Red slime algae and bubbles?

[i-see-you]

So currently have red slime algae working on taking over. I saw someone recommend a tin foil method and blocking out all light for a couple of days.. How would the coral and fish react with this? Is there an active cleanup crew member that could be added to help with this?

I've determined I am overfeeding, just got rods frozen fish food.. Trying to figure how much is the right amount. Then I also do pellets for my clowns.

All my levels show they are good. No high nitrates which I thought red slime algae thrived off?

29 gallon
Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Calcium 450ish
1.023 gravity

Just did a 5% water change.

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[54seaweed]

have you checked phosphate if it also reads 0ppm you are getting a false reading
black out will help yes corals will be ok a few days how you think they manage in nature when it storms for a week ,
method#1:

larger water changes will help 50% the next day 25% next day 50%

method#2:

if the rocks affected can be easily removed you can use tank water in a bucket put rock in pail scrub with a tooth brush ,

method#3:

black out tank for 5 days

method#4:

I've also heard of a peroxide bath the only thing with this it kills off everything even the good bb on the rock even any critters living in rock ,

methods 1 and 2 would be my choice of removal

all these methods work just depends on how you want to approach it,

Cyano Bacteria

 

[i-see-you]

Phosphate is actually reading about .25 roughly.. I retested my Nitrate and I'm getting 5ppm.

I'm thinking I'll start with a blackout and see how that goes. From there hit it with a water change.

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[54seaweed]

when doing water change try to suck out as much as you can .

 

[i-see-you]

It doesn't seem to come off the rock very easily when I use airline tubing.. I read that it should come right off. Could I be mistaking it with coraline?

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[54seaweed]

if it's soft and slimy it's red slim,
if its hard to the touch it could be coraline

 

[i-see-you]

I'll give it a feel tomorrow.. Need to get my temperamental clown in her corner too...

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[Gregcoyote]

Low flow areas allow Cyanobacteria to settle and form. Remember this is a bacterial infection, not a algae. It may be settling in areas where there is die off. So a blackout (or antibiotic cures) will only solve the problem short term. Flow and reducing the organics the bacteria thrives on is necessary for a long term fix. Using something like a GFO will starve out the phosphates this stuff loves.


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[i-see-you]

Low flow areas allow Cyanobacteria to settle and form. Remember this is a bacterial infection, not a algae. It may be settling in areas where there is die off. So a blackout (or antibiotic cures) will only solve the problem short term. Flow and reducing the organics the bacteria thrives on is necessary for a long term fix. Using something like a GFO will starve out the phosphates this stuff loves.


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As of today I actually started looking into a GFO reactor to have something active. I am currently running Chemipure ELITE in my filter sock, figured that was the best place for my sump/refugium setup. But am just now realizing I need to run the chemipure after my refugium because its probably stealing a lot of my macro algae's food..

Any how, I was thinking a cheap reactor running phosgaurd and then just have the added chemipure elite to be safe. The bag I have currently is pretty much new, I put it in less than a month ago and this bag is rated for 200 gallons.

EDIT::
Also, per the flow statement. It seems my flow is very active and good. Anything that floats around comes down to the substrate and continues, never stays and idles. However, the red slime is happening in one of my areas where there is a higher amount of flow, which I found odd. I am running two Jebao WP-10 on opposing sides of the tank. One higher then the other, the higher one is making the wave motion whereas the lower one is a constant current. I would set it to random but if I do that it puts way to much stress onto my pulsating xenia's and my clove polyps.

 

[i-see-you]

Or what I feel is too much stress... The xenia's are a little frag. Once they are hit with the power of the WP-10 they get blown in every direction.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Then the cyano may be attacking a area where there are organics as the result of something dying back. Usually high flow doesn't allow it to accumulate unless there is something it's growing on. A phosphate binder is a good idea.


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[i-see-you]

Then the cyano may be attacking a area where there are organics as the result of something dying back. Usually high flow doesn't allow it to accumulate unless there is something it's growing on. A phosphate binder is a good idea.


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I have determined I am overfeeding. I am feeding rods frozen food also, just haven't found that sweet point of how much is enough but not too little. I leave the circulation pumps off for 10mins and the return pump off for usually about 30mins to an hour to make sure everyone gets fed.

