is this okay?
 
Pictures would help. There are some types of algae that turn red when they are dieing.
 
Red hair algae is usually dying. I've seen it do that whenever I start dosing Excel to get rid of it. Pretty, but it should be gone in a few days.
 
Do you know what would cause it to randomly just die like that?? I havent done anything differently to the water. All I have done was try to wipe it and pull it off and the next day it was red and dying.
 
You might have had some sort of nutrient spike (missed WC or something of the sort) that triggered it to grow. Or, it maybe you left the lights on a little to long for a little while. It's hard to peg exactly what happened to cause this. Once the tank returned to less than ideal circumstances, the algae died back in accordance to what resources were available.
 
Ok thank you so much! What all can I do to kill it without hurting the plants or my fish?
 
It was all dying and now its growing worse than before!! I have been doing water changes usually every day trying to get it to die down some but now it seems like its back with a vengeance!!
 
Yeah I don't have co2 on the tank unfortunately but one day when I get the money it is first on my list!! :) But yeah I have two t5 high output lights on the tank and its a 40 gallon breeder I do believe. I use flourish comprehensive one or twice a week when I remember but thats all I do. The plants have been growing great but now this algae is getting cazy :/ Will reducing the time the lights are on help any with it?
 
T5HO on a 40B can be a lot of light and definitely will be the cause of your issues. 40 Breeders are shallower than many other tanks, resulting in a higher light intensity at the substrate level than, say, a 29g. I have pressurized CO2 on my 40B, and my T5HO is currently lifted about 4" off the tank and wrapped in fiberglass window screen to further reduce the light because I am currently fighting an algae issue in the tank.
 
Do you think that if I lessen the amount of time the lights are on that would help the matters any? Also how much do c02 systems usually run?
 
Last question...I just spent like 3 hours on google trying to find some answers and I was reading about peroxide dips (I dont like the idea of putting it straight into the tank) do you know anything about the dips? Some people said they just dip the tops and not the roots others said just throw the whole plant in the mixture for 30 minutes or so. I couldnt really get a straight forward answer as to how long or if it was okay to put the roots and all in the dip.
 
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