Red Slime argh...

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elphaba

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bi-weekly 20% water changes, sometimes more.
24 gal jbj reef
Parameters:
Nitrites >.01
Nitrates .0
Salinity 1.025
phosphates 0
ammonia 0
pH8.0. and add pH buffer every other week and it has always rested about 8.0

I've had red slime since about February... I've changed lights, carbon, added phosphate remover, phos ban, siphoned sand, scrubbed LR, and Ultralife Red slime remover. I tried chemipure with success ages ago... that success was never achieved again.

One thing I didn't do with Ultralife the first time was take out the carbon. This time I took out the carbon, waited, added the next dose after 48 hours... it's been 96 and STILL NOTHING. Red Slime, completely unfazed.

It's not like if grows at an exponential rate, it's just there. I clean off the rocks, it comes right back... just hanging out like a blob of gross red bubbly grossness. I'm starting to think I should just grow to love the junk.

Any takers on this mysterious possibility?
 
the cyano is eating the nitrates before they show up on your test. if your phosphates are 0, then it is the nitrates feeding it. only leave the lights on for 8 hours a day and increase the CUC. might want to add some zebra hermit crabs, they will eat the cyano. any crabs are good for eating left over food. If you are using frozen foods rinse them by poking holes in a plastic cup and draining the water out (you can just stack the solo cup in another cup w/o holes). just to keep extra nutrients out of the tank. I researched it a lot.

I was having various algae problems, ever since adding 12 turbo snails the tank has been clean. They will clean a whole tank in 24 hrs lol, but they will also knock over corals, which can be bad obviously. good luck

Edit: forgot to mention you can easily siphon it out of the tank. I used airline tubing so I could take my time. do the same to suck out uneaten food
 
What are u using to test phos? And do u have a rodi ? Buy water at lfs? Publix? Sink? If ur using api test kit they dont detect low phos rating. Red alage is all from waste.
 
+1. Both times I've gotten it were from over feeding. Once I stopped, took a few months to completely recover.
 
yeah it's either nitrate or phosphate. if you really have 0 ppm on both, there wouldn't be red slime.
 
I had the same red slime in mine.
It cropped up about a month after I got the tank up and running. We were doing two (at least two) things that were contributing to the problem.

<ol>
<li>Over feeding</li>
<li>Leaving the lights on for 12+ hours a day.</li>
</ol>
We cut back on the feeding and after researching the red slime, I turned off the lights for 3 days.
Then I did a water change and sucked up as much of the slime that was left as I could. I picked up about a pound of substrate as well but...the slime is gone and has not returned.


Your results may vary but I'm impressed with how it worked out for me.
 
Thanks all. Maybe the obvious escapes me but, I feel bad if I go for more than 2 days without feeding the fishies. I usually feed once a day to every other day. Lights are on from 11am-9pm... hey, thats 10 hours, I'll take it down to 8 and see how things fare.

I forgot but, I had actually done a few days of lights off in all this but, it's been a couple months.

As for testing, I usually take it to the store. The only reason I got them to test phosphates for me now is because, they tell me all is well and, I have to express the many issues that are actually occurring... like unhappy coral. I think the coral is re-bounding now but, algae is an issue still. Granted I think they use API.

I think I read the slime remover alters pH... I tested before and after use. Surprising to find it rose my pH to an acceptable level.

OOp... and I buy store mixed water. Usually from Optimum or Premier... Thought I bought a water card so, it will be Premier for the next 50 gallons.
 
hmmmmm..... well. nothing wrong with feeding your fish once a day. wouldn't do every other day but that's just me. at least once a day. just not too much. bump up the Clean Up Crew, cant hurt. you're never wasting $ on hermit crabs and snails lol.

