red tide!!!

[new2scrub]

red cyano is taking over my sump and algae screen almost overnight! is this normal? will it change to green turf over time? is there anything that can be done? i already had some in my main display ,,just dont want it to smother corals.

[SantaMonica]

Cyano on the screen means you don't have enough flow on the screen. Also probably mean the light is too small for the screen. And since your scrubber is not scrubbing yet, the extra light in the sump is letting cyano grow there. Concentrate on getting good growth on your screen, and the cyano in the sump will go away. It will not spread to the tank. Pics of the scrubber/sump would help.

[new2scrub]

its only on 1/2 of the screen the other half is green/brown but it's all over the sump. i will post pics soon

[new2scrub]

2 days after first cleaning....first time was all green..now this....?....normal?

[SantaMonica]

It's not cyano... it's just dark growth.

The bald spot on your screen is caused by too much light relative to how much iron the algae is getting. The more light that algae gets, the more iron it needs too. CFL bulbs tend to make bald spots because all the light is concentrated in one spot, while the edges of the screen don't get enough light. Aside from switching to T5HO bulbs, here are your options from best to worst:

1. Get more flow. This will deliver more iron to the algae and let it grow again in the bald spot. Your screen needs to be very rough, however, to hold on to the algae in the higher flow.

2. Add iron, such as Kent's Iron+Manganese, per the instructions.

3. If adding iron did not fix it, and you can't add flow, then move the lights farther back. This will spread the light out more evenly across the screen.

4. If you can't move the lights back, then either use smaller bulbs, or reduce the number of hours that the lights are on.

[new2scrub]

my mag 5 can produce up to 500 gph flow will that be to much for my little 7" wide screen? right now it's at about 60-75% open on the valve. I have moved the 43 watt light to the 5" mark ,,,i know you told me to move it back before,,just slipped my mind sorry...i will see how it goes with the light moved unless you want me to open up that valve to 100% anyhow..

o and thanks for all this help by the way ;) maybe one day i can thank you by buying a shiny new SM100 huh?

[SantaMonica]

Yes we can celebrate that way :)