# Purple Algae



## Aquatic_Fan

Aight i got a huge problem in my tank and its really starting to piss me off......and its the purple algae stuff......there is so much everywhere and i have no clue on to stop it......and if i cant do anything about it im gonna have to scrap the SW tank? my friend was saying probably because im using tap water, but i do everything before i add it to get rid of the chlorine and such. any other ideas to what it might be and iv done a small water change for almost the past week and still nothing. i dont know what to do


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## conger

so you ARE continuing to use tap water? Its not the chlorine in the tap water thats the problem (I mean, obviously you can't put chlorine in your tank, but its got nothing to do with algae), its the excess silicates and phosphates.

There's nothing you can add to tap water to remove phosphates, so if you use that to fill up your tank and to do top-offs, then you are constantly adding more food for the algae. You should definitely use RO water, as it will not add phosphates or silicates to the tank. I made the mistake of filling up my 90gal with tap water at the very beginning, which was around 3 months ago... I've used RO water since for all top-offs and water changes, and algae is slowly going away. I've read that once you get phosphates in your tank, its very hard to get rid of them.

I wouldn't outright "scrap" or redo your tank, unless you haven't put any live rock or inhabitants in the tank yet. Just maybe do a large water change using RO for the new salt water, and use RO for topoffs from here out. Maybe drop a phosphate sponge in there as well to help. It will take some patience, but you can eventually get rid of it.

p.s. other things, such as poor/low water circulation, can also encourage or support algae growth...


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## Aquatic_Fan

aight nice thanks for the info i will go buy some R/O tonight....and maybe a c if i can grab a bigger filter thx




conger said:


> so you ARE continuing to use tap water? Its not the chlorine in the tap water thats the problem (I mean, obviously you can't put chlorine in your tank, but its got nothing to do with algae), its the excess silicates and phosphates.
> 
> There's nothing you can add to tap water to remove phosphates, so if you use that to fill up your tank and to do top-offs, then you are constantly adding more food for the algae. You should definitely use RO water, as it will not add phosphates or silicates to the tank. I made the mistake of filling up my 90gal with tap water at the very beginning, which was around 3 months ago... I've used RO water since for all top-offs and water changes, and algae is slowly going away. I've read that once you get phosphates in your tank, its very hard to get rid of them.
> 
> I wouldn't outright "scrap" or redo your tank, unless you haven't put any live rock or inhabitants in the tank yet. Just maybe do a large water change using RO for the new salt water, and use RO for topoffs from here out. Maybe drop a phosphate sponge in there as well to help. It will take some patience, but you can eventually get rid of it.
> 
> p.s. other things, such as poor/low water circulation, can also encourage or support algae growth...


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## aurawolf

There are phosphate filter media you can purchase to add to your exsisting filter, they do help. But yes the best solution is to get RO water.


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## cp5041

are you sure its not coraline algae


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## MattD

It's not coralline algae, it's a mix of red hair algae and green hair algae.

Use RO water from now on - simple.


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## Aquatic_Fan

Should i purchase phosphate filter for now until i start mixing the RO water??


MattD said:


> It's not coralline algae, it's a mix of red hair algae and green hair algae.
> 
> Use RO water from now on - simple.


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## aurawolf

That is what I did, it helped slow the growth but didn't stop it completely I had to get some turbo snails to clean it up now I have no more brown algea growing so it deffiantly helped in my case, now I only use RO water for top ups and water changes.


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## MattD

Brown algae is diatomic. This is a different type of algae that Aquatic Fan is fighting.

A phosphate remover would help a bit, but I would suggest not waiting any longer for RO water, your crab needs it.

Good luck bro.


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## Aquatic_Fan

ok well.....i just recently got some type of sponge that could help with my phosphates situation.....ill keep and eye on it for abit i stirred my sand around and did a few fixtures inside wit my rock hopefully now more flow and my phosphate levels will stay really low


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