Red Slime Algae

Is their anything that will clear up this nasty red slime algae? I have tryed removing it off my rocks when i clean my tank but it comes back? Is there anything that eats it or any chemical that people have had success with? All my params are good i dont understand why i have this stuff please help

 

I've had luck with some hermits eating the stuff, I believe scarlets and blue legs. You can also turkey baste it, but the best thing to do is to address the nutrient issue thats causing it to grow.

 

Said it once will say it again....

FLOW! Flow is one of your biggest factors with erradication of cyano. Limiting nutrients, this means cut back on feeding, try to cut out flakes if you use them and find a good way to export the nutrients... Be it 'fuge, good skimmer algae turf scrubber or combination.
Use of active carbon will also help take out some organics which could be culprits. Granular ferric oxide hydroxide is also a great PO4 remover. Same goes with products such as Purigen, Phosban, Phosguard and so on...
If you use carbon make sure you change it out monthly and look for COAL based carbon as compared to COCONUT based carbon.
Increased alkalinity(within reef parameters-don't go much higher than 14 dkH) and an increased pH will also help combat it.
Using kalkwasser as your top offs will do both of these as well as help precipitate PO4 and help your skimmer work better! You can also make pickles out of it!

Are you using RO water? If not do so!! When you do your water changes try to remove as much detritus as possible... Get a turkey baster and blast the rocks and siphon out the detritus...

How long has your tank been setup? Remember it is a natural progession as your tank matures...

What else can you do? Tangs in the genus ctenochateus will eat it... dwarf blue leg crabs(clibanarius tricolor) will eat it but you need a small army of them to be effective.

You can also you chemicals such as Boyds Chemi clean as a last resort but get to the root off the problem or it will continue to plague your system.

From the looks of your sig I would skip adding another tang but add more flow, the 2 #3 Koralias is not all the much flow in a 90.. My father in law has 2 #4s in a 75 and its not all that much...

Good luck and remember, we have a great search engine where you would find that this has been addressed many, many times!

 

definitely couldn't have said it better my self.

 

use the search engine here.... Ive posted numerous times myself on this... (might be a good article to write)

But 3 main things that more than likely is the factor here.

1. Overfeeding
2. Not enough flow. May have plenty of flow in certain area but not EVERYWHERE.
3. Water. Mabe your using tap water or not performing as many or the right amount of water during changes.

I support what Dr. Fragenstein posted ( I think this is the 2nd time within 24hrs)

Only thing I wouldnt do is blast off all the red slime away. I would take 3/8" inch tubing and get a siphon going. Siphon out all the red slime. Sucks up really easy. You dont want that swirling all over your tank. Make sure you have some salt water made to replace what you siphon out.

But you definitely wanna address the issue on whats causing this.

 

ok sweet thanks guys

 

not to but in but would it be a good idea to scrape this stuff off from the sand bed.Just wondering.thanks JOE

 

I would siphon it off the sand bed... read my post above in regards to siphoning.
When you have the siphon going... just have it right above the red slime. The red slime will suck right up. You will have some sand be sucked up with the red algae. But it isnt that much

 

Card shark
just in case the previous posters dont re visit this thread

cyno is a slime and tends to peel rather than scrape , syphoning as mentioned above is very effective for removal , you get a bit of sand with it, but only small amount if your carefull

preventing it coming back though - -see previous posts

Steve

 

+1 to everything

removal (manual and cuc - ceriths and nerites eat it) + nutrient export (water changes, macro algae, LR, or denitrator and phosban) = clean tank