Red slime and brown algae battle

[MrWrasse]

Hey reefers

I've been in the endless battle and have yet to win. My setup is about a year old. Here's the specs:

75 gal reef
14 gal sump
14 gal fuge with sand,lr, and calupra (40 watts 50/50 lighting)
I have 4 powerheads 2 on each side alternating at 15 min inervals per side
I have a rio 2600 providing return from the sump at about 3ft head giving approx 300 gal for return. Return nozzle is a 360 deg rotating nozzle
480 watts of CFL 1/2 10k and 1/2 Atinic atinic on for 12hrs 10k on for 8hrs
100 lbs LR and 2in SB
Prizm Skimmer

Stocking:
8 soft corals
2 anemones
2 hard corals
3 green chromis
1 gold striped maroon
1 lawn mower blenny<-----added 2 days ago
approx 100 small nassurius snails
1 Coral banded shrimp
2 brittle stars
7 hermits in the sump

Thats the battle ground and troops. Now for the tactics
The tank has been plagued with brown algae and red slime for 6 months now. I had been using tap for a majority of the time until mid Dec. Santa brought me a Maxima Hi-S RO/DI unit. I did a 50% water change with RO/DI water. I've been removing as much algae as I can, but it still seems to grow. It seems to be impossible to get all the algae out at once, but I get as much as I see. I feed once every other day. I ensure that all food is consumed. My nitrates are below 10. po4/silicate aren't a factor now that I use the RO water. I bought some erythromican, and plan on using it to help rid the existing red slime. I'm not sure if this should be the next step. I'm also using oceanic salt if that helps. Any ideas would be great.

My thoughts as solutions thus far are:

#1. Kill off the red slime with the antibiotic and see if it stays away.
#2. Cut back lighting.
#3. Change my rio 2600 to the 2800 s.s which I have, but is loud and annoying
#4. Sell the tank because this is gettin to darn old.

Thanks for reading this and for any help you can give.

 

[cmor1701d]

I would start with less lighting and some more water changes with RO/DI water. During the water changes, are you sucking out the red slime (cyano) with some tubing?

 

[c0mf0rt]

Two things... you might want to swap the culpera for chaeto algae... much safer as far as nutrients.... and do you have any other water movement in the tank outside of the 2800 ??? You probably need more.

 

[RMPD109]

Although PO4 may not be a problem with the new water there still may be some left in the system from before the xmas gift. Check the PO4 levels and another water change may be needed. I have heard chemiclean will clear cyano up quickly but unless you find the cause it will come back. Hopefully a combo of the change and chemi clean will stop your problem.HTH

 

[lando]

Do not dismiss PO4 simpley because you are using RO water. Have you accually tested for it? Test your source water and tank water for PO4 to see what the levels are. Foods (particularlly froozen) can also introduce PO4 into the system. You have two goals here...1). to find and correct the underlying cause of the cyno and 2). to eliminate what you have in your tank currently. I am not an advocate for adding chemicles to the tank, with one exception...Try Chemi-clean by Boyd Enterprises, INC. It will take care of the cyno in your tank in just a few days. It is reef safe. Bare in mind, this is only a band-aid, you still need to descover and eliminate the underlying cause or it will just keep coming back...Lando

 

[dustybrannum]

here is a picture of my Cyano(red/purple) and diatoms(rust/brown)

 

[aquafreak]

Perhaps a more varied clean up crew? I've got maybe 35 snails and I need 'more' yet.

RO/DI water seems to only delay the presence of such algae in my aquarium so I have to brush it almost 3x weekly (approx).

Plus, increasing the waterflow may help but I really don't know.

The advice above is good

I'm still a beginner in all respects but it looked like coraline in the picture but I don't know for certain. I have it on most of my rocks -- purple, green, red...

Maybe you could treat the water such that it is conducive to making the 'good' algae grow and the bad not grow based upon water flow, animals and suppliments.

I think that if worse came to worse and it was a bad rock or area, I would remove the rock and use it in my sump or something and try to nurse the tank for a while.

 

[dustybrannum]

Coralline in an encrusting algae. This is slimy and is from that Halimeda(spelling) dying after my bout with high pH. The diatoms i have always had since last October. They only show during the day.
My readings are as follows:
pH: 8.3
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
NH3: 0
Ca: 270
Alk: 2.3
PO4: 0
KH: 6.7