red slime ??

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

i have never had it before .. i just added 3 evalution led lights to my 180 and now im getting this funky looking bloom .. i tried to research it to find out if it was red slime but cant find crystal clear pix of it .. any help please and what would do best to get rid of with out harming my reef ..

Bubbles_B · Jul 17, 2012

quick fix. Siphon it out. The faster you react to getting rid of it the better. then find a long term solution. i will try and find a solution for you as well.

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

thanx bubbles .. yes its only in my 180 not my 50 gallon reef and i use the same rodi water in both systems .. i have no idea what it is .. unless my T5 bulbs were getting old when i switched over to LEDs and the bloom was already started .. but its just on my rocks not in the sand bed either

Electrobes · Jul 17, 2012

Turn off the flow in your tank, grab a turkey baster and just blowing them off, while later siphoning it all out of the tank. You need to find the source of the "funk" that is allowing this to happen. I can;t imagine it being the lights, but the lights may have triggered something else?

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

yea thats what im thinking .. it does not look like red slime from some of the pix i have seen .. but i have never had it and i dont know what is leaching it .. RODI water tested 0 phos .. that was the 1st thing i checked .. im still thinking the T5 bulbs were on the way out and when i upgraded to the LEDs just helped it grow faster ..

Steven R · Jul 17, 2012

Hows your Nitrates look? and +1 on how long has it been for your bulb's? Boyd chemiclean works great and will not knock out your bio-filtration. Simple to use but also just a patch for the problem but will buy you plenty of time to get your system back in order. What type of skimmer are you running and what else might you have in the system ex chemiclean,phoszorb things like that might be leaching back into the system.

Steven R · Jul 17, 2012

sorry didn't see you upgraded lights nevermind the question on bulbs.

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

trates are 0 .. bulbs were only 6 months old .. but i switched over to LEDs n i think the LEDs just helped the bloom grow .. skimmer is a coralife 220 which works like a horse on crack .. i have to empty the cup about every 2 days ..

3Twinklets · Jul 17, 2012

I get this once a year every year! I added 2 Ruby emerald crabs and necessarius snails. A few Margarita snails and some Black snails, Fixed it right up quickly. I have found adding chemical cures a hindrance. Natural cures seem to work better for the health of the rest of the inhabitants of the tank

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

im glad i work for a diver/collector down in the keys from time to time .. heading there in 2 weeks to help him on a big order for rics and zoas and ill be bring back 1000 blue legs and 1000 astrea snails to sell and add 180 of each into my tank ..

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

ok i tried to blow it off NOPE didnt work .. so its on there pretty good ..

Pkunk35 · Jul 17, 2012

fish&corals said:
ok i tried to blow it off NOPE didnt work .. so its on there pretty good ..

Its hard to tell from the pics, but it does look like cyano. If you rub it with your finger off a rock it should be soft and come right off. Also it is more difficult to blast if off of rock as opposed to sand.

If it is more solid or must be scraped off it might be a type of algae.

+1 on Chemi Clean to get it under control if it is indeed Cyanobacteria. It is true that it is only a bandaid but it will get cyano off of rocks and keep it from encroaching coral.
For control I would look to clean all filter socks, stir your sandbed, add some critters/pods, change your bulbs if they are old. Of course keep up with water changing and siphon your sandbed debris/cyano, maybe add some carbon if you have. I'm not sure what causes Cyano, but usually this routine gets me through a bloom quickly.

How old is the tank?

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

cant change bulbs LEDs ... but thanx for the input .. im going to get some chemi clean tomorrow .. 2 + years old the tank has been set up and running ..

fish&corals · Jul 17, 2012

yea i dont think its cyano cause i know what that looks like and helped a friend with his tank battle it .. it red and brown looks like a web .. but i want to thank everyone for the input ..

Pkunk35 · Jul 17, 2012

Have you tried carbon dosing or peroxide to assist with removing the algae? They would probably be worth looking into if the problem is wide spread and growing quickly.