red slime algae

[joeddogg]

My tank has ben up and running for 8 weeks and have red algae on my sand. Is this normal? Is this a stage that the system is going through?

 

[vertex]

I've read in other posts here that this is quite normal after cycling. You should try to vacuum and remove it as it accumulates so it can't take over the tank. The more you get, the bigger the problem and harder to get rid of. I have had similar problems just recently after setup in my 33g, about 2.5 months in now.

I clean it manually every few days, provide LOTS of water circulation, and I added 6 astrea snails and the problem is finally starting to go away. I don't know what other cleanup crew I should add yet, but its finally starting to look like a tank and the coraline is beginning to spread now that the algae is at bay a little more.

Hope that helps.

 

[joeddogg]

THANKS. How did you remove it?

 

[vertex]

A bit of everything, some by a light vacuum (hover over the dsb) during water change and a bit of scrubbing off the LR with filter pad or bristle brush. Lots of glass cleaning too to get it in the water then water change and LOTS of water flow with skimmer running full tilt... I try to stir up the surface of the dsb a lot with water flow so more stuff gets suspended in the water and then filtered or skimmed out. The rocks get covered more with sand because of this, but I just blast them clean with a turkey baster more frequently.

Its almost all gone now, so I've set things back to normal and it looks like it is now finally disappearing on its own with the help of the snails. The glass still gets a lot of green on it evey 4-5 days though right now...

 

[MarkLehr]

I should mention that you need to clean any particulate filter daily while fighting algae outbreaks. The biological action of water flowing thru a filter pad and being exposed to the detritus buildup will produce phosphates & feed your algae bloom.