green slime??

[kristy]

I have this almost neon green slime taking over me tank it is all over my rocks and the sides. I have a 30 - 35 gal hex with 20 lbs of live sand in the bottom with 20 lbs of CLR and 10 lbs of base rock, a metal halide light, a sea clone 100 skimmer, 2 power flow jets and a regular filter. My readings are temp b/w 72 - 74, pH 8.3, phos 0, cal 520, amn 0.25, nit 0, and dKH 9 (161.1). I have cut my lighting time down to only 2-3 hours to see if this will help but it hasn't I am only feeding my 1 fish every other day only a couple of pelets. I have also 2 peppermint shrimp, 6 purple snails and 5 blue legs. Is there anything else that I can do that will get rid of this..... Please help????????

 

[Sadielynn]

How old is your tank , newer tanks seem to go through these blooms
you can siphion it out .
How old are your bulbs ?
what are your water change schedules ?
What if any corals in your tank ? If you dont have any you could go dark for 2 -3 days ..

 

[kristy]

my tank is about 2 months old. I can siphion It off of the sand but not off of the rocks. It comes off of the glass eaisly. my light is new. I change my water every week to week and a half. I do have a feather duster in there. and a candy coral

 

[Sadielynn]

You should be ok to go with out lights for a day or two ,. But for the stuff on the LR I would say use a toothbrush to get it off while siphioning it out ... It is a form of bacteria aka cyno

 

[kristy]

will is go away if just seems to be getting worse! Would it be better to take my rocks out and wash them off with some ro water or something?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You said "nit 0"... do you mean nitrites, or nitrates? If nitrites, then what are you nitrate levels? Also - what do you use for water to mix your salt with? RO/DI? Tap?

Are you feeding the coral and duster anything? Just curious because the cyano is getting its fuel from somewhere, and I'm just not seeing what it is yet.

 

[kristy]

I believe it nitrates I dont know what my nitrites are I dont have a test for them. I am feeding phytoplex for my coral but I have only fed them once. I am using RO water mixing instance ocean

 

[kristy]

I have left my light off all day today and it seems to be better but I am scared when I go back to leaving it on it will come back so I need to know how to get rid of it. I plan on doing a water change tommorrow about 7 - 10 gal and possible taking out my rocks and cleaning them would this be recommended?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Your candy cane coral doesn't need (or want) phyto. It'll take small chopped up pieces of mysis shrimp, or other meaty stuff. Whether or not your feather duster needs it is probably questionable. I wouldn't use it at all, but if nothing else I'd lay off using it until you get your algae issue cleared up. I wouldn't think using it just once would cause a problem... unless you used a ton of it.

How often are you doing water changes? And are you dosing anything for calcium? 520ppm for using RO with Instant Ocean just isn't right, unless you're adding something else.

Reducing your lighting will definitely help, but if they were only on for 2-3 hours to start with, there's something else fueling it.

When you mentioned you're using a "regular filter", what exactly is that?

 

[kristy]

I am doing water changes every week to week and a half . I was doing change every 2 weeks to 3 weeks until I started getting this green slime. I am not using anything else as far as dosing anything. the filter is a tetra whisper I believe its rated for 50 - 60 gal tank. I change the carbon filter every week I started my light on for 10 - 12 hours but since this green slime has started I have cut down to 2 - 3 hours

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I am doing water changes every week to week and a half .

Oh... you already said that, didn't you! Sorry!

Hmmph. Something doesn't seem right because it sure sounds like you shouldn't have a cyano issue. I know you said your tank water is 0ppm nitrates, but have you tested the water coming out of your RO for nitrates... just to confirm that you are indeed using "pure" water?

Cyano is fueled by excess nutrients in the water. With only one fish, and only feeding it a few pellets every other day, those nutrients shouldn't be coming from the food. What kind of fish is it?

You said your ammonia is at 0.25ppm. Did something die off recently in the tank? Just curious why you think you might be reading ANY ammonia. I assume you cycled the tank?

And while it's probably nothing to do with the cyano, since you say you're not dosing anything for the Ca, I'd say that 520ppm Ca reading is wrong. Should be closer to 350ppm or so.

 

[kristy]

My tank did cycle and nothing has died. my Ca has always read high the LFS told me it was b/c of the instance ocean salt. my fish is a fire fish. like I said it seems to be getting better with my lights off I plan on doing a PWC and cleaning my sand rocks real good today and see what happens some people have mentioned using is it pryoban or slime away to help but I really dont want to put anything into my tank if I dont have to.

