Epic battles of the red slime continue

Well I about had enough of this and cutting my cycle down to 10 hours of actinics and 6 hours of the super whites. I did a major cleaning today and did a 25% water change and blew it off from everywhere with a turkey blaster. I had my mangroves underwater so i made a false rack until they get bigger and I can replant them and the cheato is going good now. I hope it starts to reduce the nitrates, feeding and nitrates are my major battle right now. I think the nitrates are making this stuff go nuts. Im trully about to start dosing with vodka to annilate my levels. There aroun 60 right now which piests me off. I hope since I blew all the red slime off and created 1 hell of a storm in my tank that it wont harm my fish, wish me luck guys!

 

If they are at 60, you need to look into finding the root of what is going on. How much rock do you have? Are you using RO/DI? Whats the stock? How much are you feeding? How is the flow?
Also, mangroves in all honesty do little to nothing in the way of nitrates. Chaeto is better. Halimedia, mermaids fan, shaving brush, and ulva are also excellent.

 

It's been what, a little over a week? Give it time and stick with good practices.

I started fighting off my cyano a few weeks ago. my params are all nailed down and I still have it. I suspect a false 0 on phosphates.

Get a Poly Filter, run that for a few days and see if it starts to die off. If it does get a PhosBan reactor.

I did that, and with the filter pad noticed the cyano died back and took a few days to return. I just added a phosBan reactor w/ PhosGuard and it seems to have done a bit of good. The cyano isn't growing back as quick now. Cutting back on food and adding a big CuC is my next step. I have lots of detritus and that's not helping.

Anyways, don't give up, this is a long fight, but ultimately short in terms of the life of the tank.

I am hoping within a month I'll be in the clear.

And a little bit doesn't hurt anything.... I think most tanks have a small amount.

 

i had this problem in a 55 gal i found that the lack of flow was making dead spots and letting the slime grow so i added 2 k3 s and itworked for a while. in my tank the real problem was tons of ditritus at the base of the rock in the sand. u can get a few sand sifting snails to help move the sand a bit to let the skimmer get it

 

yes use nothign but ro/di,plenty of flow (check my sig). Stock is 2 clowns and a sailfin with alot of CUC. I think it all started due to food buildup in my rocks. When I went to blow it all off i saw how much was stuck in the rock. Im goign to give it a week and see if it comes back and go from there. Ive cut down to feeding evry other day but we shall see.

 

quite happy 6 hours after water change bam nitrates going to 35, from 60 im hella happy right now. Ha and the tops of my mangroves are crazily enough growing since there not underwater anymore. Its going good guys wish me luck before i go nuclear on my tank!

 

Nitrates are one thing, but, they are a separate issue from Cyano bacteria. Many aquarists mistakenly think they have algae when they have bacteria and try treating the cyano bacteria with algae remedies. Flow, dead spots, lights etc. have nothing to do with bacteria out breaks. Nitrate contribute very little to it also. You have to eliminate all of the bacteria food sources. "Red Slime Remover" or "Chemiclean" are the way to do this along with reducing the frequency and the quantity of feeding.

 

Jed good points but as per usual I disagree. While cyano is a bacteria it feeds mostly off of NO3 and PO4. Many people think that since said values are low in the tank, yet cyano still thrives it most NOT be using them..... Well cyano grows where? In areas of low flow.. What collects in areas of low flow? Detritus.. What is detritus? Organic wastes of all sorts that breaks down into NO3 and PO4. The cyano grows on the detritus and utilizes said nutrients before they enter the water column thus preventing us from detecting them with test kits.
Beside from Chemiclean, which is a effective way of removal though nothing more than a band aid, a few things to try are.... DO YOUR WATER CHANGES!!!! How did you get NO3 up to 60ppm anyhow?
Increase flow to dead spots... Blast the rock crevices with a turkey baster and siphon out detritus.... Cut back on feeding and cut out flakes ENTIRELY if you use them. Also rinse frozen in water even better RO water before adding to tank.
Increase pH to sea levels or above(8.0 or better) maintain an increased alkalinity 10dkH or better(not over 14dkh)
Make sure your skimmer is functioning properly. Add new carbon if using or add carbon if not already.
If have access to O3(ozone) use that as it is a very effective oxidizer, you can try potassium permagnate but that can be even more tricky than O3.
Lastly the use of Kalk as topoff will not only help maintain elevated pH and kH but also help precipitate PO4...

I would skip vodka unless you are drinking it as it is a longterm fix as compared to short term, can be very tricky to use, you need to be EXTREMELY diligent and most tanks and threads I have seen using the vodka tend to go south after a few months....

Also try our handy search engine as cyano questions are posted everyday

Happy reefing!

 

Lol well they got that high cuz wifey feed way to much flakes when I was at work and its been a pain gettign them back down. My ph was low last week but leveled out to 8.0 and nitrates are startign to slowly go down. I guess ill go back to my frozen food I made to feed my clowns and nori for my tang. Ill def cut the flakes out but whats the reason behind that. Is it bad?

 

Flakes are EASILY overfeed which that in itself is no good, but also the phosphorus content in flakes is fairy high, animals need it to help grow bones, but with flakes it leeches into the water as PO4 spurring algal and cyano blooms.... Also most if not all of the water soluble vitamins in the flakes end up in the water and not in your fish... Leave the flakes for the guys who keep tetras....I would get that pH up.... Do you use a glass top?