# Freshwater Coralline Algae Growth??



## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

This is weird, I have been having a very difficult time keeping any invertebrates alive. I have tried everything, and I have now found what I hope to be the variable. 

Between my canister pump and my CO2 reactor I have a red growth forming inside the tube. It looks very much to me like saltwater coralline algae. Any idea what I am dealing with here?!


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

I would think it's more in the mold/mildew/fungus group than algae, especially if it doesn't see much light.


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

I wonder how it started, and if this is my variable/factor. I did shut this system off for several weeks without draining it before starting it again so the system sat stagnant and the only water that was changed was in the tank itself then I kept doing water changes to flush out the deluded stagnant water. Maybe that was when it started growing.


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## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

Sounds more like a biofilm than coralline to me then. Perhaps cyanobacteria?If you can take the hose out, and try scrubbing it with something like a toothbrush, you can see if it's calcareous or not...


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## RyRob (May 30, 2015)

Are you sure it's not a dead/dying green algae of some kind? That's about the color it takes on during that stage when I leave algae on the back glass of my tank and let it do its thing (couldn't tell you what kind of algae though, just judging by my tank conditions)


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

Well on the positive side I think I know why my invertebrates are dying, I have very large brass fittings on either side of my in-line UV that the water passes through. Brass contains copper...


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

*It spread very quickly, I replaced this tube but I now see it starting in other areas BEFORE the UV. I am starting to think it is just some advanced/mature version of brown algae. The weird part is if you look inside the tube it is brown not red, the inside is not red at all!* 










*I also see spots with this black stuff I assume is just another strain of algae?*


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

*Just an update on this bizarre situation, the tube has now dried out and the algae is crumbling off the tube. To my surprise the red color is the tube itself and not the algae...the algae has separated leaving a stained pink tube. Chemical reaction with the tubing material maybe?*


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

*It strikes back! You can clearly see the purple algae on the bottom and the green on the top...so bizarre but I am sure it can't be harmful, if anything helpful?*


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## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

Yeah...that definitely looks like cyanobacteria from my saltwater tanks....is it easily scrubbable off? Or do you need to take a blade to push it off? I've definitely seen red cyanobacteria in a planted tank before, but this is...interesting. As for the inside of the tube being brown and not red: red algae don't absorb that much light, but brown algae does; it could be a byproduct of the inner algae needing to compensate for the lack of light received....


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

*I let it go for a while just to see what happens, it looks more brown than red in person and seems to have really appeared when I introduced the ADA Amazonia. Nerite snails seem to have no problem munching on it thankfully. 

As far as the strength goes, it sticks harder than the green algae pictured...about as stubborn to remove as the lime green dot/spot algae. I can not use a blade to remove it vertically because of my curved bow front. *


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## f Majalis (Jan 6, 2017)

It could possibly be two different problems in one package - an algae forming over a biofilm containing Serratia marcescens (the pink bacteria that grows on damp/wet surfaces in bathrooms and food containers). If it is S. marscescens in the tubes, it would be gram negative, so wiping it out without murdering your nitrogen-oxidizing bacteria might be tough. Plus, it may come back if conditions are right (it's an airborne bacteria). It likes phosphates, fats and stagnant water when growing in bathrooms, and doesn't care about light (I don't know if it likes those conditions in a tank, but you may want to check your phosphates, if you already have the tests). It acts as an opportunistic pathogen for people and other mammals, though it can only infect us if we have a VERY weakened immune system. It may infect your fish if they are already sickly, since I'm seeing a few studies that pop up naming it as a fish pathogen, too. 

Not sure if that's what it is though, but giving you another possibility. Don't freak out and nuke your tank, I'm pretty new to aquaculture, so hopefully an old-timer will chime in and say that it can't be that stuff, or isn't dangerous in an aquarium setting.


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

Oh wow! Thank you so much for your post, its helpful and scary at the same time. These airborne threats have become a growing concern of mine running open top tanks. I've had all kinds of odd situations arise from running open top tanks that have come and go including as of recently an extremely think layer of film on the water surface that took a week or more to get rid of, and it was not biofilm....we think it was something airborne that bloomed. I keep my tanks in a very clean room that has air filtration, but not hospital grade air handling of course. 

In conclusion as of right now its only a cosmetic issue, that I am aware of I have no health problems going on in my tank.


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