 

[melosu58]

http://www.fantasyreef.com/database.php?p=viewitem&dbid=11&itemid=5

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

My tank did cycle and nothing has died. my Ca has always read high the LFS told me it was b/c of the instance ocean salt. my fish is a fire fish. like I said it seems to be getting better with my lights off I plan on doing a PWC and cleaning my sand rocks real good today and see what happens some people have mentioned using is it pryoban or slime away to help but I really dont want to put anything into my tank if I dont have to.

Just not sure what to tell you about the cyano. Follow the steps in the post melosu linked to, and it should do wonders. I'd avoid the chemical solutions too... just a band-aid fix, and doesn't address the root cause of the problem.

One thing I do know is that your LFS doesn't know what it's talking about when it comes to Calcium levels in salt. If we're talking about "Instant Ocean" salt by Marineland, that salt mixed with RO/DI water gets you about 340ppm Ca. "Oceanic" brand salt gets Calcium levels up in the mid 400 ppm levels, but I don't think any salts out there get you above 500ppm. High calcium levels don't cause cyano, but the fact that you're saying you've always had these high levels just makes me think there's some clue there that we're missing. It's just not normal, and that extra calcium is coming from somewhere. You are using "Instant Ocean" salt that's packaged in a bag or bucket, right? And not some "bulk" salt mix that the LFS has made up special that's "just like Instant Ocean." Sorry if that seems like a dumb question, but I've heard of some stores that sell their own "special mix" because hey... it's just salt, right?

 

[kristy]

I just did my test again last week ok today all out of range I am pulling my HAIR OUT!!!!!! I dont want to loose everything I have in there!!!! I use RO water and mix in Instant Ocean bag salt my Ca levels are at 920 I have never add any additives to it...My dKH is at 6 (107.4). my phos is at 0. my NH3 (amn) is at 0, My nitrate is at 40 and my nitrite is at 1.0 ......I tested my RO water and it is testing 0 for both NO3 and NO2... I have total cut my lights down to only 3 hours at max and only feeding every 2-3 days..I am doing water changes every sat atleast 10 - 20 % I have 1 fire fish and he seems to be doing great my 6 purple snails are great and my 2 srimp are fine I did lose 1 hermit crab but I got him out as soon as I noticed him .....my candy coral seems okay and my feather duster is doing good. Please any advice would by greatly appriciated as you can tell in my town I only have 1 LFS and I really dont think they know much....

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I guess I'd say your Ca test kit is bad, or you're testing/reading it wrong. What brand is it? Also... what is the specific gravity/salinity in your tank? How much salt mix are you adding to how much water?

There's a bunch of stuff in your post that's weird. A week ago you had 0ppm nitrates, and now you have 40ppm... yet you only have a firefish and don't feed it much. And now... you have 1.0ppm nitrites. Nitrites should only appear if you've overloaded your tank or if your bacteria population died off. But if that was the case, I'd expect to see ammonia also.

Normally, I'd say take some water samples to your LFS and have them test your water parameters. But if this is the same LFS that thinks Instant Ocean comes in at 520ppm for Ca... well... I can't say I'd have a lot of confidence with their numbers.

Anyone else here have any ideas?...

[Edit: You are mixing the salt with the RO water in a separate container and then adding it to your tank, right? You're not adding salt directly to the tank? I'm just grasping at straws here...]

 

[melosu58]

There is the possibility that your tank is still cycling. The phyto also could have fouled up the tank. Need to also test for phosphates in your PWC water.

 

[austinsdad]

What kinda test kit are you using?

40 on the nitrates may be the source of the algae fuel. That's high. And ANY nitrite reading suggests something is wrong. Of course all of that is dependent on trusting your test kit or methods.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Your nitrates may also be higher than 40ppm. Cyanobacteria grow very fast, as you are finding out, and will consume phosphate and nitrate as food. This will make your water test less than you actually have in the water, because it is being used up so quickly by the bacteria. You said you have a whisper filter. Try removing it for a while completely from the tank or running only a media such as Purigen in it that will help remove nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphates, etc.

Also, do you have your powerheads for flow positioned so that water circulates at the bottom of the tank? With tall hex tanks, water flow can be minimized near the bottom.
Hope we can help you figure out your problem soon.

 

[roka64]

I don't have the box in front of me but I don't believe purigen will absorb phosphates, try phosban for the phosphate....
I had lots of problems with cyano and IO salt mix, no matter what I tried. I now use reef crystals.