red slime chemicals

[RyanBrucks]

I'm a bit surprised that nobody has asked this yet, but what source are you using for your water changes? If you are not using RO water then I highly suggest that you do. If phosphates are indeed the problem (which would be hard to detect, as others pointed out), tap water is a very likely way that it got into your tank.

[Mappelbaum37]

I think I'm gonna hit the sack right about now...Thanks a lot for the help everyone, Tim, I appreciate everything you've done so far. =)

Tomorrow I'll keep you posted, maybe Ill put some pics up, see if the chemi-clean made any progress.

Talk to you tomorrow...

[Mappelbaum37]

No I dont use tap water...I use RO water.

[RyanBrucks]

ok cool, just checking! sometimes it can be the obvious thing


I hope your problem improves with the treatments you are doing. I have a 20G quarantine (currently holding tank until I get my actual tank), and it's got a mild cyano outbreak right now, but I'm not really worried about it. I just got back from vacation a week ago, so I'm pretty sure the house sitter was overfeeding

[Mappelbaum37]

Yeah, it seems that whenever something gets done in the tank, another thing starts up. Its always something though, whether its a filter problem, skimmer problem, algae, fish, corals... Never have a day where I can just sit back and look at the tank.... =(

Soon though, I hope so atleast =)

[RyanBrucks]

do you have a refugium?

[Mappelbaum37]

I have a cpr aquafuge w/ a protein skimmer that has not been setup yet though...

[RyanBrucks]

so you're saying the fuge and the skimmer have not been set up yet?

if your fuge isn't up yet, I would expect that it will improve your cyano problem, because you will be providing a place for macroalgae to flourish, which SHOULD help take up the nutrients that the cyano wants.

sorry if I misunderstood and you already have the fuge running.

and I don't mean to keep you from going to sleep, I'm one of those horrible night owls

[Mappelbaum37]

No problem about the sleep thing... I was actually waiting to set it up because I didnt want to mess anything up because and also because the skimmer is attached to the refugium, so I guess its a combo, so i wouldnt be able to run the refugium until this algae problem is resolved

[RyanBrucks]

well if it were my tank, I'd try getting the refugium/skimmer running before I'd try any chemicals. but this is your tank, and your judgement. I can't imagine the refugium/skimmer messing anything up. if anything it will remove both nutrients and dissolved organics, which should starve the cyano.

have you decided what kind of macro algae to grow yet?

[Lubu]

Your Orp reading will likely go down. I would recommand a ORP controller, otherwise i would turn on the air pump to compensate the lowered ORP.
You should also watch out for the PH, it may also take a hit.
Make sure you have a skimmer on hand, you'll get lots of skimmates after the theatment from the dead bacteria.

[Mappelbaum37]

well so far from what I can see in the tank, im going to be adding some more chemicals after tomorrows water change. I definately see a difference in the slime from what it used to be to now. It used to be long and stringy and now you can barely even see the strings but it is still there. I actually dont think the medication did anything on any of the rocks. I'm a little upset right now in the outcome. Especially if it doesnt work on the next dosage...

[Pmolan]

This is what I would do if I had a problem.......
Make sure your RODI has a tds of ZERO.
Stop feeding shrimp from the grocery store.
Thaw frozen foods in a cup and seperate the liquid from the food.
Syphon all of the red slime that you can.
Install a phosban reactor and media in the sump.
Run the lights on an 8hr cycle when you are home.

[Mappelbaum37]

I just spoke to someone at my LFS i got the slime remover from and he said I got the "wrong one." Supposedly I got chemi-clean but I shouldve gotten a remover made by ultra life. The reason why is because chemi-clean takes a couple of doesage's to work. In their tanks he said they use it 3 times. He also said that they dont do water changes after 48 hours and just keep repeating it until its gone and they just did their weekly water changes.

[Mappelbaum37]

I use ro water for my water changes, feed frozen foods, mysis shrimp, marine flakes, I plan on doing a water change today because it has been a week, and temporarily I am going to use the chemicals. What I did a couple days ago and am thinking of doing now is using a turkey baster and forcing water on the red slime on the rocks so it falls off and then suck it up in the turkey baster.

[Mappelbaum37]

The tank looks a lot better- It has been 48 hours since I added the medication. The red slime that didnt go away on the rocks I can see they sort of look goldish... Is this normal?

[Mappelbaum37]

by the way thanks for all of your help everyone. I really appreciate it