Red slime HELP!

[sub trate]

I need to get rid of thid red slime in my tank its starting to take over ....Anyone know a reef safe method?

[cath]

Hey Sub Trate-

Sounds like cyanobacteria to me! I've been through that disgusting mess Mine was caused by over feeding, insufficient water movement, and not using purified water. Tell us about your tank....what kinds of critters, corals, etc do you have?

FWIW...most of us have gone through cyno and have healthy and happy tanks now! You're lookin' at one right now

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Cath

-La Dolce Vita

[Alice]

Cath's right, everybody's gone through bouts with cyano. Even healthy, well established tanks can go through small outbreaks as cyano is always in the system. It's when things go a little awry in the system that cyano has a chance to grow to a problem level.

There are some products on the market that claim to get rid of cyano, and most work, for a short time anyway. The problem is, if you don't address the cause, you'll get another outbreak. Also, the chemicals used for killing off the cyano can also kill off other bebeficial things in your tank.

You'd do best by cutting down on feeding, increasing water flow to the substrate or other effected area, hand-removing as much of the stuff as possible while doing water changes and checking all your water parameters. You may even want to keep the lights off for a day or two to help get rid of it.

If you can give us a little more info on tank set-up and inhabitants we might be able to help you tailor a plan of attack.

~Alice



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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[Alice]

Oh, and welcome to The Reef Tank, Sub Strate!


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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[sub trate]

WOW yall really are friendly ! Ok the tank is six months old.....I have a green open brain coral and green zoanthids cabbage leather coral some rarley colored red mushrooms xenia green striped mushroonms two damsels 29 gal.tank 20 lbs live rock 55 watt all glass power compact light 10,000k and a phillips 20watt actenic 03....for water movement i have an aqua-tech 40-60 water filter and an aqua tech power head 120gph i believe ummm i am bad at this part but ill try
ca 450ppm
nitrites 0
nitrates i dont have a test for
ph 8.1
po .03ppm
alk 9dkh
ammonia.05ppm i can never get that down for some reason
A little more about the tank : i do water changes every sat, with 5 gallon water change and i use nothing but ro water and reef crystals ......oh wait i do use ESV b-ionic calcium buffer i thank yall in advance for any help.....by the friedly faces i have already met cath,and Alice i can tell i will be visiting more often thanx again -James

[sub trate]

oh and i forgot 13 assrtd snails,tiger astreia turbo etc. and 8 hermets and two blue damsel fish

[Minnreefer]

Noooooooo don't get a sea clone, trust me, I had one it was a piece of S*** so buy a backpac or equivelant, it is recomended to have 2-6" of sand on the bottom FWIW A good skimmer will really help.
Jonathan

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"If we weren't all crazy we would all go insane" Jimmy Buffett

[tdwyatt]

Hmmmmmm..... Ammonia..... and no nitrate test kit.... but zero nitrites.... Hmmmmm....


I would be either suspect of your test kits (what brand are you using, how old are they, and are they within expiration dates?), or that you have a freshly dead critter of some sort, or that the live rock is not fully cured yet...(or if you're really unlucky, that your room mate thinks that he/she is helping all those poor starving fish and feeds them while you're not there...). There are a few good threads on cyanobacteria here, you might want to search the older threads for information on this blue-green algae (I know, it's red, not blue-green, think "Taxonomy")

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Tom <"{{{{>(
(TDWyatt)
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -Plato

[FishDaddy]

Sub trate,

Second Jonathan's advice on the Sea Clone. A BakPak2R or Remora would be much better. You might also check out the new Prism skimmers by Red Sea. I haven't seen one in action but they've gotten some pretty good reviews for small tanks.
The Skimmer will do wonders for your tank. Not only will it export wastes but if you drip Kalkwasser for top-off water, the Kalk will help bind the Phosphate for export via the skimmer.
Cyano and other algae problems are usually associated with too much organic matter from feeding or Organic Phosphates from source water.
The Aqua Tech mechanical filter will trap the organic wastes and will produce excess Nitrates if the filter isn't cleaned often, like every 2 or three days!
The Ammonia is a big concern. I would check your water with a different test kit or have a trusted LFS test it for you. If you are getting true Ammonia readings at 6 months, something is wrong!!!
With a good skimmer and another 10+ lbs. live rock, you won't have need for any supplemental filtration.
HTH,
Dick

[Doug1]

A couple points to touch on here.
Cyano will always be present in your tank, it is a very important part of the food chain and is only a problem when conditions allow it to get out of control, i.e. excessive nutrient levels in an unskimmed tank. A6 month old tank that stocked like that and unskimmed is probably still struggling for equalibrium. I agreee with Jon that the seaclone isn't the best choice for a skimmer, at the very least the CPR BakPAk is tried and true for this size tank.
You might want to have your ammonia level verified, I suspect the accuracy of the test.
By all means get and use a nitrate test kit, but don't be surprised if it reads really low
what happens is the nitrogen compounds and phosphates are bound up in the plant cells so that they flourish while you get deceptivly low readings.
Does youtr RO also have a DI stage? If not you may want to consider adding a "Tap Water Purifier" de ionizing cartridge after the RO to pick off the stuff that will get through an RO membrane. Also its a good idea to run a test on your filtered water and your newly made SW after ariating 24 hr. Fresh salt can be somewhat harsh on organisms and benefits from some aging. Instant Ocean (and Reef crystals, same mfgr) do have slight ammonia levels when freshly mixed, as will most synth sea salts. Just a thought, since you are using B-Ionic to maintain calc and alk, why pay more for reef crystals? FWIW once you get calc and alk levels where you want, dripping kalkwasser will maintain them with less of the spendy 2 part, and the calcium hydroxide(kalk) will bind phosphates, a good thing HTH

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I dont advocate holding marine creatures for ransom but......since you asked
Doug, plank owner

[sub trate]

Guys i dont know how to thank you for all this valuble info.... It is very appreciated thankx a million -James

[Minnreefer]

I may have missed it, do you have a skimmer and if so what kind and how deep is your sand bed?
Welcome
Jonathan


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"If we weren't all crazy we would all go insane" Jimmy Buffett

[sub trate]

nope no skimmer but next couple of weeks i am gonna go ahead and get a sea clone and the sand bed is a inch and a half deep thanks again yall