What type of algae is this?

[jason1985]

What causes this type of Algae on the powerhead and is it bad, how to control it

 

[joy13]

Have you touched it? If it is easy to come off on your finger it is cryno if it doesn't then it could be a start of coraline.

 

[thincat]

I agree with joy!

 

[jason1985]

It is very easy to come off. What causes this type of Algae?

 

[titoav15]

If it feels slimy, then its possibly red slime algae. It is a coat of bacteria. Some of the reasons that it can be caused by is very low water movement and I think high phosphates. If it is red slime algae best way to control and get rid of it is by doing pwc (RO/DI water) and get the water moving.

 

[Sadielynn]

It is common in new tanks . Easiest way to remove is to siphon off as you do H20 changes . Limit your excess nutrients and DOC's avail ... Increased flow as mentioned as well as RO/DI with very low to NO DOC's confirmed by a TDS meter....

 

[melosu58]

It is common in new tanks . Easiest way to remove is to siphon off as you do H20 changes . Limit your excess nutrients and DOC's avail ... Increased flow as mentioned as well as RO/DI with very low to NO DOC's confirmed by a TDS meter....

Excellent advice

 

[jason1985]

It's actually brown and stringy

 

[Sadielynn]

also could be diatoms as well . Same advice as above will die off when the nutrient levels are lowered ....
If it doesnt start looking at dinoflatulates (SP) now those will brush off but come back in hours/days ... very difficult to remove ..
however the pics above really look like cyno again above advice

 

[jason1985]

"cyano"?

 

[austinsdad]

Cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[jason1985]

All the pictures I can find on the net doesn't really look like what I have.

 

[austinsdad]

Looks like regular ole gunk to me. Use a turkey baster to blow it off or a tank dedicated tooth brush prior to water changes. The red stuff was what folks were thinking is the cyano. The brown stuff on the powerhead looks like the same stuff that used to come out of my skimmer. Shouldn't be a big problem at all. Just an aesthetics issue I'm sure.

 

[jason1985]

I should have mentioned first off that i was talking about the brown stringy algae and not the purple.