How to get rid off these red slime?

yvr · Jul 7, 2011

You can try and siphon out what you can to remove the algae in the short term and adding more flow via powerheads as suggested should help too. Cyano problems are usually caused by aquarium water with excess nutrients like phosphate, nitrates etc. In the long term you may have to examine how you care for your tank. There are some commercial dry foods also contain excess nutrients and other undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc so I strain/rinse my fresh/frozen foods before feeding my tank. You may want to consider feeding your fish less often. Also using RO/DI water and a high quality salt with little if any NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin will really help too. Adding a phosphate remover and increasing flow in your tank may help too.

leighton1245 · Jul 7, 2011

m2434 said: ↑

I do have anthias. That misses the point some, although, I'm not suggesting to feeding large quantities 4-5 times per day. However, spreading out the proper amount of food over multiple feedings is always better than less feedings with the same total amount of food. I am a big believer in proper feeding and have found keeping feeding input constant and at a proper level for the biomass of the system is the best way to reduce nutrients, nuisance algae, cyano ect... I'll try to explain my reasoning a bit...

Everything in the tank, from microbes to macro algae, to fish needs food. In this case, the tank is dominated with caulerpa, which is an extremely efficient nitrate scavenger. When inorganic nitrate is low, the caulerpa can't metabolize inorganic nutrients, such as phosphate as fast and it accumulates. The cyano does not need nitrate, just phosphate. So, there is an accumulation of phosphate, which now can drive the growth of cyano.

So first on my list:
1) Run GFO change out often.
This is a way to remove the excess phosphate that is accumulating.

2nd on my list
2) 15%ish per week water changes using RO/DI water.
Cyano can feed on organics, so, removing them via dillution is helpful. Also, macro algae such as caulerpa can be limited by trace elements, so, this helps replenish them.
It should help dilute PO4 too, if a pure water source is used.

3) Run lots of carbon and change out weekly.
Carbon is an extremely efficient scavenger of organics, which can directly, or indirectly, though decay, drive cyano. This should probably be #2 as it IME, after GFO, is most important in fighting cyano.

4) Wet skim
Similar to carbon, just less efficient, but cheaper.

6) don't overfeed
There is a difference between underfeeding and proper feeding. It's not just fish you should be thinking of though. Everything in your tank needs to eat. If it doesn't it dies off. Sponges, turnicates, algae etc.. will die off if the tank is underfed. This is a problem, as it will prevent the nutrients from going down, as die-off occurs. Maybe more importantly, all of these organisms, have potent antibiotic and other alleopathic chemicals. When they die, these chemicals can fuel further die off... A proper feeding level will result in the lowest nutrient level.

5) siphon out existing cyano, or increase flow to get cyano and detritus into water column to be skimmer out.
Cyano can store phosphate and can share useful products with various bacteria in the mats it forms. Sometimes once it's there, the only way to efficiently remove it is via manual methods.

6) Good clean up crew to consume excess food.
Anything to keep excess food from settling and collecting is beneficial as cyano will often have first dibs on these types of resources. The CUC will help break down these organic sources into inorganic fertilizer, which will tend to benefit the macro algae more than the cyano. Then can be exported by harvesting the macro algae.

So, especially considering my comments for #6, underfeeding is bad. However, it goes further. Going back to my first comments if there is insufficient input of nitrate i.e. food, the caulerpa and other algae will tend to slow down. This will give cyano an advantage. It's even likely that the algae will begin to die off and the cyano will directly feed on the decaying organic byproducts. So, in many instances, underfeeding will drive cyano.
Click to expand...

Very nice post i agree 100% and use RODI water lol

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How to get rid off these red slime?

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How to get rid off these red slime?

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