Major red slime outbreak

[jrodgers5280]

I have a 55 gallon that has a major red slime algae outbreak that I have been fighting for a few weeks now. We tried keeping the lights off for a week and it came back. I started the tank with tap water(rookie mistake, I know now) and have done water changes of 30 gallons of ro water so far. I haven't seen any improvement with this either. I only have 2 damsels in the tank now cause I'm scared to put anything else in. Has anyone had a similar problem and if so how did you fix it? Thanks in advance, Jeff from the mile high city.

 

[Henry405]

What type of CUC do you have?

 

[BallinCrew10]

CUC won't help as nothing will eat it. I used this red slime remover and it worked great. I also didn't have enough flow in my tank this could be your problem as well. Also, excess nutrients, how much are you feeding/ how often. Continue your water changes as well.

This particular red slime remover will lower your oxygen level in the tank. So if you use it be sure you have good surface agitation for gas exchange.

 

[joy13]

What kind of water flow do you have? I have found the higher flow helped take care of the cyanobacteria I had in my tank. What type of filter system are you using? If you can put some ploy filter material to catch it as it passes through and changing it often will help as well.

 

[jrodgers5280]

Thanks for the advice. I was using a powerhead I inherited from a previous owner. Not exactly sure what kind it was but has 1140 stamped on the top of it. On Wednesday I got a hydor koralia 750 gph circulation pump. As for a filter I just have a 10 gallon sump with bio balls and 5 lbs of lr. Cuc I just have 3 nasorous snails (probable not spelling that right) and 3 medium hermit crabs. I plan on getting a protein skimmer in the near future. is this enough to keep the tank healthy?

 

[joy13]

The bio balls may be holding in a lot of the cyano and causing to to get a stronger foot hold in your tank. To keep the good bacteria on your bio balls rinse them well in your water that you got out for your PWC.

I don't know if you have a sock for your sump or not to catch the gunk that you blow off your rocks. If you do change it after blowing off the rocks. An easy way of blowing the rocks off is either with a turkey baster or a power head. It will make one heck of a mess when you do it right.

 

[nhart608]

I've got a small cyano problem, have been scraping it off the rocks with a toothbrush while holding airline tubing as a siphon. It doesn't seem to come back to the places I remove it, but the crushed coral substrate now has hairs of it flowing up from it, and curiously, it's in the highest water movement area of the tank. The opposite back corner which has the lowest flow has NO CYANO. I don't get it.

 

[David S]

When I had an outbreak of it,it was growing on the rock about 1" from the powerhead,Its not always due to flow,check all your water tests,phosphate,trates.keep lights off,if 1 week wasn't enough then leave off for 2.Get the bio balls out and clean them and the sump you have them in,keep doing minimum of 15% pwc each week,post your test results.I would also consider getting rid of the cc or at least vacuumimg it.

 

[nhart608]

Hi David, thanks for your reply. I went out and bought a phosphate test kit tonight and it tested somewhere between 0.0 - 0.25. My nitrates have been stable at 5.0 for a few weeks, 0.0 ammonia. I have some zoas and an acan and a rhodactis shroom in there so turning off the lights isn't really an option. I'll be doing my 2 gallon (out of 10, 9 really with rock and substrate) tomorrow and will scrub and siphon as much as I can again. I only have 2 hermits and only feed my three head acan every other night, one mysis shrimp per head, so I don't have excess food going on. And since my cc bed is only 1" deep, I stir it a little while vacuuming.

Just have to keep at it I guess. Just would like to have it under control before I put a fish in there.

 

[David S]

Hi David, thanks for your reply. I went out and bought a phosphate test kit tonight and it tested somewhere between 0.0 - 0.25. My nitrates have been stable at 5.0 for a few weeks, 0.0 ammonia. I have some zoas and an acan and a rhodactis shroom in there so turning off the lights isn't really an option. I'll be doing my 2 gallon (out of 10, 9 really with rock and substrate) tomorrow and will scrub and siphon as much as I can again. I only have 2 hermits and only feed my three head acan every other night, one mysis shrimp per head, so I don't have excess food going on. And since my cc bed is only 1" deep, I stir it a little while vacuuming.

Just have to keep at it I guess. Just would like to have it under control before I put a fish in there.

just keep doing this,it will go.
Just remember stirring and vacuumming cc can cause a spike which is why a lot of people replace it with sand.

 

[nhart608]

Well, I did my water change this morning, siphoned up as much of the red stuff off the substrate as I could, which is not easy since it's on cc. Still some some hairs of it floating on it, but best I could do. Also scrubbed the LR that had small amounts on it and siphoned as I scrubbed. Also stirred up the cc substrate as I siphoned, it's only 1" deep so I'm not too worried up dredging up anything too toxic.

Tank looks so clear right now. Tests turned out great too, finally hit 0.0 on my nitrates, first time since I've put it up. My calcium is on the rise, up to 420. I attribute that to switching to Oceanic from IO. my calcium was always 360 with IO, but I tested a fresh batch of the Oceanic before putting it in the tank and it was at 460! So it's been gradually raising my levels. dKh is at 11 (196 ppm) but my PH is down to 7.8. Might have to get something to bring that up.

Corals look fully opened and happy, hermies are walking around. Might go get my first fish today. Also saw a single head of a duncan yesterday at Pet World, so might go get that too!

My cat Simon loves watching the hermits. Like a TV show for him. Wait until I put a fish in there, he's gonna go nuts!

Will keep at the cyano in the meantime.

 

[Henry405]

0 nitrites? you need a pretty good set up to get 0 nitrates I think

 

[melosu58]

Cyanobacteria, AKA Red Slime Algae

 

[denwhite16]

Are you using tap water or RO? Tap water is a lot of times a contributer to algae problems.

 

[hackteck]

0 nitrites? you need a pretty good set up to get 0 nitrates I think

my nitrates are 0 constantly

 

[nhart608]

Yea, 0 nitrates! Like I said, first time since I've had the tank up. Been whittling them down from the day I've filled it with water. I did use tap water filtered by a PUR filter, thinking that would be good enough, but my nitrates started at 80. When I measured the tap water, it was somewhere between 60-80, so since then I've bought RO water from the store.

 

[Bige]

Do you dose anything? That is what causes mine. I can not dose anything or cyano follows.

 

[nhart608]

No Bige, haven't added anything to the water. I just can't seem to figure out what the cause of its continued growth is. It's not out of control, but what is the biggest mystery is that it grows BEST where the water flow is the greatest. Odd is all I can say.

 

[edgard786]

Just add red slime remover, it does a great job. I used it about a year when I had an outbreak. Make sure your lights are not on too long, and you are not overfeeding!

 

[Bige]

What do you use to mix your saltwater in? A rubbermaid? or similar?