Dark red diatom looking stuff

[fishingredcat]

I'm getting this dark red diatom looking stuff on my sand and starting to appear on live rock. Water conditions are fine. Don't think I'm over feeding. Tank is almost a year old. Only thing new is large decorator crab 2 weeks ago.

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Mike

[RayAllen]

You do not have enought flow going over the sand. I had the same algae on my sand and as soon as I moved my pump lower down so that the sand had a constant flow over it it disappeared.; after doing a water change to suck most of it up. It has not come back since.

[apedroza]

Try a few small water changes. I had a smal outbreak and it all dissapeared after a few WCs

[MissT]

It's probably a small cyanobacteria bloom. Follow the above advice, and if you cant get it under control,you can use ChemiClean or Blue Life Red Slime Control to help you. A lot of the time stepping up the water changes for a while and increasing the flow like the guys said, will get rid of a small outbreak pretty quickly and easily.

[Fish4life]

may also try to skim a little wet, thats always helped me. May want to reduce feed also.

good luck,

kurt

[Ping]

As well as the hints above to deal with high Phosphates, the usually cause of cyno outbreaks. How old are the filters in the R/O system you are using.

Have you double checked the salinity?

[ds1196]

Thanks for the advice! I'm having the same issues right now with my tank. I've never dealt with it before. I'll do a water change and add a powerhead.