red algae... not all are bad... anyone else have any in their tanks???

[Magnum Man]

I don't know how to tell the species apart, but when this showed up on this stick 2 years ago, I started freaking out cyno???
this has never turned the water red, not seen TB symptoms in this tank, and currently this is a hard water tank... I have Tiger Teddies breeding in this tank, as well as obviously the yellow shrimp... so I don't think this is a dangerous species, and it's never spread off of this stick, in 2 years... the stick is a maple stick, and the maple gets red color in the wood, that can be seen, when chain sawing it, so it could be caused by a bacteria of some kind???

thoughts???

I asked AI if all red algaes are dangerous...

it is a nice, but to some, a scary color

 

[Magnum Man]

BTW.... this is the only stick of this type, that I have in any tanks currently, but I had several, that i used to put repashi on, to feed that, and those sticks also got the same red algae, and my hillstream's were always munching on those as well

 

[fishorama]

I kind of like the look of BBA (a form of red alga). If only I could control where it might grow. It feels soft in a nice way...but tends to grow everywhere!

 

[Magnum Man]

this is the whole stick pictured again from the open top of the tank... note the red algae is only on the wood, none visible on any plants, substrate, or other fixtures

 

[Gertrudae]

I believe it is a type of cyanobacterium. Freshwater cyanobacteria are usually not dangerous. I have an aquarium that was almost completely covered with cyanobacteria when I returned from hospital. All the fish were fine, and later they reed and even laid their eggs in the blue slime patches when they took over their spawning grounds.

Your red algae are beautiful!

 

[GaryE]

I get a hard red/purple type algae/diatom that starts as a circular splatter and completely covers the back glass in some tanks. I scrape it off the front (it is tougher and harder than most green algaes) and just enjoy it.

It isn't the red algae of concern. Cyanobacter isn't algae - as the name implies, it's bacteria. That's what can be toxic. If we avoid all scientific names, we get pushed to misidentifications. I battle cyano on sight as it is harmful, but a freshwater coralline reddish/diatom algae is no problem, and can be pretty. It tends to tell you you have poor lighting. I get it in poorly lit areas.

The visual/texture/smell difference is the slime - that's cyanobacter.

 

[Magnum Man]

I would say this is not syno, as I've it before and it likes to spread over the substrate in the tank that had it before, this has been here for a couple years, and is confined to the wood, which seems kind of unusual, and actually a benefit... it's kind of like having a red leafed plant... you can see the light intensity, and color, in the ripples of the surface water, and it is far from my most shaded tank...

also note it's sweaded texture in the 1st picture, unless that is a result of the shrimp eating on it???

 

[Magnum Man]

so I'm slightly confused on diatom algae... I was thinking it was often free floating as in green water / red tides.... but perhaps it's just the "diatom" size, and can be free floating or attached to surfaces, or perhaps it reproduces by splitting of plant cells... I'm going to look it up...

 

[Magnum Man]

Ok... I think I have a better grasp now...

so diatom algae is likely the stuff that doesn't scrape off the glass easily, and leaves the hard cloudy residue ( likely silica ) on the glass, after scraping... assuming, but requiring another AI dive, that easier to scrape algae's have cellulose in the place of silica as their building blocks,

next is digest ability silica based diatoms, must take special "equipment" to break through the silica shell to digest, so they are likely less nutritious to fish not equipped to process it, so cellulose based algae's are likely more easily digested by most fish???

back to the original red algae... assume it's cellulose based as it's growing on wood??? and has more texture to it's surface than the slime types of diatom???

 

[Magnum Man]

ok, my head hurts now ( too many scientific papers ) looks like identification of the species is beyond me...there are some red algae's that specifically grow on submerged wood, but most being found in moving water, and this tank only has a sponge filter... and I couldn't find any pictures that looked similar...

because I've seen this red color inside the wood, in the trees, perhaps it's actually a fungus??? like edible mushrooms, not all fungus is bad, so maybe it's actually a non poison fungus, rather than an algae???

 

[GaryE]

Diatoms/red algae as we define it is an algae, but identification takes a specialist. The diversity of things that change that fast is amazing.

You can eliminate the leftover haze on glass with a painter's razor blade. On wood, you're out of luck.

I get it on a lot of rocks. It likes something in my otherwise soft water.

 

[Magnum Man]

I've mentioned before, that I have some really hard algae to scrape, and even a long handled razor blade "sticker" scraper won't remove all the film, at least on the 1st attempt...

perhaps it also has to do with my "rock hard" water, maybe the algae deposits calcium from my water, on the glass where it grows???