The Puffer Forum

My 30-long with 1 F8 and 1 dragon goby has had a red algea bloom in the last week. Its on the glass and some on one of the plastic plants. Is this something to worry about? The lfs said no, but my bf said he thought it was.

Just read that red algea can be a sign of high nitrates as it likes to feed on it.

Doing a test now.... Nitrates are 10.

Oooh, oooh! I know! Dadof4 totally quizzed me on this! In a new tank, you can expect a bloom of brown or reddish algae to pop up and then go away. It's because of the glass, the sealant, and sometimes the substrate (depending on what kind you have), since all three have glass components in them... or something... Shoot, I forgot.

Is it red or brown? Brown=dinos, red=cyano.

This is actually a diatom bloom caused by salicilate build up. Not much you can do about it, it will not cause a problem, and it should pass in a few days to weeks to months, depending on the salicalate source. It's more of an aesthetically harmful thing than any harm to the fish.

One other question before it's positive it's diatoms, is it red or brown and when you try to scrape it off the glass does it look like powder? If it's red it's Cyanoalgae and that's a whole different issue to get rid of....

LGP, do I have to buy you a notebook?

Well, you never sent me whatever-it-was for my birthday.

I have issues with the brown kind of algae all the time, in fact, just got an algae-eating fish yesterday to take care of it. I used to have a big Chinese Algae eater in there and did he do a good job of cleaning it up, but then he died when my SAP's got whitespot and I had to do a treatment. That's when the algae came back.

CAEs are vicious fish when they get bigger--search out Siamase AEs, whenever possible.

Seriously, should I fear for my fish from that CAE? I got an Otocinclus this time for my other tank, but the CAE is still in my community tank and it's getting BIG.

Its brown. I just said "red" because its more reddish than greenish.

I tried ottos in this tank and my F8 took a nice munch out of it. If its not a big deal then I'll just leave it.

I did test my tank last night and the nitrates were 10- not bad, but I did a 50% w/c anyway as it needed it.