Red algae in Sump

[Casey]

See that red algae in my sump/refugium and in my skimmer what is it? is it bad? it is not in the tank

[Casey]

maybe the pic would help lol

[Big Dave]

Looks like cyano. If it blows off of there real easy, that's it. It usually happens in low flow areas and is caused by excess nutrients. Do you have a spare PH you could put in there to move the water around? Maybe cut down your feedings. How much do you feed now? HTH

-Big Dave

[Jimbo]

Yes some specs on your tank would be helpful. flow rates through the refugium and skimmer and also from the sump the the main tank. How much and how often you feed your tank, but since you didn't complain about the main tank, it's not in there or you have a clean up crew munching it down before it becomes obvious.

I did look in the tank spec's but did not find an entry for you

To calculate actual flow rates you can take a one gallon container and count the number of seconds it takes to fill. Then divide 60 by the number to get gallons per minute, then multiply by 60 to get gallons per hour. For instance if it takes 10 seconds for the container to fill then you are getting 60min/10sec=6 gallons a minute or 6gpmx60minperhour=360gph. If thats to big of a container you can use a 2 cup measuring device, since there are 16 cups in a gallon just multiply the number of seconds by 8 to get gps and apply to the above formula. If you already know this I apologize

~Jimbo

[Casey]

Dave I have noticed that it is very staginate in that area , I have a mag 7 hooked to the sump and 3 ph,s in the tank not a trace of it in the tank, I feed about every 3 days frozen formula one and brine shrimp and reef smorgasboard,all test kit reading are good
and yes it does blow off real easy so Im thinking your right it is cyano I will drop in a powerhead after I scrub it all clean to increase flow is there anything else I can do.

[Big Dave]

That should do the trick! Cyano will 'usually' go away once you get rid of your stagnant areas, as long as there isn't a huge excess of nutrients. Sounds like you are not overfeeding, so you should be ok. I even have a tiny area that it will sometimes collect in my tank, but not very often.

-Big Dave

[Casey]

ok I cleaned it off came off real easy,some of it was coralline growing in my skimmer,thats a little harder to scrape off,and I dropped in a powerhead have good flow in there now so we will see how it does now thanks Dave. Casey