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fishtender

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 7, 2003
Messages
173
Location
Park Rapids, Minn USA
HI guys, I am new to this forum. Also new to the hobby. YOu will probably see me a lot, please be patient.

My tank (55g) has been up for about 6 months now and this is the second time I have had this problem. It is the best pic I could get of it. Whatever it is makes my LS bed look like a catbox. It covers about 50% of it. I stir it up and it is back to this way in 2 days. The first time i had it it seemed to have gone away on its own with just the usual maintainance.

WHat Is It?

Please help me
Ok nevermind it says the attatchment is to big. I will describe.

I is just on the LS and is redish brown in color. I can get my fingers under it and pick it up but it is easy to fall apart. I doesn't get on my LS but stays on the bottom.
 
Sound like you have a Cyano problem, Red Slime Algea. Can you post a picture of it? What are your water parameters, Phosphates, Alk, Ca, etc? If it is, i have had some success with Red Slime Remover, however, it will kill some of the benificail bacteria in your tank with the Cyano, so i do not recommend using it before you make sure that this what your problem is, even then, someone here may have a better solution.
 
all of the water checks out perfect. I dont have any sunlight hitting the tank. I run 120w flour. I tried to post a pic but it was to many kbs for this forum. I could send it to your email. I have some corals and polyps so I want to be careful with tthe additives. I have also been getting more green algae on the glass lately. I have to clean it every other day to keep it clear. I wonder if the two probs are linked.
 
Its very possible that they are linked. Send me the pic and i will post it for you. EDITed e-mail to keep spam bots from attacking your address.
 
Sounds very much like cyano bacteria. This is usaully the cause of high phosphates in the water. What type of water do you use? I used tap water for top off until mine got an attack of Cyano and hair algae. I have since switched to completley RO water and the problem has remedied itself. IF you can, try not to use additives to get rid of it...Go to the root of the problem and solve it that way.. The more quick fixes we implement in the hobby, the more we detriment other organisms that we desire in our tanks.

Also, how much flow is in the tank? How much do you feed? How often? If you can give us a history of the tank, we can get down to the root of the problem and hopefully help you resolve it...

PS. I used red slime remover by the advice from my LFS, and it did get rid of it for about a week. Then it was back again and I did not use it again. It is nothing more than a quick fix or mask if you will. The phosphates continue to build and it continues to grow...vicious cycle.
 
I Have a complete description of my tank in my profile. There is plentyof movement with 2 powerheads in a 55g. I have one at the top with an airator and the other is half way down on the other end. I use wellwater for my topoffs. It test perfect for PH ,nitrite,nitrate and amonia. I have not tested the phosphate. I will do that tomarrow when I can get a test kit. I live in the back of beyond and things are harder to come by here.
 
it does look like cyano. I have well water, I just recently got an ro unit. I had tanks break with cyano that had zero everything, including phosphates. The only
conclusion I could come up with was that it was feeding off something in the well water, as one of the tanks hadnt had the first thing in it. There are some inverts
that will eat cyano. Some of the hermit crabs, sally lightfoot crabs and certain snails.
 
Well water is usually high in silicates and thus Cyano. One more of the nasties in water that it likes to thrive on. Sponge likes it also..
 
oh yeah, RO units don't get rid of silicates. Only if a DI unit is incorporated, will it get rid of silicates.
 
I have something similar in my tank. It is mostly on the sand close to my live rock. My tank is in the 3rd week of cylcing and I am not running my lights at all as directed by my LFS. Is it even possible for me to have algae without a lighting? I thought they were diatoms (or is red slime alage the same thing).

Currently my readings are:
NH3=0
NO2=0.2
pH=8.2
Specific Gravity=1.023
NO3=not yet analyzed
Water source=treated tap water
 
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