What eats red slime algae?

[Ben Jarrett]

Hi Just wondering what eats red slime aglae in a reef tank, it's starting to grow on some corals?

Thanks.

 

[lando]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com!!!

Are you refering to cynobacteria? If so, there is nothing that will consistantly remove it. I suggest soing a search on this site for cynobacteria for some in-depth answers.

In a nut shell...it thrives based on excess nutrients in the water. Mainly PO4 and NO3. First, test your tank and source water for both of these. Next, manually remove as much of the cyno as you can via siphon and do a water change using good quality pre-mixed RO/DI water. I am not a fan of using additives or chemicals to deal with water quality issues, however, in this case you might consider using a product called Chemi-Clean to help rid the tank of the cyno. Keep in mind, this will only remove the existing cycno and will do nothing to keep it from coming back. You must ID and correct the problem for long-term success.

Consider the following:
-Source water
-water change schedule
-food offered and feeding schedule
-lighting schedule
-age of the bulbs

these can all contribute to the cyno issue.

 

[HN1]

We had a bad cyano outbreak and what really seemed to help rid it was increasing the flow in the tank with an additional powerhead and adding algone. Our source water at the time was also questionable (grocery store RO) and we changed to home made water that tests 0 for NO3 & PO4. From all my research, nothing eats it since it's actually bacterial and not algal.

 

[lando]

increasing flow is also a great idea!

 

[austinsdad]

Describe your tank and the hardware. We may be able to find the culprit.

Welcome to AA.

 

[melosu58]

I agree. Nothing eats it but even if it did it would be a bandaid solution. Find out what`s feeding it and stop the source. We have an excellent article on it in our Articles section.

 

[Ben Jarrett]

Hi, Thanks for the info so far I have moved the water flow today so I will see how it goes in a few days.

My Tank is 600L inwall tank marine tank with 100L sump
- 1 Teco TC10 Chiller/Heater with UV
- 1 AquaWorld WG-520 protein skimmer
- AVK 2000L/h pump
- 2 ProAqu 5000L/h powerheads
- 1 ProAqu 6000L/h powerhead
- Aqua One MG1200 light, 2 x 150W 10,000 Kelvin Metal Halide lamps and 4 x 24W blue PL lamps.


My last test readings are-
Date 3.5.09
Ph 8.4
Ammonia 0
S.G. 1.022
No3 0
KH 9
Ca 420
Po4 0
Temp 25.5

Thanks

 

[austinsdad]

Looks like ya got enuf movement in there. Hopefully the ph movement will help. Po4..... that's the phosphate, right? Zero is good. How often and what are you feeding btw?

 

[Ben Jarrett]

Hi

Yer sorry P04 is Phosphate I have a bag of phospguard in the sump.

I feed them 1 brime shrimp, 1 marine green and 1 marine cube each 1in the morning and 1 at night. thats a total of 6 cubes a day and a little of cyclop-eeze and coral food 2 times a week.

Thanks

I am trying to get a good picture of the hammer head coral for you.

 

[HN1]

You may want to test your source water for PO4 & NO3. It's possible that the algae / bacteria is consuming all in the tank and you can get false readings. Just a thought.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Without knowing how many fish are in the tank I could be off here, but...

Six cubes of food per day in a 600L (about 150 gallons) seems like a lot. Guess it depends on how many fish you have, but if you have enough fish to eat that much then I'd also guess that you're overstocked - which will also lead to water quality issues. The "coral food" on top of it probably doesn't help matters. What exactly is the coral food you're feeding?

Even though your water quality looks good on the tests, the cyano is probably eating up the excess nutrients as fast as they appear in your tank - along the lines of what HN1 mentioned.

 

[Ben Jarrett]

Hey the coral food is just a liquid it is nutra-kol, the cubes are marine dinners and only very small only 1X1x.5cm cubes, I have 1 yellow tang, 1 blue tang, 1 sailfin tang, 4 blue green chromis, 2 clown fish, 1 yellow tailed damsel, 1 pj wrasse and 1 Hawkfish flame. They eat all the food in 1-2 minutes is this all normal?

My salt water replacement is taking straight from the ocean and cleaned put in my holding tanks, and it is 25% changed very 2 week is this normal?

Thanks

 

[CaptainAhab]

My salt water replacement is taking straight from the ocean and cleaned put in my holding tanks, and it is 25% changed very 2 week

Ocean water? From the beach or off shore? How do you clean it?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sounds like the fish are eating all the food, so that shouldn't be an issue. Still seems like a lot of food...

Where are you at? Ocean water from easily accessed areas can be pretty contaminated. You might be able to filter the big stuff out, but getting any nitrates and phosphates out would be difficult in a home environment. I would suspect this is where your issues are coming from.

 

[thincat]

Did I miss something? How old is your setup?
TC

 

[Ben Jarrett]

I am in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I buy it from Paul from Clear Oceans Marines Services, 1000L for $120 delivered, he is very good. I have a storage cointainer in the shed. The water filted, cleaned, clear and it comes from the border between Queensland and New south wales. All the levels from the ocean water are pretty good. What does every one else do for water changes?

The tank is 8 months old.

 

[thincat]

I am in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I buy it from Paul from Clear Oceans Marines Services, 1000L for $120 delivered, he is very good. I have a storage cointainer in the shed. The water filted, cleaned, clear and it comes from the border between Queensland and New south wales. All the levels from the ocean water are pretty good. What does every one else do for water changes?

The tank is 8 months old.

Would he do deliveries to San Jose? ha,ha...It must be getting late. What kinds of coral can you get there?

 

[Ben Jarrett]

Hey, just about every coral as far as I know, but I have only just started. I only have about 15 corals so far but hope to have alot more 1 day.

 

[MistaSparkL]

It took me about 2 months to get rid of my cyano. Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were all zero.
I scooped out the cyano every night, watched my phosphates, reduced my feedings, kept up with my PWC's, and dropped some phoszorb in my canister filter. Weeks went by with no change--phosphate level was lowered, but the cyano kept appearing every day. I then shut off the lights in my tank for about 4 days, cyano disappeared, and hadn't reappeared since. I also had a couple of small patches of hair algae.. those have also disappeared without reoccurence.

 

[Yellow Eye Tang]

I, also changed my lighting times and increased flow with two powerheads that I would occasionally move where the breakouts of cyano were. In about two weeks I did not see any of it again. Good luck my friend!