 

[i-see-you]

Definitely red slime. Came home today to it being 10x worse then this morning. I had thought it was actually going away this morning... Nope. I adjusted my powerheads to get more water movement around my rock and kill as many low flow places I could. On top of that while getting my chemipure elite out it ruptured and I got a brown fog... Meh.

Threw in the purigen as a last minute savior. Waiting for my reactor to come in... Time to start the back out. After a water change tonight that is...

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[Gregcoyote]

Excess food can get trapped in pores in the rock work. As it deteriorates it provides localized nourishment to the Cyanobacteria. More crabs to pick that stuff out and feeding less should make a big difference. You could also use a baster to blow the debris out of the rocks.


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[i-see-you]

Just did another 5% change.. Commence day 1 of blackout.

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[melosu58]

when doing water change try to suck out as much as you can .

This is very important. Siphon out as much as possible. I personally after that would just cut off your lights, feed lightly every 2 or three days and increase flow to that area.

 

[PB_Smith]

As of today I actually started looking into a GFO reactor to have something active. I am currently running Chemipure ELITE in my filter sock, figured that was the best place for my sump/refugium setup. But am just now realizing I need to run the chemipure after my refugium because its probably stealing a lot of my macro algae's food..

No, you had it in the right place.
You want to have any chemical filtration before the biological filtration so it removes as much organics from the water as possible before it is broken down into ammonia-nitrite-nitrate. Putting it at the end of the run is counter-productive IMO.

after rearranging my set-up so the water goes protein skimmer first, then the effluent from the skimmer goes through carbon/phosguard and purigen in reactors and then to a sump full of matrix and rubble rock, then on to the algae refugium, then to the return pump, I have noticed a considerable improvement.
I'm still fighting a bit of green cyano now and then directly under my lights, but nothing major and I know it's because I feed heavy, so.....

When I checked last week, phosphate was essentially undetectable on the API test (yeah, I know, it's a useless test) and nitrate was below 5ppm.
before reconfiguring it, I struggled to keep nitrates below 20 ppm.

also are you running a protein skimmer? they make an enormous difference because it is the only method that actually removes junk completely from the water circulation rather than just "holding" it somewhere until you clean it.

 

[i-see-you]

No, you had it in the right place.
You want to have any chemical filtration before the biological filtration so it removes as much organics from the water as possible before it is broken down into ammonia-nitrite-nitrate. Putting it at the end of the run is counter-productive IMO.

after rearranging my set-up so the water goes protein skimmer first, then the effluent from the skimmer goes through carbon/phosguard and purigen in reactors and then to a sump full of matrix and rubble rock, then on to the algae refugium, then to the return pump, I have noticed a considerable improvement.
I'm still fighting a bit of green cyano now and then directly under my lights, but nothing major and I know it's because I feed heavy, so.....

When I checked last week, phosphate was essentially undetectable on the API test (yeah, I know, it's a useless test) and nitrate was below 5ppm.
before reconfiguring it, I struggled to keep nitrates below 20 ppm.

also are you running a protein skimmer? they make an enormous difference because it is the only method that actually removes junk completely from the water circulation rather than just "holding" it somewhere until you clean it.

I am waiting on new chemipure to come in since there was a rupture in my bag after moving it. But I will put this one back with the filter sock. My sump is a little guy so its hard for me to cram thing in there. I run through a filter sock, then into my refugium where I have my protein skimmer right up front, then it hits chaeto and grape algae and live rock/sand, from there goes thru another mechanical filter into my return section where I currently have a purigen pouch and my float switch for my ato. When I get my reactor it will pull water from the refugium then drain right into the return section.

I figured it was good having the chemicals at the end because you want your algae to catch a lot, no? Then whatever is left over and makes it way through gets caught in the chemicals.

 

[i-see-you]

Two days of blackout completely removed all red algae. I just made adjustments to my light schedule as well. Is there anyone else running the hydrogalaxy wifi light that I can compare settings with??

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[Mr tap water]

Blacking out the tank for two days will not solve the problem in long-term it may reduce it but will come back with a vengeance , until you deal with the problem that is causing it in the first place try cutting back on your feeding increase water changes and increase your flow in your tank and it also looks like you need to use a phos remover as well in between all this just keep siphoning off ,by doing all this you should see a change within a few weeks.


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