Need to clean up the tank...

Cigar Sherlock · Mar 13, 2013

I'm fighting slime, red/black/velvet crap that I'm tired of removing from my sand bed. My Chaeto has decreased in size to almost nothing due to the sorry little light I bought to grow it. I'm thinking the bad algae is growing over due to no competition, not due to over feeding (I feed sparingly once a day). Soooo...Do I get more Chaeto and a better light, or a small canister filter with GFO type stuff...help me out guys, this is driving me nuts and making me want to sell the whole thing. My zoas are doing fine, huge pest anemone is doing great, orange plate is suffering due to contact with my frogspawn (which is pummeled by my clown pair) and my hammer is down a few heads from neglect a few months ago. I'm trying to get the urge back to keep it going, but time is not on my side right now.

11f150 · Mar 13, 2013

Do you mix your own saltwater? Are you using RODI?

LisaD · Mar 13, 2013

I've been fighting it too, much better after better lighting purchased, phosphate reactor installed and putting in my RO/DI unit this weekend. It's not an overnight fix but can be done. Also tons of manual removal all the time. You have to remove the nutrients to remove the slime

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Cigar Sherlock · Mar 13, 2013

Yeah, I'm using Walmart distilled water and mix my own with reef crystals. I'm not on a budget to purchase an RO/DI unit nor do I want to fool with one. I realize that might be another issue but I've had times where the slime wasn't a problem..so I'm more leaning towards too many nutrients thanks to no competition. My lights are 24 watt T5's with Giesemen (sp) bulbs and Coralife 10k's.

LisaD · Mar 13, 2013

Whew. For weekly water changes on my 75g and 55g salt plus my 55g freshwater I can put in an RO/DI unit for less than all that water would cost me O.O

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quigimon · Mar 13, 2013

Not sure how open to it you may be but have you looked into an algae scrubber, not the crazy supped up version just a quick and dirty version, just a pump, some PVC pipe, plastic canvas , 2 lights with the bell housings(incandescent or florescent will suffice) and some tubing, all can be acquired from your favorite hardware store except the plastic canvas(Walmart or micheals). Just set it up to hang above your tank so the water runs off the screen and into your tank unless you have a sump in which case you can just connect it to your outlet from the DT. The beauty is its cheaper then a gfo, and when you reach the desired result you can just pull it off the system until you need it again. There are some specifics which are dictated by the purists pertaining to the algae scrubber but in short if you have light on a surface that can grow algae it will grow pulling nutrients out of the water keeping it from spreading in your tank until its only growing on the screen.

Bishop · Mar 13, 2013

What you have is a bacteria. No ammount of algae in your tank is gonna help you get rid of this. You need to increase your overall water quality as well as water flow.

Mike J. · Mar 13, 2013

Your "red/black/velvet crap" is because you have too much detritus in your tank. Siphon it out. It will actually help you clean your tank because it grows on top of the detritius so you know where your problem spots are.

Dowtish · Mar 14, 2013

You can also try dosing some microbe lift 'special blend'. you can get it at any petco. This is a bacteria that will help out compete the existing bacteria.

But I would seriously be looking for a cheap used RODI. The filters at wally world at most certainly neglected and you are probably using some pretty nasty water.

ToXIc · Mar 14, 2013

Cigar Sherlock said:
Yeah, I'm using Walmart distilled water and mix my own with reef crystals. I'm not on a budget to purchase an RO/DI unit nor do I want to fool with one. I realize that might be another issue but I've had times where the slime wasn't a problem..so I'm more leaning towards too many nutrients thanks to no competition. My lights are 24 watt T5's with Giesemen (sp) bulbs and Coralife 10k's.

/thread

Cigar Sherlock · Mar 14, 2013

What does /thread mean? Anyways, I may switch over to Kroger distilled and see if that makes a difference. I have looked into doing a algae scrubber and I already have bacteria I can add to the tank to compete. I guess there is no solid answer to any of this, but I knew I was risking a fight when only using a refugium and no skimmer/scrubbing system.