What to do about Red (Slime) Alage?

[TheChad]

Hey all,

My tank is now about 14 months old. I allowed my back wall of the tank to be covered in red/brown algae because i didn't figure it was doing any harm, and it blocked the back wall from seeing the hoses/cords behind the tank.

Recently I was tying to figure out why I didn't really have any coralline algae growing, and found that there IS coralline under the red algae on my rocks.

This made me think, Is the red algae stopping the coralline from growing? It must be, because the minute a snail clears a path of red algae, it grows back in full force.

So I have completely cleared my tank walls of the red algae, but what can I do about it on the rocks? It just keeps growing.

I tested the phosphates, and it shows 0, the LFS said that is normal because the slime algae is absorbing it all. I bought a Filter pad that has Phosphate absorbers (Rocks?) in the pad, and placed it in my Canister filter.

The LFS said by using the phosphate pad, it will starve the slime algae. How long does this process take?

I have a feeling if I could get this stuff to stop growing all over my LR, the coralline would bloom pretty fast.

Thanks for the help.

-TheChad

 

[Hara]

if you do a search for the word "cyano", and cruise the article section..you will find enough to keep you busy for a LONG time.

 

[melosu58]

I agree. Check out the article section on cyano and you`ll find out what to do. My main suggestion is after you get it off where you want to then put some current in that area and usually it wont return. Read the articles

 

[TheChad]

All my current is aimed at the top of the water.

Do you suggest those Power head's that rotate?

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[melosu58]

You only have one PH? You might need another and have it pointing at your rocks and glass

 

[TheChad]

You only have one PH? You might need another and have it pointing at your rocks and glass

No, I have on 660 PH, a Canister Filter, and a Sump.

Both the Canister Filter, and Sump are like PH's.

All 3 of them are aimed at the surface so my surface water across the tank is all ripple, no dead spots.

-TheChad

 

[melosu58]

You really dont need all three on the surface. Take one and point it at your rocks after you get them cleaned off and all that flow should keep it off your rocks.

 

[Jme]

i used a product called "Chemi-clean" to get rid of red cyano, it worked really well at killing off the existing cyano. However it does not change the conditions that allowed it to prosper in the first place. It is nice to see it all flake off however, and you can do the water changes to help prevent it from coming back.

 

[melosu58]

I have heard of other people using this and having good results but the only problem is that it always comes back. We need to find out the fuel and move to eradicate it immediately.

 

[brad3314]

like melosu58 mentioned you definatly need some flow happening over your rocks it won't give the algae a chance to settle so i'd be doing that first then see how you go.

I also agree that you need to find the problem and fix it naturally before going and adding things to your tank because if you don't fix the problem then it will surely come back.

 

[TheChad]

I am starting to think the problem may be my salt... I am using IO.

My API Phosphate test shows 0, So I don't know what exactly to make of that.

But for every patch a snail clears, it grows back 10 fold.

I don't know what else could be the source of this, I am using RO/DI water.

-TheChad