Red Slime Remover .... How long will tank be ORANGE?

[redspot321]

Hi Cemi Clean did not work for me, so Im trying RSL.

Has anyone used this before? How long will my tank be orange?

[snowhitejolf]

HOW MUCH YOU PUT IN

[redspot321]

I put in 8 scoops....One per 15 gallons.



125Fo

[NJGOONIES]

i've used it and it first of all it works great! It seems to take less than 24 hrs

[beachroadbum]

I would avoid red slime removers.

[redspot321]

Originally posted by jaredt
I would avoid red slime removers.


Why?

[luger]

After dosage is done you need to do a large water change,run fresh carbon and if you have a polyfilter pad use it .Then water will clear up.Just be carefull when you put skimmer back on,it will overflow like crazy.

[BtheReef]

It's been awhile since I was in the game, but I'll give this my best shot. Some of you vets may need to correct me... here goes

First, red slime is actually a cyanobacteria. It's commonly thought to be a 'missing link' between primordial bacteria and early algaes that could use sunlight to photosynthesize and create their own food.

What's up with the biology lesson you may be asking. Well, since red slime is a bacteria, you can use simple antibiotics to kill it very quickly (which obviously you can't use to kill something like hair algae). Many red slime cures use this antibiotic method to eleminate the cyanobacteria. I'm not familiar with RSL, but here are the main reasons you usually shouldn't use a 'quick fix' red slime remover.

1. If its based on antibiotics, you are going to kill beneficial bacteria along with the cyanobacteria.

2. You should never want to initiate a mass killing of anything in your tank. All the red slime is organic matter that will begin to decay and rot in the tank once it's dead. This can lead to even bigger problems than the slime itself.

3. Using an antibiotic too often will simply cause the bacteria to mutate into resistant strains. I've seen people use this methods 2-3 times and with each application, less and less of the slime is killed.

The question you should be asking is not how to get rid of it, but why is it there in the first place. I'm sure there are many excellent threads in the forum discussing the effects of excess nutrients and how to lower these, because this is probably why you have the problem in the first place. Fix this and the red slime will go away without resorting to band-aid measures like most of these products are.

In effect, you are turning up the radio to fix the knocking sound in your engine.

I hope this helps (and that I remember my biology correctly).

[Bebo77]

Good Post Reef but i too have had red slime and it does not go away without a fight. I had to use RSR twice and this time i let it sit in the tank for 10 days, i then started water changes and carbon to get it out. I dont see it at all now... Leave it for at least 10 days or you wont kill it all.

[BtheReef]

Thanx Bebo,

Yes, cyanobacteria is very tricky because it can multiply so quickly. I'm not sure what the exact numbers for it are, but it doubles every cycle which can cause a massive bloom in a short amount of time, even if there is only a small amount to start with.

One good thing about it is that you can usually siphon it out fairly easily. It should come out in mats and peel right of the surface of whatever it is growing on, even sand. Definately easier than having to scrub algae off rocks!

I have had cyano problems in the past and was able to get rid of them by with a secret, free ingredient... patience.

Good luck with the tanks!

[BtheReef]

Looks like there has been an extended discussion about this in this thread:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=500934

A lot of people talking about the EM trick. I didn't read very far into it, but I personally have a problem with these quick fix remedies.