Weird Red Algae

I would change you light cycle for two weeks or so. One day on two days off worked best for me...

 

I agree with the Asparagopsis id. Red turf algae. The pic in this article is very similar to yours. Beyond the Refugium: A Macroalgae Primer by Sarah Lardizabal - Reefkeeping.com

 

Good call. It DOES look like red turf algae.

 

I found a long and involved thread about dealing with "red turf algae" and many people including reefing expert Eric Bourneman were resorting to taking the rock out and using a blow torch on it!

red algae taking over!

 

dental pick before blow torch. scraping all the algae off a rock doesn't take that long if you don't get frustrated and methodically kill that *#$^$*#^

 

Blow Torch not a good idea

I blow-torched some rock I had in a 5G bucket (running heat and flow), and rinsed it off before putting it back in the 5G. I really had to torch one small spot for 30 seconds before it completely burned off. You are not going to just swipe the torch from side to side and see the algae vanish. The next day there was a huge ammonia spike in the bucket. I did NOT torch anything in my tank.



I did use one of these drill attachments and it worked well to get most of the algae off the rock. Trying to scrub it off with a hand brush is a waste of time. Its like trying to scrub pavement off a road with a sponge. Urchins are pretty much the only way to control what I have.