Edit: hate to say it's the store water... but it's either that or what you are feeding. how often do you do a WC

Edit: edit: my bad. bi weekly 20%
well 20% twice a week can't beat that really. I would imagine your nitrates are pretty low doing WC so often.
If it were me I would wait for it to go away (you have) and then start siphoning it out. it doesn't stick to things or grab like algae does, its actually not algae its bacteria. try starting a siphon with airline tubing and see if it sucks up the tube easily. you should be able to get a lot out. first time I tried vacuuming with airline I was surprised how strong it pulls.. kept picking up frags with it by sucking polyps up the tube. and you can take your time, unlike when using gravel vacs such as pythons etc
 
You might try running GFO, it made a difference for me. And i've yet to find a reliable phosphate test. Except for visual hair algae/cyano. I had some issues and after vacuuming it with a 15% WC every week and using GFO it went away. Also blew out the rocks and scraped all the algae off the walls I could. Let my filter socks catch all the crap for a couple hours then swapped to new socks.

I used the chemipure elite a couple times, but it's not nearly as good as changing carbon/gfo every couple of weeks I found. And it's expensive.
 
Once a day definitely isn't too much. It may just be a factor of how much</em> you're feeding when you feed.

And keep in mind -- if it is</em> due to over feeding -- even after you stop, it could take what seems like forever for it to clear up.
 
ShanePike;861187 wrote: words words words...

it could take what seems like forever for it to clear up.
Click to expand...

I've found this is true for every cyano outbreak I've ever had. 3 weeks of twice weekly 20% water changes, a 3 day blackout period, and manual removal every day (plus vodka dosing for low nutrients) finally did the trick for me.

I started to see a few threads yesterday though :( :( :(
 
JDavid;861092 wrote: hmmmmm..... well. nothing wrong with feeding your fish once a day. wouldn't do every other day but that's just me. at least once a day. just not too much. bump up the Clean Up Crew, cant hurt. you're never wasting $ on hermit crabs and snails lol.

Edit: hate to say it's the store water... but it's either that or what you are feeding. how often do you do a WC

Edit: edit: my bad. bi weekly 20%
well 20% twice a week can't beat that really. I would imagine your nitrates are pretty low doing WC so often.
If it were me I would wait for it to go away (you have) and then start siphoning it out. it doesn't stick to things or grab like algae does, its actually not algae its bacteria. try starting a siphon with airline tubing and see if it sucks up the tube easily. you should be able to get a lot out. first time I tried vacuuming with airline I was surprised how strong it pulls.. kept picking up frags with it by sucking polyps up the tube. and you can take your time, unlike when using gravel vacs such as pythons etc
Click to expand...


I meant every other week... maybe thats bi-monthly, oops. I have to scrub it off because it's never thick enough to just suck off. I mean, I've had it that thick and all over before but, this is like... that, "I'm going to grow in 5 spots and hold ground." It's not taking over. I may have spoke too soon on the treatment b/c it's starting to thin out in some spots. However, I recall Chemipure just made it detach.

Edit:
outdrsyguy1;861166 wrote: You might try running GFO, it made a difference for me. And i've yet to find a reliable phosphate test. Except for visual hair algae/cyano. I had some issues and after vacuuming it with a 15% WC every week and using GFO it went away. Also blew out the rocks and scraped all the algae off the walls I could. Let my filter socks catch all the crap for a couple hours then swapped to new socks.

I used the chemipure elite a couple times, but it's not nearly as good as changing carbon/gfo every couple of weeks I found. And it's expensive.
Click to expand...

I get better results with base Chemipure... Something's off about Chemipure elite in my tanks. You are correct about the expense, I may swap. My 10 gal does just fine on basic Seachem carbon.

Edit:
ShanePike;861187 wrote: Once a day definitely isn't too much. It may just be a factor of how much</em> you're feeding when you feed.

And keep in mind -- if it is</em> due to over feeding -- even after you stop, it could take what seems like forever for it to clear up.
Click to expand...


Once in awhile I'll lose a cube of mysis to an over zealous fish. It depends on the food. A few good solid chunks of squid, squid puree, cyclopeeze, occasional pellet... blood worms aren't so bad as everybody scarfs them down with none escaping to the scavengers. I usually stick to mysis and bloodworms since I have one picky cardinal that refuses to eat anything else... actually, I forgot, he might only eat the blood worms. That was really fun for the first month after I brought him home from the store. Store guy swore the school ate pellet. Maybe mine's special.

