Red Algae (Red Slime), it won't go away

[xzotika1]

Hello All: I would sure appreciate your input in regards to my red algae problem. It just grows all over my sand and is ugly. I'm ready to throw my tank out the window. I was told to use miacin tabs but that isn't keeping the problem under control at all. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to rectify this problem I would be forever grateful.

signed

tanked out

[tank_keeper_516]

Check ur phosphates, which will most likely read zero. Either way, run phosguard or some other phosphate sponge. Chemi pure elite has had some good reviews and I use chemi clean red slime remover when I have a flair up of the stuff and it works great in my tanks. Fwc help too

[drummereef]

xzotika1,


[welcome]

[Thunder1ips]

How long r you running your lights at this time. How much flow is there? How long has your tank been set up? Whats Nitrates at ?
While in this stage of the game. You need to be patient.

[bertoni]

The chemical solutions are usually temporary band-aids, and have crashed tanks. If you're going to try that, I'd suggest siphoning out as much cyanobacteria as possible just before treating.

In general, starving the cyanobacteria can be a more permanent solution. Using a phosphate sponge like PhosBan is one common approach. This article has a number of ideas, although it's written in terms of a nitrate problem:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

Two of the more popular ideas are better skimming, and growing and harvesting a macroalga. Checking the feeding levels is also worth doing.

[xzotika1]

Hi guys I am still at the ugly stage in my tank I think, it is a 75 gallon with a 3 1/2" sand bed, has about 70-80 lbs of live rock and was set up around 4 months ago, I am running 2 power heads, a large skimmer and an over the top filter without the media (just for the additional water movement). The lights stay on about 9 hours a day and the moonlights are on for a few more. The nitrates in the tank are still working on stabilizing, and I usually keep them below 40 at this point. The tank has been working on cycling out so they have spiked a few times. This is the first time I have set up a reef from scratch and it is much harder than I thought it would be.

[bertoni]

How much food is going into the tank?

Siphoning out the red slime will help export nutrients, if you have the time and energy.

[xzotika1]

I feed on brine cube about every three or so days occasionally I will replace that with a cube of frozen b. worms but it is only once every three or so days, I just replaced my skimmer 2 days ago

[bertoni]

I don't know how big the cubes are, but I'd probably feed perhaps 1/4 of a cube of frozen Formula per day, as a starting point. I think big nutrient spikes from infrequent feeding are more likely to cause algal problems, personally.

The new skimmer might help a lot, though.

[fijiblue]

Let's keep in mind cyano is a bacteria, not an algae. Bacteria feeds on carbon sources, not directly nitrate/phosphate. Look at co2 saturation in your tank. Is your ph suppressed? Do you have a glass top or cover on your tank? Poor Flow? High fish load? Try more evap with a fan, more surface disturbance and possibly more coral or macro algae - both will utilize co2 during photosynthesis.

[bertoni]

Cyanobacteria are capable of photosynthesis, and I believe they can consume nitrate and phosphate from the water column. Also, some are capable of fixing nitrogen.

[stony_corals]

Jonathan's correct, despite cyano being a bacterium, it is capable of photosynthesis, and hence may be consuming nutrients....

Test your tank with good test kits. Hanna/Deltec for phosphate, or Seachem's NO3 (heard API's is good too, but I haven't used it).

[xzotika1]

Thanks for all of the good info guys we will see what we can do with it