Red Slim Algae

[Partsman41953]

I have a similar problem but different problem with red slime algae in my reef tank. I have a 30 gallon tank with 2 clown fish, a yellow wrasse and now a black molly with live rock, Xenia, and a tree leather coral. My lighting system consists of a 24" Nova Extreme, which uses 2 10,000k white lights and 2 460 nm actinic lights. I thought that light might be the problem so I had a 2 bulb Coralife strip which I have on the tank as well.

My problem is that I was purchasing my water from a local fish store and had a problem with green hair algae. I purchased a good cleanup crew and the problem go better but no cured. I then decided to purchase my water through a local store through an RO Glacier water machine and mix the salt myself and the green algae problem is more under control but I then got the bloom of the red slime algae. I have been doing more frequent water changes to no avail. I decided to go back to my local fish store to purchase water their but I am still mixing the salt (Instant Ocean) myself. I am doing water changes twice a week and the red slime is still there. I noticed this morning when I woke up that the red slime is not as bad on the sand when the lights are off. My lights are around 8 months old.

I also just put a Purigen nitrate filter in my Filstar filter in case it was a nitrate problem.

I was thinking about leaving the lights off but I do not want to harm my coral in the tank.

What other steps should I try before this problem gets out of hand any further?

Thanks

Glenn:wall:

 

[Conski]

.... you might have dino man, especially when you say its not as bad with the lights off.

 

[ToeJam]

Red Slime Killer!

Two ways to go about this:

Lets go over your water sources. Have you tested them for Nitrates and Phosphates to make sure they don't contain them?

Now onto Cyano and what makes it thrive.
Lighting, Nitrates (food), And Phosphate (steroids aka miracle grow).

The root problem is something you have to isolate. IT can be water source being bad, not enough flow causing detritus to settle on the sand vs staying stirred so the skimmer pulls it, over feeding, and poor maintenance schedule.
This could be all or some of these examples here.

Non Nuke way:
1. Siphon out the water and cyano doing a big water change.
2. Evaluate root causes by example above and correct it.
a. water source bad? change it....
b. feeding and food still visible 5 min later (you are over doing it) ?
c. seeing sheets on the sand? detritus built up on sand so you should siphon off a very thin layer of the sand on the water change.

This is not immediate...you have to keep siphoning out the cyano and keep your phosphates and nitrates down for bit. As time goes on with good parameters itll starve out and stop growing.

Nuke way: (and I've used it in a full blow reef tank many times.

1. Do a very large water change like above steps with siphoning of all cyano.
2. Now use Chemiclean product
3. instead of 20% change on directions do a 30% or greater
4. Celebrate cause in 48 hours it'll be gone.


Most important part of my tips: Find out the ROOT of the problem. It will only come back. The root cause can be many things that I listed.

FLow is important if you lack it. The water having not enough stirring can have areas where detritus will settle. Eventually it builds up enough and breaks down providing a "fuel" to the cyano to just go crazy on.

Water source: Stripped of phosphate..something people seem to over look. Nitrates we tunnel vision on and many folks seem to just ignore phosphate.
YOu want phosphate at unreadable. This is like miracle grow....the cyano will boost in growth cause of it.

Lighting : Its not normally the root cause but can help it along. Lighting bulbs can lose their type of light they give off..and hit the sweet spot that encourage cyano growth. Ive read about it...but myself and local reefers I talk with agree that it's hardly the root of the cause. Long photo periods or bad bulbs dont help much.

Feeding: Some folks feel the need to feed morning and evening...but you increase the pollution in the tank. Some tanks can't handle that feeding depending on your nutrients exporting ability, this can be too much. Increasing phosphate and nitrates in the tank..

Aquascape of detritus trap: Some folks may have a lot of flow restrictions by the rock placement...packing them like a wall ...though nice to have corals all over this wall....it is advised to build caves and arches to have areas of flow to pass through. Some may go as far as placing a power head dedicated to blowing behind the rock wall. Something to consider..not root cause but can play a part.

So...sit back...evaluate your routines and things I gave for food for thought. I am sure you can narrow down the root problem.

With the clean up methods and tips....and eliminating the root of the cause. You can knock this problem out and prevent it.

Example of a good parameters tank. I saved a coral that had cyano all over it from someone locally. I didn't care I just put that sucker right into my tank... it was matter of hours where I saw the cyano just melt away...within 48 hours the coral was looking better and no cyano to be found ....

Equipment tips:
Hydor Korilia power heads are pretty good. Small foot print and good flow. Consider getting them if you are in need of flow.

twolittlefishies brand Phosban reactor. Great device and cheap. You can fill that thing half way full with Phosban ...keeping your phosphate in check for months. My favorite device on the tank. Since owning one I have been nightmare free from cyano and algae.

 

[ToeJam]

.... you might have dino man, especially when you say its not as bad with the lights off.

So true...you dont want to mis identify cyano and dino.... the chemiclean wont nuke it....you use chemi clean and the steps I gave...and it still is there...its a sure sign it isn't cyano.


http://www.chucksaddiction.com/

GO there ...click INFO LINKS on left... then click HITCHHICKERS on left.
GO down the page to algae and click the image to go to the info section.
Take a close look at cyano there.

The good news is Conski has a link is his thread directly to a article about Dinos and how to deal with it. It is very similar to cyano but the twist is you cant nuke it.

Addition to clean up with dino...there is buffing your PH to stay high at 8.4 a lot...using carbon to remove toxins...and using the phosban ( a lot of it) to push phosphates at unreadable.

You should evaluate if its Dino or Cyano first.... the cyano clean up I gave you will work on Dino but you do need to do a little more so check Conski's thread out.

@ CONSKI..... I forgot where it was can you provide that reefkeeping article link here???

NVM found it: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php