slime alge help

Garth Schafluetzel · Feb 3, 2008

ok ive been battling red slime in my 75 for a while now and at the end of my rope. i make a 20 percent water change every 2 weeks keep all my parameters in check to my knowlege and i cant get rid of it and chemical treatment doesnt solve the problem just prolongs the ugly slim so what do i do? also i recently noticed i have a dark maroon almost black slime popping up in my 14 gal bio cube.

Pdosen03 · Feb 3, 2008

Use "Chemipure" in your filter. Its a cloth sack that you just set in the filter itself, and it works AWESOME....i swear by it. Im not sure exactly what it is but it does the trick. For your 75 you will def. need 2 of them at once, and make sure you rinse them out before placing them in the filter...good luck!

Garth Schafluetzel · Feb 3, 2008

sounds good ill have to talk to my LFS and see but i think my filtration could be the problem im running 2 H.O.T magnum set up with bio wheel one with micro filter and the other carbon i also have 2 maxi jet power heads. if i had done more research befor i jumped in i would of done thing allot differnt but do you think this could be causing promblems

Pdosen03 · Feb 4, 2008

Geez....i really dont know....it just seems like one of those things that happens with the cycle of the tank...how long has your tank been up and running?

revhtree · Feb 4, 2008

Do you have a phosphate test kit? You need to see where that stands and then find out where it's coming from. Do you use tap water or if it's RO water what is the TDS? (total dissolved solids)

How long has it been going on?

rocko918 · Feb 4, 2008

tell us more.

When you say parameters are in check. What are they?
How much flow do you have? I have a 75 with 6 ph's and a return pump
What is your lighting schedule and kind of lights?
What about feeding? how much do you feed.

like Rev said, are you using RO water or tap?

Pdosen03 · Feb 4, 2008

RO is key...you will def run into problems even with distilled...RO is a MUST

gflat65 · Feb 4, 2008

Check Alk and flow, too. Increasing flow has worked for me a number of times. Never a bad idea to know your alk/dkH...

reef-nut · Feb 5, 2008

Red slime is caused by to many nutrients. It is a bacterial algae. Use freshwater maracyn tablets or powder and it will get rid of it everytime. Use one tablet or capsule for a small tank and 2 for around 50 gallons and 3 for around 100 gallons. It will not hurt fish or coral. Wait about 3 days and do a water change and add more if you need to.

JGoslee · Feb 5, 2008

We need to eliminate the food source of the nuisance algae before you start adding all kinds of chemicals to get rid of it. The first thing I would do is completely clean out the cannister filter and get rid of the biowheel. The canister filter is fine for running carbon but the rest of the media in it is probably full of nitrates and phosphates. I would just use some filter floss and carbon in the magnum cannister. Do you have a lot of live rock in your tank? If so then you don't really need to have the biowheel on your tank. We also need to know what kind of water you are using.

Garth Schafluetzel · Feb 5, 2008

sorry i was celabrating my b-day but yeah im using ro water and i believe its the flow and lighting honestly i have power compacts right now and my tank is been up for about a year or so im about to do a tare down and rebuild with upgrades to equipment and im trying to stay away from chemeicals thats a last resort.

revhtree · Feb 5, 2008

You need to check your PO levels first before you make any decision on what this might be. I have a test kit if you need to borrow it.

Garth Schafluetzel · Feb 6, 2008

with the test i have now it shows that my nitrate is 40ppm, nitrite o ppm, p.h is 8.4 calc is 400 ppm ,kh/gh 214.8ppm do you think the nitrate is the cause?

gflat65 · Feb 6, 2008

Whatever is causing the nitrates is likely the cause (or at least a contributor). If you have nitrite, but no nitrate, something has likely died in the system and hasn't converted to nitrate. What's your NH4? If it is still high, you have some sort of cycle starting back up. If that kh/gh is ppm CaCO3, it is a bit high, too (214ppm =~12dKh, or 4.29 meq/l). Some run their tanks that high, but I prefer to stay below 10 dKh.

salt newbie01 · Feb 7, 2008

I would say with nitrates at 40ppm your phosphates are probably high as well. It seems mine always go up together. you could try a poly filter to help remove the phosphates until you do your upgrade. What type of food do you use? If your using ro/di water then the main way phosphates are going to enter your water would be through food. There are a bunch of us from this forum in chattanooga so let us know if we can help. As Dave said I also have a phosphate test kit I would be happy to let you use. Good luck and let us know if we can help.

Patrick

gflat65 · Feb 7, 2008

Doh. I misread trates and trites...

Garth Schafluetzel · Feb 10, 2008

thanks im actually trying to sell my 14 gal bio cube for funds for the 75 rebuild so if any one is interested let me know and we can discuss something. maybe a trade or something