Help Please! Disease, Red Algae?

My 36 gallon freshwater aquarium (6 years+) is being overtaken by red spots.
It's on the gravel, glass and the stuff is hard.
I googled and none of the images look like what I have.

It it pretty hard to scrape off the glass and first I though it was snail eggs, but it keep multiplying big time as you can see in the images.

I had added some bamboo a few months ago and another plant, so maybe that was related.,

Red slime algae looks different and I am not sure if it is a disease and if there is any type of treatment?

Ammonia is 0, Nitrate is 0

Most of my fish have died

 

This is the strangest thing I have seen yet attached to something in a tank.
We have a new one richiep Feohw

 

O my this is something new and to say you've lost most of your fish says its highly toxic, can you move the other fish

 

It looks like something from a saltwater tank.

 

Super crazy! I did see some accounts (not in fish forums tho) of wet or damp bamboo developing red mold that kind of looks like that.. but who knows if that's what it is or not

 

mimo91088 check this out!

 

mimo91088 check this out!

Oh man. My creative juices are a' flowin'. I'll come up with a possibility!

 

Crazy isn't it?

 

It reminded me of red slime in salty side. It seems if you add "freshwater" to a google search for "red slime algae", that's indeed a thing.

Edit: Or maybe it's not. Most of these articles pertain to saltwater. But my money is still on some form of cyanobacteria.

 

Red/brown algae takes form like this,

 

Isn't brown algae usually soft and easy to remove? The OP said this was hard, and hard to remove.

 

Isn't brown algae usually soft and easy to remove? The OP said this was hard, and hard to remove.

I didn't catch that. The mystery gets deeper. Cyano wouldn't be hard to remove either.

 

The tank is 6 years plus old. Maybe that has a clue?

 

Its crazy and yes I have it too. Mainly in my 33 gallon tank. (thou I do have the occasional spot in my other tanks) Mine thou mainly takes over the tank walls, some on my clay ornaments (can't remove it). The stuff on the walls can get so thick that when you razor blade it off it comes off like seaweed sheets. I totally redid my 33 gallon tank and it took me close to an hour to fully scrap it off, thou I did miss the deep corners will see how fast it regrows.
I have found that is is not toxic in my case, my fish are fine, thou they slowly died of old age thus the tank redo.
I still don't have a name for it, but I call it red spot algae, as it starts as spots and eventually those spots join to make an algae mat that can cover the glass. If you can't beat it join it, at one time I used it as a red background as it grew so thick. Now I wait until the spots are bigger and use a razor blade to scrap them off whole, no muss no fuss. they tend to roll up as they are razored off. Hope we find out what they are.

 

O my this is something new and to say you've lost most of your fish says its highly toxic, can you move the other fish

I did a water change again today and removed most of the gravel. The stuff is on the glass bottom too and it is almost impossible to scrape iff, even with a razor. I have 4 platies left and 1 cory. I am afraid to move the cory because they get stressed easily.

Oh man. My creative juices are a' flowin'. I'll come up with a possibility!

Yes please. I do hope someone can identify it.

 

Yes please. I do hope someone can identify it.

I've found a few other mentions of it via google. But the stuff I've found has been pretty much this thread. Someone asking about it and a bunch of people going "never seen that before". One person did mention lack of nitrates though. And your reading is zero. So that seems relevant.

 

Maybe something to do with "old" tank syndrome?

 

That’s so weird it looks like dried blood
You may have created a new form of algae

 

By chance, I just stumbled across the same (or a similar) algae in another forum. Some clever person there pointed out this one: Hildenbrandia.

 

I found one site that suggests copper could kill it but the dosage would be sufficient that fishes have to be removed first.
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Another site also said there were quite a few benefits of red algae; though too much of a good thing can still be annoying.

 

By chance, I just stumbled across the same (or a similar) algae in another forum. Some clever person there pointed out this one: Hildenbrandia.

Good find

 

By chance, I just stumbled across the same (or a similar) algae in another forum. Some clever person there pointed out this one: Hildenbrandia.

Awesome! You solved it!

 

I know it's not the most reliable source, but Wiki says it can't tolerate salinity and requires hard water. My first thought was that it looked like red coralline algae, and it seems that it's sort of a freshwater equivalent (different species) and prefers still water. If you want to be rid of it maybe a little salt and a little more flow (if you didn't have organisms sensitive to that).

 

By chance, I just stumbled across the same (or a similar) algae in another forum. Some clever person there pointed out this one: Hildenbrandia.

Yes, I think you are correct.

I saw that one today too on a German forum and that's exactly what it looks like.

It is hildenbrandia rivularis, (Rote Krusten Alge)

Supposed to be rare and actually a sign of very good water quality.

I think I will still need to test my water (maybe phosphates and ph?) and see why it affects the fish or maybe its completely unrelated that fish are dying?

 

Could be unrelated. A lot of things kill fishes.

 

Supposed to be rare and actually a sign of very good water quality.

Wow way to make the rest of us feel bad lol

 

Hey again. I am so happy that I could help. And that "informative"-smiley actually looks just like me:


Anyway, I would start looking for other reasons why the fish are dying. That bamboo, that you put in the tank: Did it rot? I heard that it's not a good idea to use bamboo in a tank.