Need an ID and Experience

L

ltidwell1

New Member
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Basically I need to figure out what this stuff is. I first spotted it about 2 months ago and believed it to be Red Slime. As it began to take over the tank noticed unusual properties about it like that it only appears in the highest flow areas of the tank. It also doesn't look red, its a brownish,yellow in color. I think it's brown slime now but I'd like a second opinion on it and possibly some advice.

My tank parameters are:
Gross water volume: 75 gallons
Nitrate: 0 ppm (Undetectable)
Phosphate: 0 ppm (Undetectable)
Alkalinity: 14 dKH
Ph: 7.8

The tank has been up for over 2 years, but was not maintained well and became over run by algae, until about 4 months ago. All the algae was removed and the tanks parameters were moved to reasonable levels.

I run a reef octopus skimmer which is rated for more than the tanks Gross water volume. I also run a UV sterilizer, and recently started vodka dosing to which I have had much success reducing the nitrates but the slime still covers everything even after removing it repeatedly.

If you need to know anymore information feel free to ask in the thread.
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>
fieldset>
 
my guess would be diatoms and the cause is likely the vodka dosing.
 
I actually just started vodka dosing the tank a little over 1 week ago, while the brown slime problem has been present for over 2 months, while I've never heard of vodka dosing causing Diatoms, It could be contributing to it but I don't think it is the main source of the problem.
 
Depending on what you have in the tank, kill the light for bout 3 days and starve the algae of light, cut back on feeding inhabitants as much as you can.
What type of lights are you running?
If t5 check your bulbs or change to new ones.
 
I am currently running two 175 watt 14k metal halides with two t5 fluorescent bulbs. the t5's are new but the metal halide bulbs are getting old.

I think I'll give the 3 day black-out a try. During this time do I need to cover the tank to insure absolutely no light enters or is it fine to just leave the aquarium lights out during the time. Also do I need to turn the lights on momentarily for feeding or let the fish just use their noses?
 
You can turn it on to feed, just don't leave them on.
As bulbs get old they lose they original color spectrum which would put you slim algae in over drive.
You do not need to cover the tank unless it's located where it get a lot of sun light, which would be a bad location anyway.
If you can get in there and clean as much of the algae out as you can, run the skimmer and socks to catch all it can.
 
Whats your water temp. Set at?
What size uv and what you think your flow rate is though it?
 
Ive read about small outbreaks during the initial stages of vodka dosing. But, they reported most of them going away. Im teetering on whether I want to take it on myself.
 
Great advice above. Just to add a little something to the discussion. You can turn on your lights for the 3 or 4 mins you feed your poor light deprived fish. Lol
 
MYREEFCLUB0070;958839 wrote: Whats your water temp. Set at?
What size uv and what you think your flow rate is though it?
Click to expand...

The temp run from 80-84 fahrenheit in the day, and around 78 at night. I'm currently looking into ways to cool the tank. The UV sterilizer is the Coralife Turbo Twist 3x (9 watt) the flow is a little less than 100Gph. One thing that I thought is that possible the plastic tubing I bought from Lowe's could be leaching something in the tank, but I'm really unsure when it comes to what tubing is safe and what is not.
 
Bcavalli;958842 wrote: Ive read about small outbreaks during the initial stages of vodka dosing. But, they reported most of them going away. Im teetering on whether I want to take it on myself.
Click to expand...

I really enjoy doing the vodka dosing. Its cheep and seems to be very effective. If you don't want to drop the money on getting reactors and running GFO and running organic carbon pellets I would definitely suggest trying vodka dosing. I found this site very helpful. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/">http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/</a>
I'm new to the hobby and have just started vodka dosing, so make sure to do your own homework.
 
Just an update on the situation.
I performed the 72 hour black out after doing a heavy clean up of all the slime in the tank. During the blackout there was no growth as expected. As soon as the lights came on the slime began to grow again, but not as fast as before. Over time its still getting as bad as it was before.
Under the circumstances of having a old tank that was let go, and semi-large water changes to restore its levels. Could my tank be going through a mini-cycle phase. also I checked my ammonia I got a reading just slightly above 0.1 and below 0.2, and i have added around 7 fish to the aquarium in 3 months from restoring it. The only issue with that is that the slime has been there for 2 months and the ammonia has just recently become detectable.
What is your guys thoughts on this?
should I just give it more time and work around it, or should i look into medications possible, or do you have nay other ideas?
 
Cool the temp, the warmer the water the faster it grows. If you could keep the temp at 77 you would see a huge improvement. Do it slowly over a period of days, all changes should be slow in this hobby...
 
I had a mild algae problem awhile back. Soon as I changed my lights out with new bulbs it went away. I would get new bulbs and go from there. If they are old they need replacing anyway. You may see a vast improvement .
 
hate to say it, but if you cant get it under control, you might be looking at a tank break down and a super cleaning.
it might be a chemical reaction and the sand or rocks could be leching something cause i don't see anything in the tank other than rock and sand, fish would cause that amount of slime.
that uv i would say is to small, the high temp would boost algae growth(cooling fans if you don't have a chiller).
do a chemical treatment for the algae before considering a break down and see if that helps.
a bigger uv with slow flow will kill all water born algae in the water and prevent regrowth.
 
Thanks for all the advice I will get some new lights since i need to anyways and cool the tank over time, and see where to go from there. If I don't see Improvement Ill look into water treatments and go from there.
Ill keep the Thread updated as I try things.
Thanks for all the advice!
 
So, I finally got the lights in and ran them for a week, but to no success. Following the blackout I did about a month ago I also changed the flow in the tank. This seems to have slowed the growth of the slime on the sand bed and some rocks, but it still is present. The growth has slowed over the entire tank as well, but the slime is still causing trouble with covering certain coral. I would like to avoid a complete breakdown if possible, but the idea isn't impossible. I'm looking into getting a larger UV sterilizer that will fit the tank.
If you guys have any more suggestions fire away. I'm pretty stumped at this point and the last actions I feel I can take are the UV sterilizer, and chemical treatment before a complete breakdown.
BTW. The new lights look great, thanks for pushing me into that one!
 
How often do you do water changes and what % of water do you change out? Have you changed your RODI filter media? When I have problems with my tanks I do a few extra 20% water changes and siphon the top layer of sand in the bad areas. I feed very heavy and when I get a new fish I feed 4-5 times a day to help with aggression and I usually get slime. I know yours may be caused by something else but dilution of whatever is causing the problem may keep you from doing a tank breakdown. Some of my tanks are 5-7+ years old. Holley:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

birdsafari
School Reef Tank Build
2
Replies
28
Views
2K
Jikkermanccini
Jikkermanccini
M
What is This?
Replies
9
Views
426
bhodges82
bhodges82
jwils27
Creature ID?
Replies
3
Views
321
jwils27
jwils27
K
Vacation pics
Replies
3
Views
253
bcavalli
B
P
New tank build progress post.
2
Replies
23
Views
1K
pcmc3
P
Back
Top