Cyano
- Thread starter Gonzo82
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
greggsvt
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Welcome to the red slime club! Test your water for phosphates. Are your lights on too long? Overfeeding? Overstocked? Are you doing your water changes? Are your bulbs old? Are you using either RO/DI water? Don't bother with the red slime killer additives for your tank, all they do is temporarily kill it off and since you never found the root cause of it, it will return and with a vengence!!! I'm in the same boat as you right now and I still have'nt solved my problem.
clowninround
Aquarium Advice FINatic
NO! Do not do that! That will make the problem worse IMO. Phosphates and nitrates are the nutrients that fuels it, control them and you won't have to cut back on lighting. What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?
my nitrates are at zero. I dont have a phosphates test so i dont know what they are. Also i saw RO, ozonated water at kroger. Would this work.
How long should i run my lights. I have 65 watts of accentic and 65 whats of daylight. It is in a 30 gal. I have been running the acenting for about 14 hrs a day and the daylight for only about 8. Is this enough.
How long should i run my lights. I have 65 watts of accentic and 65 whats of daylight. It is in a 30 gal. I have been running the acenting for about 14 hrs a day and the daylight for only about 8. Is this enough.
clowninround
Aquarium Advice FINatic
ya thats fine, you can even cut back an hour or two, but do not make drastic changes with your lights, this may cause die off (of the algea) which will also feed it more nutrients to grow. At least that is how it was explained to me. Get a phoshate test. If you can find the source of the algea you are ahead of the game 
. Also, in the meantime, Garf sells a mean clean up crew. I haven't had to clean my tank in I don't know how long. I only bought half of what they said to buy and they are still doing a heck of a job! http://www.garf.org/main.html
YES RO water is great stuff, but try to get the kind that is RO/DI because the distilled part of it is what takes the phosphates out and the RO takes out everything else
. Does your LFS sell it? They might have a better deal for you provided you bring your own buckets
. Also, in the meantime, Garf sells a mean clean up crew. I haven't had to clean my tank in I don't know how long. I only bought half of what they said to buy and they are still doing a heck of a job! http://www.garf.org/main.htmlYES RO water is great stuff, but try to get the kind that is RO/DI because the distilled part of it is what takes the phosphates out and the RO takes out everything else
. Does your LFS sell it? They might have a better deal for you provided you bring your own buckets seafan
Aquarium Advice FINatic
DI stands for deionized not distilled, and RO water can take out most if not all phosphates. 
clowninround
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Ya, thats what I meant . With the RO takeing out the phosphates I was told several times on this site that if you had a phosphate reading to replace the DI part of it?!
. With the RO takeing out the phosphates I was told several times on this site that if you had a phosphate reading to replace the DI part of it?!clowninround
Aquarium Advice FINatic
What exactly are you infering w/ the light bulb anyway?
malkore
Aquarium Advice Addict
Clownin,
yes, if your R/O tests positive for phosphates, the DI filter should be replaced. As I understand it, the R/O membrane removes the hardness, and the DI is a finer, polishing type filter that removes the phosphates.
yes, if your R/O tests positive for phosphates, the DI filter should be replaced. As I understand it, the R/O membrane removes the hardness, and the DI is a finer, polishing type filter that removes the phosphates.
quarryshark
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2004
- Messages
- 5,833
What you should do is test your source water for PO4, thats where it begins. If your source water is PO4 free, then you can concetrate on things like cutting back on feeding, improving flow, improving skimmer performance, etc.
If you source water has an abundance of PO4, then you need to add a DI stage to your RO system. Gotta start with clean change water in order to solve the problem.
If you source water has an abundance of PO4, then you need to add a DI stage to your RO system. Gotta start with clean change water in order to solve the problem.
