Please help ID strange pink slime/algae
- Thread starter dallast
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Engloid
Valuable Member
I have the pink slime also, and dosing nopox. I am seeing a trend here. This stuff is nasty, and dang near clogged up my overflow box. I have about 245g volume, so may look into chemiclean. Might dose it before my next water change. Any advice on how much water to change after? I know there are directions, but want others experiences on how much they dosed, how long till they changed water, and how much. Having this much water, can only do about a 40g water change.
Something else notice is skimmer foam is very thick. The foam bubbles dont seem to pop and go to liquid, so when have an inch or less of skimmate, the lid is already lifting up from being so full of foam.
Something else I would add is that my nitrates are sky-high due to a little bit of a disaster when I went out of town recently. My nitrates are at least fifty. That's why I'm hesitant to stop will reduce the dosing of nopox. It is also why I'm leaning towards doing a few pretty large water changes including some chemi Clean
Something else notice is skimmer foam is very thick. The foam bubbles dont seem to pop and go to liquid, so when have an inch or less of skimmate, the lid is already lifting up from being so full of foam.
Something else I would add is that my nitrates are sky-high due to a little bit of a disaster when I went out of town recently. My nitrates are at least fifty. That's why I'm hesitant to stop will reduce the dosing of nopox. It is also why I'm leaning towards doing a few pretty large water changes including some chemi Clean
Last edited:
Engloid
Valuable Member
Update on my pink snot battle:
I dosed with chemi clean (did water change as suggested). It didn't seem to do a lot, and I was planning a second round, but didn't want to do it right after the first. During treatment, I pulled the cup off the skimmer and just let it overflow in the sump, since our skimmers are our best way to put oxygen in the water. I had to do several things to manually remove this stuff, repeatedly, about 3 times a day:
1) Turn off return pump and leave skimmer on so it could suck up what I stirred up in the sump, then empty skimmer. I made sure to wipe the body inside with a toothbrush to break free any chunks there.
2) Turned my MP40's onto 100% for a while to stir the stuff up in the tank and wash it into my sock filters.
3) Scoop clumps from the sock filter, which I changed every 1-2 days. I have 3ft sock filters and they were clogging up and overflowing in about 3-4 days, due to this slime.
After doing this for several days, and taking mental note of the comments about NOPOX, I began thinking there was a clear correlation. I was considering reducing my nopox....but in this process, my dosing container went dry and I just decided not to refill it yet. The slime began to reduce drastically, very fast. For the first time, today, I went to check my sock filter and there was no pink slime in it at all. I still have a few small strings here and there, but no big outbreak.
For added security, I plan to give it another week and I will dose chemiclean again.
I dosed with chemi clean (did water change as suggested). It didn't seem to do a lot, and I was planning a second round, but didn't want to do it right after the first. During treatment, I pulled the cup off the skimmer and just let it overflow in the sump, since our skimmers are our best way to put oxygen in the water. I had to do several things to manually remove this stuff, repeatedly, about 3 times a day:
1) Turn off return pump and leave skimmer on so it could suck up what I stirred up in the sump, then empty skimmer. I made sure to wipe the body inside with a toothbrush to break free any chunks there.
2) Turned my MP40's onto 100% for a while to stir the stuff up in the tank and wash it into my sock filters.
3) Scoop clumps from the sock filter, which I changed every 1-2 days. I have 3ft sock filters and they were clogging up and overflowing in about 3-4 days, due to this slime.
After doing this for several days, and taking mental note of the comments about NOPOX, I began thinking there was a clear correlation. I was considering reducing my nopox....but in this process, my dosing container went dry and I just decided not to refill it yet. The slime began to reduce drastically, very fast. For the first time, today, I went to check my sock filter and there was no pink slime in it at all. I still have a few small strings here and there, but no big outbreak.
For added security, I plan to give it another week and I will dose chemiclean again.
Wicky48
Active Member
I know this is an older post but I thought I would contribute. I have not had any problems with this in the tank or sump however about two months ago I had to re-position and cut some of my return pump hose away. I then noticed this pink slime coating on the inside of the pipe. I then read up on it and it turned out to be what I believe to be Cyanobacteria build up. I thought maybe I was feeding to much at one time and in the wrong way. First of all since I am a working guy as probably most are on here I feed in the morning and early evening. Now I originally do not want to do this as some fish like to eat several times a day but what can I do, plus as I feel I can only feed twice a day I tended to feed the fish more to make up for what they didn't get during the day. As well when I feed I typically spread the food on the water and the fish feed. The problem with this is any uneaten food gets into hidden places or goes into the overflow then hits a spot and sits and decays causing an increase in phosphates and possibly nitrates and ammonia. So I decided to buy a fish feeder that can feed my Vitalis pellets twice a day while I'm gone and then light feeding morning and at night. As well I used clear tubing and suction cups to attach to aquarium and feed through the tube. The food sinks down the tube and to the bottom of the tank where the fish feed and there is less current ensuring most of the food is eaten and stays away from the sump so my clean up crew can take advantage of anything on the bottom. Since then as of yesterday when I checked, there was no more build up. Happy Reefing!!!
