Losing my battle with red slime

[11f150]

Ok I have been battling my red slime for about a month now, and it is covering my sand bed and a few rocks. This is what I have changed so far and I am not seeing results. I clean the red slime out of my tank about 2 times a week. I recently bought a MP10 for more flow. I starting using chemi pure elite about 2 weeks ago. I am only running my lights for about 8 hrs for the past month. I feed my fish 1 time per day and they devour what I put in there.
I have a JBJ 28gal CF Quad. The light bulb has not been used for 2 months yet. The tank is fairly new and has been up for little over 2 months so Im not sure if this is a stage I need to go through but some advice please. I really dont want to put a phosphate remover in there quite yet, I would like it to clear up without it.

Im also considering getting a led light fixture so possibly that would help compared to the CF. Thanks

 

[pumarjr]

not to be too crazed, but try some hydrogen peroxide. 1ml per 10gal for 6 days. I used it with spectacular results. I have sps, lps, softies and just about any other corals that make up as reef. beyond that advice, how old are your bulbs?, are you over feeding? what is your lighting schedule? your current parameters?

 

[toejam]

Red slime will go away with more flow. The problem is the sand might not allow that.

 

[TulsaTye]

I've had good results with a couple conchs!

 

[Degener8]

What are your tank parameters. Low flow is one lending factor to cyano but it also needs food so I am guessing you have some excess nutrients in the tank. Whats yoru water change schedule? do you run a skimmer? Chempure is good but a phosphate pad or something similar would also help since the amount of gfo in the chempure is relatively small and if you have excess phosphates that part of the chempure would get used up pretty quickly.

While PC lighting isn't optimal for alot of things I don't think LED lighting is going to fix the issue. If you don't have a skimmer I would put my cash into a good skimmer before LEDs since your tank is still pretty new.

 

[halcyonism]

Is there a chance any natural sun light is getting to the tank?

The one time I had issues with cyano was when I discovered that at a certain time of the day the sun would shine just right through the drapes and directly on the spot where the cyano grew. I fixed the drapes and the cyano has never come back.

 

[Murfman]

One of the things I just discovered is that my Cyano goes away in conjuction with me opening my windows. I have noticed for the last 3 years that my tank has been set up in my basement that I get Cyano from about Dec to March/April time frame. My pH also drops to 7.8-7.9 and I have to keep boosting it. I started opening my windows two weeks ago, and the pH has been staying 8.2 or higher and the Cyano is gone.

 

[11f150]

What are your tank parameters. Low flow is one lending factor to cyano but it also needs food so I am guessing you have some excess nutrients in the tank. Whats yoru water change schedule? do you run a skimmer? Chempure is good but a phosphate pad or something similar would also help since the amount of gfo in the chempure is relatively small and if you have excess phosphates that part of the chempure would get used up pretty quickly.

While PC lighting isn't optimal for alot of things I don't think LED lighting is going to fix the issue. If you don't have a skimmer I would put my cash into a good skimmer before LEDs since your tank is still pretty new.

Just got done testing my water:
Amm 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
PH is 8.2-8.4


I change 5 gallons every Monday with water straight from my LFS. The tank is kept right around 80 degrees, it changes from 79.5-80.2. I do not run a skimmer currently, but I will look into them and see what I could get on my jbj cube.

 

[Degener8]

One of the things I just discovered is that my Cyano goes away in conjuction with me opening my windows. I have noticed for the last 3 years that my tank has been set up in my basement that I get Cyano from about Dec to March/April time frame. My pH also drops to 7.8-7.9 and I have to keep boosting it. I started opening my windows two weeks ago, and the pH has been staying 8.2 or higher and the Cyano is gone.

related to excess amount of CO2 in the area? Sounds plausable atleast. Not to get off the OP's topic but would be interested to know if your running a CO2 scrubber on your skimmer or not.. if not maybe it would be worth a try for the winter months atleast...

 

[Degener8]

Just got done testing my water:
Amm 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm


I change 5 gallons every Monday with water straight from my LFS. The tank is kept right around 80 degrees, it changes from 79.5-80.2. I do not run a skimmer currently, but I will look into them and see what I could get on my jbj cube.

My guess is nitrates are being absorbed by the algae and not detectable by your test kit. I would probably try doing a couple water changes per week instead of one and continue to remove what you can at each water change. Its likely the change will happen slowly so be patient.. I still believe a skimmer would be beneficial also.

 

[MarkChong]

I have similar problem. Small patches seem to show up in the same area. I have read a looog thread about getting of red slime(cyanobacteria) with Microlift special blend. According to most people, You have to dose it for a month as stated on the bottle(Every 7 days) before you can see result. So far, I have done it for the second week, and I have been seeing some improvements. Now it is still too early to tell whether I can get rid of the red stuff totally. As a warning, this product has a very strong sulfur smell(rotten egg) and it will take a couple hours to dissipate after dosing.

 

[jonbar1]

If it's on the sand, get a Fighting Conch. They're under $10 at most LFS around here and devour it. Also great sandbed cleaners in general.

I've also used ChemiClean Red Slime Remover but don't recommend it. It killed a few spots on my Cyphastrea and cost more than a Conch. I tried all the dark cycles and "super cleaning" my water of nutrients but never won the battle until I found something that ate it.

 

[fraghunter]

I hate to see these post and see people constaly say its a flow issue or to use antibiotics. Hydrogen Peroxide is for hair algae. Cyno or Red slime is a bacteria and is caused by an inbalnce in your tank. If you have the right nitifying bacteria in your tank the problem will go away in a couple of days to a week. Go to your LFS or Petco and get the big bottle of microbe-lift Special Blend whatever the dosage on the bottle says double it. Shut your skimmer off for 6 hours. shut your uv off for 72 hours. This will rebalance your tank with the right bacteria and the cyno will be gone. PROVEN THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN MANY OF MY REEF CLUBS.
FYI I do not work for the company
Just a product that works well I also dump a big bottle when first start using bio pellets.

 

[Dowtish]

I hate to see these post and see people constaly say its a flow issue or to use antibiotics. Hydrogen Peroxide is for hair algae. Cyno or Red slime is a bacteria and is caused by an inbalnce in your tank. If you have the right nitifying bacteria in your tank the problem will go away in a couple of days to a week. Go to your LFS or Petco and get the big bottle of microbe-lift Special Blend whatever the dosage on the bottle says double it. Shut your skimmer off for 6 hours. shut your uv off for 72 hours. This will rebalance your tank with the right bacteria and the cyno will be gone. PROVEN THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN MANY OF MY REEF CLUBS.
FYI I do not work for the company
Just a product that works well I also dump a big bottle when first start using bio pellets.

I fully 100% agree with this.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[toejam]

I had some appear after taking a few powerheads out of the tank. Guess what happened when I put the powerheads back?

 

[Mr E Wrasse]

Boyd Chemi clean.... Works everytime! I only use a third or half of what the instructions call for

 

[fab1971]

I used hydrogen peroxide and it went away in 4 days and I had a ton on the rocks and sand, with long stringy strands flowing around.

 

[11f150]

Well thanks for the all the different suggestions lol. I just did a 2nd water change for the week. I will start doing 2-5 gallon water changes every week and see what happens.