Red Algae Won't Stop! Argh!

XeniaGirl · 10-16-2007, 11:26 AM

Good morning,
I haven't been on in a while but I am having serious issues with red "slimy" algae in my 10g nano. I have had my water specs checked (including phosphate) and have stopped feeding mysis shrimp to my clown. I am also adding a small dose of liquid calcium per day. This has been going on for over a month and does not stop.
I use a turkey baster to suck as much out as I can and do weekly 1/3 water changes, but nothing will get it to stop! Suggestions!?!?!

Inhabitants include:
maroon clown
snails
reef hermits
xenia
star polyps
lots of red and green mushrooms
few tube worms
button polyps

Loverotties · 10-16-2007, 11:30 AM

How old is the tank?How old are your bulbs?what type of salt and water do you use?List your water perimiters also.

nano7joy · 10-17-2007, 04:24 AM

what about flow? got enough?

some more suggestions:
1. water changes? less volume/ more frequency vacuum up RSA (RED SLIME ALGAE) during it.

2.filter media What do u use? change more often/ blast the stuff daily with the baster and a temp filter pad/ floss to catch it and clean it out.

The those are a few things that help but the best thing for me is to not miss water changes. Hope things start to clear up for ya soon.

Jon

XeniaGirl · 10-18-2007, 11:14 PM

water perimeters are all normal... bulbs should be fine, just a few months old (if I remember correctly)... tank is about 11 months old.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 8.1ish (we have a buffer we use if it gets past that)
Temp: 79-81 (never let it get to 82 or higher)
Salinity: 1.024 last time I checked (day after the water change)

All the corals and fish look fine and happy, it's just this algae is gross and I hate it!

XeniaGirl · 10-27-2007, 11:28 AM

bumping this back up...
anyone have any suggestions? I am going to try and get rid of some xenia and mushrooms this weekend. I am still doing weekly water changes, topping off every other day and keeping salinity around 1.024-5, and cleaning the tank on a near-daily basis. If I can't figure this out by December I'm going to get rid of the tank.
HELP!!!

ChilisREasy · 10-27-2007, 12:10 PM

ok, calm down.

cyano can be beat, or at least slowed down to a stand still at the least. ok....what have you been feeding ? how much ? skimmer ? lighting does not matter, cyano can live off of nutrients in the water insted of light. how old is this tank ? where did your live rock come from ?

chrisdamage · 10-27-2007, 12:57 PM

I think you can buy this thing that is reef safe to dose your tank with and it kills red-slime.

XeniaGirl · 10-27-2007, 02:48 PM

I'm going to the LFS tomorow so I'll ask about that.
The tank is about 9 months old - I got live rock from my mom's tank and only in the last 2 months have I been having this problem. I was feeding mysis but I now switch between mysis and just frozen brine shrimp, I feed once every 3 days. The only fish I have is a maroon clown.

Sndwave80 · 10-27-2007, 03:12 PM

I have always used Chemiclean and it works every time. Cheapist throgh DR. F/S. Also

Sndwave80 · 10-27-2007, 03:13 PM

Also increased the amount of carbon used.

gwaco · 10-27-2007, 08:15 PM

i know you say you had the phosphates checked , but unfortunatly they are not accurate . if you have cyno , you have phosphates ! if your sandbed is also 9 months old i think i would start with that . its leaching out from somewhere .
also any of the redslime killers will only temporally shut down the bloom , but it may give you time to figure out the problem . in a small tank like yours things build up very quickly .