Edit:
McPhock;861197 wrote: I've found this is true for every cyano outbreak I've ever had. 3 weeks of twice weekly 20% water changes, a 3 day blackout period, and manual removal every day (plus vodka dosing for low nutrients) finally did the trick for me.

I started to see a few threads yesterday though :( :( :(
Click to expand...

What's up with vodka dosing? I remember reading something about that awhile ago but, I forgot what it was for.
 
What type of lights do you have? 10 hours of whites (if LEDs) is too long IMHO. I keep my LED blues on for 11 hours, but whites at 100% intensity for about 5 hrs max. Also Keep in mind that Cyano is a bacteria, not the typical algae. I have used Chemiclean with great success (just treated my 125 last wekk and within 48 hrs it was cleared up)
Also, try adding additional flow with some more power heads. Good strong flow will deter it's grfowth as well.
 
Y-Not;861073 wrote: I had the same red slime in mine.
It cropped up about a month after I got the tank up and running. We were doing two (at least two) things that were contributing to the problem.

<ol>
<li>Over feeding</li>
<li>Leaving the lights on for 12+ hours a day.</li>
</ol>We cut back on the feeding and after researching the red slime, I turned off the lights for 3 days.
Then I did a water change and sucked up as much of the slime that was left as I could. I picked up about a pound of substrate as well but...the slime is gone and has not returned.


Your results may vary but I'm impressed with how it worked out for me.
Click to expand...

+1 on the 3 days =72 hour lights out. I did this last week , now all the algae is gone!! yes i overfed and lights were on too long. the tank is crystal clear after the 72 hour lights out process. It worked but you may have a Anemone split during lights out. I had one to split, other corals look great1
 
So, by day 8 the slimy junk was gone but, I pushed on to the 13. On day 11, I noticed red slime back again.

So I syphoned and, looked up Old Tank Syndrome.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/5/aafeature2">http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/5/aafeature2</a>

Perhaps my care level over the years has led to this. I have had the rock for about 6 years. It may be time to trade out for new LR. Of course, as I wanted, corals have grown on to the rocks. Way to shoot my self in the foot but...

Back to more frequent water changes and a 72 hour lights out.
Poor fishies. 3 days of darkness is about to befall them.

I'll buy a new set of Coralife 36W 10K Straight Pin PC bulb/Coralife 36W Actinic Straight Pin PC bulbs this weekend. I'm sure it's time again. Been fighting this crap through an almost 6 month lifecycle of PCs)
 
I only cut the room light(close to tank) on to feed them , after an hour I cut the room light back off. I cut back on light cycle from11 hrs to 7-1/2 and only feeding heavy once a day
 
I always suggest nutrient control, i.e., weekly large water changes, gfo, carbon dosing, etc...some sort of export system....

just use chemi-clean

follow instructions to the "T", and it works great! once or twice a year, good to go.
 
I used Chemiclean in the past with success... then, the last few times I tried it, nothing. I believe in evolution... anyways, I got the lights on for the daily hour in the 72 hour lights off and...

I think I'm ready for new rock. Of course this makes me greatly regret my decision to ignore what you all call "pests." The last pass with aptasiaX seems to have done in the majanos just fine. I have a hearty amount of asterina stars which seem to stick to eating algae.

It's a constant thought in the back of my mind that I either can't, won't, don't want do as much maintenance as is needed for this to thrive. ****it this tank was a prize 6 months ago... I think after this next set of lights, perhaps even a change of LR, I may be done. (How many times have I said that :doh:)
 
You should look into nutrient control. Dosing vodka is fantastically cheaper and works much better....for me... than GFO, etc.
 
McPhock;866418 wrote: You should look into nutrient control. Dosing vodka is fantastically cheaper and works much better....for me... than GFO, etc.
Click to expand...


I do believe this is the next step.
 
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