Red slime driving me nuts!

[Squidly]

Fellow reefers, Iv been dealing with a mild case of red slime bacteria for about a month now with little success. I have reduced light cycle to 8 hours, cut back on feeding, done heaving skimming, weekly water changes, and have a pack of purigen to drop my phosphates all my parameters are good so I have no idea what else to do. I bought a pack of chemiclean but really don't want to resort to any chemicals for this issue but my patience is running thin. Any help and advice is much appreciated!!

 

[erichm20]

If you have t5s you may be due for a change out. I was battling cyano for a good 3 months and did it all: weekly water changes, siphoned it all off the sand, scrubbed it off the rocks, decreased feeding frequency and amount, decreased photo period, increased flow and ran GFO....

Until finally I read an article that older fluorescent bulbs start emitting more red the older they get and the bacteria thrives w more red wavelength. I changed all four bulbs and after the next WC it never came back.

 

[mr_X]

Chemiclean will wipe it out with no problem at all and not hurt anything else. You will just have to do multiple water changes before you can turn your skimmer back on.

 

[Squidly]

Changing lights is actually a really good idea because I am due for a change they keep going out on me. Also, I may try the chemiclean as well and just do more water changes.

 

[Bray84]

Wish I knew about Chemiclean when I had it as was hard work getting rid as got it from over feeding. Did try new bulbs but that never helped and found that doin weekly wc didn't help much either, people say doin about 50% twice or more a week is more likely to help

 

[melosu58]

We do have a pretty good article about it in our SW articles section.

 

[kreeftank]

Did you test your source water? We had same problem and took same steps. We did not use chemicals.... don't like that idea. We were using tap water. Finally tested tap and found the root of all evils. We switched to rodi water and one week later all clear. We are now two months and no problems. Once you go rodi you won't go back. Anyway lesson learned for us. We are running 90 gallon reef with LED. Good luck.

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Chemiclean will wipe it out with no problem at all and not hurt anything else. You will just have to do multiple water changes before you can turn your skimmer back on.

I just bought chemiclean it says I need to up my oxygen????? Can you tell me exactly what to do to start?????

I figured is turn off my skimmer then add it then wait 48 hours and start doing the water changes is this right?????

 

[mr_X]

I have never done anything,since I have good surface agitation, and had no ill effects.
Yes...2 days and it will be gone.

 

[Bray84]

We do have a pretty good article about it in our SW articles section.

Hi what page is this info on

 

[TheGrapeApe]

I have never done anything,since I have good surface agitation, and had no ill effects.
Yes...2 days and it will be gone.

Ok I have good surface agitation I put it in this morning I turned off my skimmer so in 2 days should I do a 20% water change?

 

[mr_X]

Yep. You'll need to do more than 1 water change to remove the after math .

 

[TheGrapeApe]

Yep. You'll need to do more than 1 water change to remove the after math .

How many do you think and when can I turn my skimmer back on

 

[TheGrapeApe]

How many do you think and when can I turn my skimmer back on

It's been 2 days and I still see the cyanno do I wait on the water change

 

[mr_X]

If you followed the directions exactly, it should be changing. Getting darker....maybe starting to lift up in places. Yes, you can do a water change now if you like.

 

[TheGrapeApe]

If you followed the directions exactly, it should be changing. Getting darker....maybe starting to lift up in places. Yes, you can do a water change now if you like.

Yup I noticed it was a lot lighter and lifting so in your opinion will it be all dead now

 

[mr_X]

It should be gone in another day or two.

 

[TheGrapeApe]

It should be gone in another day or two.

Yup I just got home from work and I noticed its almost gone so when can turn the protein skimmer back on?

 

[mr_X]

It's going to take a few changes before the skimmer will not overflow, but if you can adjust it all the way down and it doesn't overflow, you can run it now.

 

[Bray84]

Do u have to use an air stone?