Almost reached my breaking point with red slime!

[rebelyeller_89]

Ive been battling what Im pretty sure is red slime for about a year and three months. Its to the point that I dont even enjoy my tank!
I have a jbj 28 gallon nano cube. Over the last 12 months I have ; replaced my cf bulbs, changed my rodi water source, added two power heads, upped the frequency of water changes, started using purigen, added to my clean up crew, bought some macro algae, and last week I added chemipure and switched from instant ocean to red sea coral pro.
Honestly I've had nothing but trouble since I started in saltwater.

I will add a picture as soon as I figure out how

 

[rebelyeller_89]

 

[Reefing Madness]

You've added purigen and chemipure, but its exhausting quickly. You need to change it out more frequently until you get your Phosphates down more.
But, in the meantime, you can run your tank lights out for 3 days, this will kill it off, but you need to get those phosphate numbers in line or it will come righ back.

 

[rebelyeller_89]

Well how do I keep phosphates in line once the algae is gone? I suppose I dont have much knowledge on phosphates. I only hear of people with big tanks having phosphate reactors so I didnt really thing it applied to me.

 

[rworegon]

I run a phosban reactor on my 39 cube. It hangs off the back with the feed pump in the return section. They are really quite small yet effective. Oh yea, and cheap.

 

[tektite]

From the look of the tank and the macroalgae growing as well, it looks like you still have a nutrient problem. How much and what do you feed? What is your source for RO/DI? Do you run the chemipure/purigen in reactors or just passive filtering (like in a bag)? How much do you use and how often do you switch it out?

 

[rebelyeller_89]

From the look of the tank and the macroalgae growing as well, it looks like you still have a nutrient problem. How much and what do you feed? What is your source for RO/DI? Do you run the chemipure/purigen in reactors or just passive filtering (like in a bag)? How much do you use and how often do you switch it out?

I feed about 1/8 block or less of frozen marine cuisine twice a week, a pinch of flake food once a week. I get my ro/di from my lfs, was previously getting it from ro/di dispenser in wally world, but stopped that about 6 months ago. The chemipure elite I added a week and a half ago, I also switched out my purigen bag then. Im not sure how long the purigen was in there. I just check it every so often and when it looks spent switch it out. Before I put in the chemipure I had carbon. All my filtration (including fiter floss, sorry forgot) is in the basket that comes with the nano cube

 

[ritter6788]

Skimming?

 

[rebelyeller_89]

No skimmer. Again something I thought was overkill for a 28 gallon tank

 

[ritter6788]

I've never been able to keep cyano out of a tank without a skimmer. Even frag tanks with zero or only 1 fish get cyano. I recently set up a 20 high with no fish. Just a spot to keep excess frags. The frag plugs had cyano on them within 2 days. I added a cheapo prism skimmer until my new one arrives and by the next day You could see the cyano breaking up and dying.

 

[rebelyeller_89]

Well a skimmer is probably out of price range right now, as im already getting a led retrofit kit for christmas. But a phosban reactor might be within reach. Which reactor would be best in the cheap category?

 

[imdaring]

I had red slim in my tanks about 4 years ago NOTHING worked for me. what I did was turned my lights off for 2 weeks. Algae thrives on light and if your lights are old that aslo adds to the problem

 

[jduck]

I would start with testing your fresh salt water. To see if it is supplying your tank with the nutrients.
And go from there

 

[imdaring]

Also for the phos ban I use a media bag and put it in my over flow basket, the poormans method.

 

[ritter6788]

I'd pass on the phosban reactor and save up for a skimmer.

 

[daalbers]

Just do 10 gal water changes every week for couple of weeks then do 5 gal changes after that

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[mike007]

I'd pass on the phosban reactor and save up for a skimmer.

+1 I agree get a protein skimmer first. Also see if your lfs has a tds meter and have them test there ro water. Just because it is ro water doesn't mean that it is free of phosphates.

 

[imdaring]

I also agree get a skimmer, u don't need a huge expensive one

 

[daalbers]

Haven't had a skimmer on mine for 2 years just water changes works for me just make sure you have good Rodi water

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[FunkyFish]

Had the same problem also. Red on the sand constantly In my 90. Finally ditched the filters and bought a used dual bak pak skimmer on eBay for like $90. Haven't seen it since. And I started vodka dosing a week also. Half cap a day. So far so good.