Red/purple/yellow algae

[clancaster23]

Have the 40 gallon running for a while now and I am getting a reddish colored algae on the sand with hair on the right side of the tank and from the middle over to the left is a yellowish color which I think will be turning red as there are already some red spots in it. Along with this, a bunch of it has bubbles. I have three fish in there along with two hermits. Should I just count on water changes to clear this up or should I amp up the cleanup crew with more crabs, snails or maybe a goby? Maybe another type of fish?

Tank is under 252 watts of T5 lighting and I have two Koralia 750's in it. No skimmer yet.

 

[coolhandgoose]

Do you have any pics? Could be either cyano or dinos, or both.

 

[clancaster23]

The yellow that i think will turn to red...

And the red:

The bubbles are on the red parts and some of my rock.

 

[Smitty]

Lets hope it's cyno and not dino's...

 

[coolhandgoose]

It looks like cyano to me.

 

[ErinCahir]

+1 goose. Looks like cyno to me, too.
How much flow do you have?

 

[marcah]

looks like cyano to me too I would also say more flow and maybe nass snails if you dont have any to keep sand stirred...

 

[clancaster23]

I have two Koralia 750's in it. I think that would be enough flow for a 40 gallon, no? I have read the minimum you want is 20 times per hour and these two together do 37.5 so that should be more than enough. I don't have any snails at all and just the two crabs. I didn't want to overstock it with cleanup stuff too soon seeing as how the sand was new and there wasn't a whole lot of algae anywhere to be had for them. Maybe I'll make a trip to the store to pick some up.

 

[marcah]

get alot of nass and dwarf ceriths, I just got a crew from john for my 45..
45 dwarf 18 nass 9 nerite 15 florida cerith.. so you will need quite a few snails in there...:D I found his prices to be good and everything survived the trip..
http://reefcleaners.org/ describe your tank and he will set up the crew for you ..

 

[clancaster23]

The algae appears to have stopped spreading, not I just have a layer of it on about 3/4 of the sand bed. Should I remove or stir it up or something or just let it run it's course? The crabs or snails don't seem interested in it, they just patrol the glass of the tank leaving a white ring around the whole tank.