I dont get it! Why?

[christensonjes]

I have battled red slime algae for months now. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate ALL 0. Salinity 1.024 temp 79-81. Calcium around 450. Weekly to biweekly 20% water changes. actnic lighting on for 12 hours. daylight on for 10. Is that too much light. PC lighting. Good water flow. Not good skimmer. Seaclone.

What am I doing wrong?

[HFG]

It is possible to have your water colomn clean but sandbed leaching will still feed the stuff right on it. What does your clean up crew look like?

[madscientist]

I think you need a blenny. I put one in my 5.5 last week and he is crushing the algae. Hair, slime, and the good 'ol green. Check over at petco he was only like $15. Look for either a lawnmower, bicolor, or redlip. They all will eat good. It also helps if you cut down on how much you feed your fish, their bioload makes food for algae.


ps blennies are fun to watch, so you get an added bonus.

[christensonjes]

My clean up crew is pretty weak. maybe 20 snails and no crabs. Mostly Nassarious and astrea. Actually I havent seen a nass snail in my tank for a while. hmm

[oyam123]

Chemi-Clean....and vac it out!
STOP it and then fix the problem.....more flow, better skimmer, less light.
PS: LMB are $10 at Petco this week...SALE

[HFG]

If you even think about food, you should see lots of nas coming out of the sand. Is it possible something happened to kill them off and they are under the sand rotting? Nas are neat but cerith are better. It sounds to me like your sand bed is sponging... but I am not an expert in that type of tank.

[mtfatwork]

Jesse, how old is the sandbed??

[otolith]

All the advice above is great. I would NOT use red slime remover. It works, but it's not taking care of the problem...more flow and a better skimmer come to mind.

Mary--check your email.

[darasy]

if u want to stir it do it but not all at once or everything will die... maybe a once inch square a day or something... since u have a seaclone it pretty much does nothing for skimming besides make pretty bubbles...

my advice... keep doing bi weekly water changes til u get a decent skimmer... and manually remove the red slime by hand as much as u can...and more flow is goot

[TrimixDiver]

I have a sandsifting goby that keeps my sand so stirred up, nothing can grow on it.

[Clownnut]

increase the waterflow. they are not algae, they are bacteria, if u water moving fast enough they cant holdon to the sandbed then u wont see them again.

[epidemic]

**** biofilms!!

[JnS]

what kind of test kits are you testing with?

[christensonjes]

The sand bed is only a few mpnths old. I am using aquarium pharmaceuticals test kits

[madscientist]

I have an Aquarium fish mag with an article about just this problem. It gives a pretty good description of what is happening, and some ideas of how to stop it. PM me when you get some time and I can bring it by.