pink slimy hair

[Jimbo]

I have a fix, but I need to know my previous questions.

No carbon dosing. No air fresheners and the tank is in a separate room from the kitchen

 

[Breakthecycle2]

No carbon dosing. No air fresheners and the tank is in a separate room from the kitchen

Dose Dr. Tim's Re Fresh every other day for 14 days. By day 5-7, you should start to see the slime retracting.

 

[Jimbo]

Read that Refresh can spike alkalinity ( I'm SPS dominant) and harmful to snails and shrimp. Not worth the risk as livestock is not affected. Thanks anyway

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Absolutely not true. I have an SPS tank and use it weekly

 

[Macdaddynick1]

so from reading this thread alone ive noticed that none of the people who has a problem with this bacteria has it in their display , so solution could be as simple as either increasing the flow or adding the light. just my wild guess.

 

[JMacedo]

so from reading this thread alone ive noticed that none of the people who has a problem with this bacteria has it in their display , so solution could be as simple as either increasing the flow or adding the light. just my wild guess.

Agreed but also must be there something that is feeding it. Yesterday I decided to put the Durso standing pipe back again in the overflow box as I couldn't stand the gargling noise coming from the overflow box. Today I could see the bacteria growing again in my overflow box and decided to dose Reef Vitality as it can reduce certain nutrients in my tank to the point that it cleans my rocks from the usual biofilms caused by NOPOX. I haven't dosed RV for a while as I brought home a few very sick and very brown frags as at the moment is almost impossible to get healthy sps corals into Thailand due to legal restrictions, and RV can have a negative impact on not so healthy sps corals.

Anyway, a few hours after dosing RV my overflow box seems cleaner, so it is possible that the pink slime feeds in a similar way to the more aggressive white slime http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/mystery-white-reef-slime-part-iii and the advice given by @Breakthecycle2 is a very valid one if such product is reef safe ( I have no experience with it).

Also I am dosing a little more than usual Bakto Therapy and Bakto Blend and I wonder if placing a wooden difusor generating microbubles would help.

At least my sump still looks crystal clear as I am writing this! (knocking on wood here)

 

[Breakthecycle2]

so from reading this thread alone ive noticed that none of the people who has a problem with this bacteria has it in their display , so solution could be as simple as either increasing the flow or adding the light. just my wild guess.

Mine was in my display

so from reading this thread alone ive noticed that none of the people who has a problem with this bacteria has it in their display , so solution could be as simple as either increasing the flow or adding the light. just my wild guess.

Nope. My issue was in the sump and tank.

 

[saltyhog]

I did have it in the display, on rocks and equipment(powerheads).

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Mine was in my display


Nope. My issue was in the sump and tank.

Eh it was worth a shot.

 

[Susan Bates]

I am on my second month of fighting this kind of bacteria and I don't have very good news for you... but there is hope! This pinkish/tan stringy bacteria is really stubborn to eliminate.

About two months ago I decided to reduce the flow trough sump from 10x to 1x to make all the water go through my 2 UV units while maintaining very strong flow in the display tank. Two things happened; more detritus kept floating in the water column in the display tank and I started to notice this bacteria building up on a nylon filter sock that is part of the Tunze 9430 skimmer. In a matter of days the outlet of my skimmer looked like a big stringy, jelly thing, next it covered the drop-in coil, took over the glass walls of the sump, pipes, tubing and even the entire overflow box.

This bacteria does not create a bacteria bloom like the bacteria fed with a carbon source. The water remains clear!

Stopped carbon dosing to try to starve it, to no avail! My NO3 and PO4 levels went up but no visible results! I emptied the sump and overflow box and washed them with freshwater ant let them to dry... filled with new saltwater and it looked nice for a day but I knew there was plenty within the pipework and to my frustration in just three days the bacteria took over the sump and overflow box again!

Cleaned sump and overflow box again and gave it 2 doses of Chemiclean... I know Chemiclean is for cyano but decide to give it a try anyway. The same bacteria came back again!

The bacteria never got a hold of the display tank, my sps didn't lose colours, so two things could make a difference, flow or/and light as the display tank has both strong flow and strong lighting and the sump has not.

Removed filter socks and a bag with GAC as this bacteria can also be found mixed with the activated carbon grains, and cleaned everything again (except inside pipework). Also I increased the dose of different strains of bacteria, using Fauna Marin Marine Bakto Therapie and Marine Bakto Blend.

This time I went with 10x flow through sump and things are improving.

For the past two weeks the same bacteria came back but much less, yesterday I cleaned everything again and the sump was much cleaner than the overflow box. There is a reason for that, only the top of the overflow box has moving water, so now I have removed the Durso standpipe to see if things keep improving. Didn´t bother to place some lighting over the sump.

So... there is hope!

Overflow box yesterday before cleaning:


Today:

that is it, it is driving me crazy,

 

[Susan Bates]

Interesting JMacedo. Mine went away when I stopped carbon dosing, took a couple of weeks. Mine was so bad that when I turned the return pump on after being of for whatever reason it would spew big globs of the stuff all over the tank.

mine is the same, but it started long before dosing

 

[Susan Bates]

so from reading this thread alone ive noticed that none of the people who has a problem with this bacteria has it in their display , so solution could be as simple as either increasing the flow or adding the light. just my wild guess.

mine is in the tank as well

 

[Susan Bates]

I did have it in the display, on rocks and equipment(powerheads).

yes so is mine

 

[Susan Bates]

Mg should be around 1450, nitrates should be at 3 to 5 ppm. What kind of tank are you running? Mixed reef, reef, or fowlr? The picture is of it in your sump, correct? What about a picture of your tank please.

I would say it is green hair and with you raise your Mg to 1380 and lower you Ca to the 450 range and getting your nitrates down below 5 you will see your algae issues dissapere. I would do some kind of carbon dosing to

I am running a mixed tank

 

[jsker]

I just re-plumbed the my overflow and return, by doing this I increased the flow. The algae in my sump is pretty much gone and my battle with diatom is almost gone. I would still raise you Mg, to help with the algae

 

[Susan Bates]

I just re-plumbed the my overflow and return, by doing this I increased the flow. The algae in my sump is pretty much gone and my battle with diatom is almost gone. I would still raise you Mg, to help with the algae

thanks my mg now is 1360 is that ok?

 

[jsker]

thanks my mg now is 1360 is that ok?

Yes, and if you bumped it up a little more, temporary that would help you with the algae

 

[jsker]

I am running a mixed tank

That is a nice tank by the way

 

[Susan Bates]

Yes, and if you bumped it up a little more, temporary that would help you with the algae

thanks

 

[jsker]

thanks

You are welcome. Each system is different, and if you are still having issues in three weeks time please feel free to reach out and fix it.