cyanobacteria...

[cmchap]

Aside from the standard treatment of water changes, increased current flow, decreased feedings and light levels..has anyone here ever used Boyd chemiclean in a fight against red slime (cyanobacteria). Although to date my tank has never been "treated" with anything and I much prefer it that way, I am really tempted to try this allegedly reef safe product out. my tank is only 6 mos. established contains no corals just base rock and live rock, live sand and a cleanup crew. only fish is a firefish. but red slime bloom going on 4 weeks now...hate the look of it.
thanks -Chris

[Jay4Robin]

i would just suck up the slime make sure you have a power head in that area. Using the chems to kill it may also kill other bacteria that you need. Everything has a side effect.
Any cyno killer is a antibiotic.

[mebarryb]

I used the Red Slime remover once and it worked great with no tank side effects, I think its by UltraLife.

[Ciali]

I couldn't find Red Slime Remover, so I used chemiclean and it cleaned up nicely.

[rmesola]

i used chemi clean in my 29 gal before and it worked... for 2 weeks.. then the slime was back..

no effects on my tank inhabitants that i could tell

[Jay4Robin]

you are trying to correct a problem that is due to a inbalance in the tank. What is fueling the problem?? Thats is the trick you have with a reef system. remove the food source and then it will clear up on its own. I have tryed all the above. If you remove the nitrates the phosphates and get great circulation and put very very little food in the tank it will clear up. Syphon out the slime and I bet it will go away. JMO.
I also found a sand a few star fish do help keep the bottom moving and clear.

[cmchap]

I'm pretty sure my initial problem started as the result of using tap water to "top off' my tank. I currently have no source of RO/DI, but understand that my lfs will sell it to me if I bring in jugs for transport. I'm annoyed at myself...I know better just tried to cut a corner...ammonia, nitrate, nitrite all testing nicely. I havent a phosphate test kit but my guess is I might have introduced an excess of same.
Chris

[billpa]

I've used Chemi-clean to get a grip on the problem in a friends tank, and then took some appropriate measures ie fuge, increased flow, etc. to prevent it from coming back.

HTH

billpa

[rmesola]

go on ebay and find a cheap ro for around 150... it will be cheaper in the long run than buying at the lfs...

[Zedar]

Do a search on ebay for aqua safe. They sell ro/di units for $89. 100 gallons a day.

No excuse to not have one at that price.

Ive had mine for a year and I just replaced the filters this week. $20 a year to replace the filters.

[Stixbaraca]

If you don't have the money to put out right now for an RO/DI unit. Do what I do...buy gallons of distilled water at the grocerie store. I buy it for top off and water changes. Sure in the long run it would be cheaper to buy the unit...but it is a lot up front. Genuardi's usually has the water for around .60 a gallon and Giant has it for like .80 a gallon...sometimes with your Giant card it is only .50 a gallon. When I first started off I used to go to an unnamed LFS and buy their RO water...until I had a cyano outbreak once...and tested their water they were selling as RO...it had to be just plain tap water...or they don't clean/change they're filters AT ALL.

[Zedar]

Yeah i think i know what store you're talking about. I measured their water with a TDS meter and found it to be the same as my tap water.

Acme also sells purified water that reads 4 ppm on a TDS meter.

[MinibowMatt]

Stix--Wally World has DI for .58 p/gallon all the time...
They also sell RO water that is packaged as "drinking water" It says it is purified by RO and ozone...

[frank2926]

I was dealing with it for a while on a 10 gal nano. doing 100 percent water changes weekly it still wouldnt go away. I removed all the substrate did a water change and it was gone and has not come back. From what I understand phosphorus gets absored by the substrate and the rock and will just leach back to the water.