red slime aglea.

[shred5]

Be careful with red slime removers, most are a Erythromycin which is an antibiotic and can kill other forms of bacteria.. The best way is to control algae is by controlling phosphates and detritus in the aquarium. Problem with things that kill algae or bacteria is it does not solve the problem, it might kill the algae or bacteria but once introduced again you will have the same problem or another algae just takes it's place eventually. Cyanobacteria is in almost everyone’s tank even if you don’t see it and will be introduced again when buying or trading a coral.

Same with turning off your lights… Take care of the problem. Turning out the lights just adds undue stress to your corals.

Solve the root of the problem or you will have worse problems down the road. People need to stop looking for easy fixes and learn about the biological process that are happening in your tank so you become a better reefer and can handle problems down the road. This is the reason there has become a major trun over and most people in hobby drop out after a few years. By the way this was not aimed at the origional poster but all the algae threads and other thread about other problems.

Dave Polzin

 

[Troylee]

Be careful with red slime removers most are a Erythromycin which is an antibiotic and can kill other forms of bacteria.. The best way is to control algae is by controlling phosphates and detritus in the aquarium. Problem with things that kill algae or bacteria is it does not solve the problem, it might kill the algae or bacteria but once introduced again you will have the same problem or another algae just takes it s place eventually. Cyanobacteria is in almost everyone’s tank even if you don’t see it.

Same with turning off your lights… Take care of the problem. turning out the lights just adds undue stress to your corals.

Solve the root of the problem or you will have worse problems down the road. People need to stop looking for easy fixes and learn about the biological process that are happening in your tank so you become a better reefer and can handle problems down the road. This is the reason there has become a major trun over and most people in hobby drop out after a few years.

Dave Polzin

agreed 100 percent.. you need to speak up more Dave seems like you have tons to offer...1smile1

 

[jelly]

i have no idea what is the issue cause my water is with in the normal limits. only high thing i got is mg.
water tests take 7/16/2011
cal 420
alk 8kh
sal 1.026
temp 80
ph 8.2
mag 1400
phos .5
nitrate 1
nitrite .2

 

[Troylee]

.5 is high for a p04 level especially if you have algae consuming some of it... You want .03 at the most... What test kit did you use to get those numbers??? I'm gonna say it's your rock leaching it personally even thou it came dry etc etc I have read numerous threads of Marco , brs rock etc leaching p04

 

[jelly]

ELOS test kits i use.

 

[jelly]

correction PO4 is .05

 

[Dave3112]

Give post number 11 a look in this thread. Heck read the whole thing if you want

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/north-alabama-reef-club/62359-h-rry-r-c-lights-our.html

 

[shred5]

That’s very high phosphates if your kit is right. Phosphate test kits only test for orthophosphate so it is probably even higher.



Ok first place to start is water used for top off and water changes. If this is bad no matter what you do you will not get phosphates under control. Even if you use r/o water you may need to add a D/I unit or even two to get the phosphates down. Also old filters or D/I cartridges could need to be changed.. But start here and them move on to the next step.

As far as dead or recycled live rock goes it is not so much that the rock leaches phosphate back, it is the fact it had locked in now dead critters that lived inside the rock at some point. This can be solved by soaking it in pure bleach for a few days and then rinsed and soaked in a dechlorinator and dried for a bit.. Some people will go as far as soaking the rock in vinegar or acid bath to remove some of the outer shell… But for sure this could be a problem.. I know some of it is not sold as pre-cured but I would still do this step. I use marco rock entirely for my nano and a few piece of dead old rock I saved. Marco rock is very good quality.

Dave Polzin

 

[jelly]

thanks dave for the link to that thread. i got people saying to use the red slime remover but i dont want to use that cause it is a chemical and it can hurt things if not used right. lights was what i was leaning to but dont want to my corals to get sick or maybe die cause they dont have the light. so i guess ill just have to turn them off and see what happens. thank you everyone for your help and your posts. hope this works.

 

[shred5]

Turning your lights down or off will not get your phosphate down..

Dave Polzin

 

[Dave3112]

Turning your lights down or off will not get your phosphate down..

Dave Polzin

This is very true. It will not. But it will kill the cyano. I would run GFO in a reactor or if you have the ability some Macro's in the sump/fuge for the Po4. It will most likely return if you don't fix the root cause in your tank. And for me it was overfeeding that lead to high Po4. I turned out the lights on the display. Added a light and chaeto to the fuge and also a carbon/GFO reactor to the sump and now it is gone...........

 

[jelly]

i do run GFO,carbon, and i aslo have cheato and culerpha.

 

[shred5]

This is very true. It will not. But it will kill the cyano. I would run GFO in a reactor or if you have the ability some Macro's in the sump/fuge for the Po4. It will most likely return if you don't fix the root cause in your tank. And for me it was overfeeding that lead to high Po4. I turned out the lights on the display. Added a light and chaeto to the fuge and also a carbon/GFO reactor to the sump and now it is gone...........

While adding a fuge with cheato, not overfeeding and also adding a reactor with carbon and gfo is very good advice are very good steps in curing the problem. Why not just do those steps and not turn off your lights? You would have had the same affect anyway. Turning your lights out for a few days can stress corals that may already be stressed due to high phosphate and can also cause some browning out of the corals. While it may not kill the corals unless already stressed it just seems necessary.

Dave Polzin

 

[shred5]

i do run GFO,carbon, and i aslo have cheato and culerpha.

While I am not into testing for phosphate in the aquarium because if you have a algae problem you have a phosphate issue. I like to use them to test make up water, water change water, outputs to phosphate (gfo) reactors and calcium reactors.. You may want to test the output water from your gfo reactor to see if the media is exhausted.... again you need to read my other post and make sure the phosphate is not comming from make up water and water used used for water changes. You will burn through gfo media like crazy and it will get very expensive if its comming from what I just mentioned..

Dave Polzin

 

[akma]

I was overfeeding my tank like crazy and I got hit with hair algae and unbelievable amounts of cyano. I used phosban, macro, and changed filters to ro/di and wasnt' working so I used chemiclean just to get it down and in 2 cycles got rid of it completely.

 

[beaslbob]

Turning your lights down or off will not get your phosphate down..

Dave Polzin

No

but it will get your nitrates up. Feeding the possibly nitrate starved algae which will consume more phosphate.


my .02

 

[shred5]

No

but it will get your nitrates up.

my .02

How how would it do that?

Dave Polzin

 

[MoneyPit]

Thanks for the info Dave. There is so much to learn in this hobby and It's reefers like you that help to spread that knowledge. I agree that there is an underlying problem but I personally have used red slime remover and I had no "visual" adverse affects. I do use a turkey baster to blow off my rocks weekly and that help's to control the detritus/phosphate problem. I totally agree that it could be from top off water too. There was a time that I ran out of RO/DI water and had to use "tap" water to top off. I know it was a terrible idea but at that time it was the only choice I had. Anyway, within a few days I started to have different algae blooms.

I hope you figure out the issue, and I applaud you for not wanting to use chemicals. I did because I was tired of fighting it. Good Luck

 

[shred5]

I am not saying it is his top off water, just this is where to start. Reason is you can do all this other stuff and if it is the top off you wasted allot of time and possible money and none of it will make a difference. If it is all clear and good then on to the next step... If phosphates is comming in through your tap water you are adding a constant supply of phosphate to your tanks. Just clarifying why to start here.

Dave Polzin

 

[MoneyPit]

Got to start somewhere This turned out to be a pretty good thread !!