red slime algae

[USCavalry19d]

hey i'm just curious if anyone could tell me whats going on with my reef tank. For some reason i have this uncontrollable red slime algae problem with the tank. About once a week i have to clean this nasty stuff out of the tank and within 2 or 3 days its right back in there. i use RO water and here are my water parameters:

PH - 8.4, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 10

 

[skippy2]

How old is your tank? Cynao (red slime algae) is caused from low water flow. Rearrange your powerheads so there is more flow where the cynao is most prevalent. It is also caused by overfeeding.
If your tank is fairly new, cynao is pretty normal. You could syphon it out with your regular water changes. It tends to disappear after lights out but will be back after a few hrs. with lights on.
More flow to the area, cut back on feeding. You could also leave your lights off for a day or 2 to see if that helps. Even with corals that should be alright.

You also need to get your trAte down. That can be accomplished with consistent water changes.

 

[Blinky]

Rigerous maintenance and time should take care of it, and a refugium full of macroalgae will really help if you can manage to set one up. Increasing flow can help, but reducing nutrients any way you can is key IMHO. Cyano can fix atmospheric nitrogen, so reducing nitrates to zero alone won't take care of it - you need to get phosphates down as well. I found using Chaeto in my fuge took care of the recent cyano bloom (it's a new tank, everything's seven or eight months old but after four I broke things down and moved tanks, so it's only been stable for about four months). The algae uses up nutrients, keeping N and P close to zero and effectively starving the cyano.

 

[USCavalry19d]

My tank has been set up for about 1 1/2 years now and just recently i have been seeing all this red slime algae. i have 4 large powerheads in the tank as well. they are all hooked up to my wavemaker. i do have a refugium set up, however, i dont have any macroalgae in it. i do have 2 red mangroves, some hair algae and a few corals also i have about a 3-4 inch deep sand bed in there.

 

[Fishieness]

hair algae and cyano: here is my hypothesis
cyano bacteria was one of the first living prokaryotes on earth. they thrive in areas high in organic waste (caused by over feeding mainly) and also light (from having a long photoperiode). some other ways that they grow in our tanks is if your tank is in the sun or if your bulbs are old. have you repalced yoru pbulbs in the past year? old bulbs cause cause cyano outbursts.
and just because yoru levels are fine, doesnt mean that you dont have a lot of waaste in your tank and have a high nutrient system. the proof of this is that you ahve hair algae which needs a lot of nutrients. all your levels are saying is that there are pleanty of things in your tank such as cyano and hair algae absorbing the nutrients.