Need help

I'm very new at this.
My tank is 10 gallons, about six months old with one powerhead and a powerfilter. 10 lbs of live rock 2 inches of live sand.
1 turbo snail, 3 hermit crabs, 5 nerite snails and 10 dwarf cerith.
one mushroom and polyps.
I had green hair algae for about 2 weeks and the only thing I did was cut down the light time and the algae was gone only to be replaced by red slime on the sand only.
what am I doing wrong??

I want to add a fish but scared to kill it.

 

Are you using tap or RO water and how long are the lights on?

 

ari68
great question from anpgp above

sounds to me like your doing nothing wrong at all
What rating is your power head in Gallons per hour please
same question on your filter
Im betting these 2 are placed high in the tank in terms of water output/ return so it makes sense the cyno would be on the sand
do you have a Phosphate test kit and a nitrate test kit?

possibly adding another small power head lower down in your set up (dont point it at the sand) would help matters

as would adding Rhowphos/ Phosban and Seachems Purigen to your filter in mesh bags or pouches

deja vu - I have heard of that before

Steve

 

Algae blooms are normal with a new tank. Especially brown diatoms and cyano bacteria (red slime). The brown diatoms are from all the silicates from all the new equipment in the tank like plastic and silicone and go away in a few months after setup (should be gone in your tank). Red slime feed off of an access in nutrients in your tank such as overfeeding or phospates from water. How often are you doing water changes and are you using RO/DI water or tap water? Most tap water contains phoshpates so this is why I ask. You could try running a phosphate remover pad. Have you checked the nitrate levels in the water? Fish should be fine as long as ammonia and nitrites are at zero, (should be in your tank), and nitrates are below 20, and your temp is around 78 and your specific gravity is around 1.023-1.025

 

I buy the water at Walmart. It says that its RO water.
The lights are on for about 10 hrs

 

RO water from walmart? :-/

 

I would suggest you cut back on the lights. I would say leave them on for about 5 hours and the actinics an hour before and after. I agree with the powerhead suggestion, more flow on the lower level of your tank would help too, as would some phosphate remover.

 

Yeah, I get it too. I always test it, and it's good. It definitely beats tap until you get an RO/DI unit.

 

Is it for drinking?

 

I'm not sure what the outputs are. I do believe that I use RO unless they advertise wrong.
I dont have a Phosphate test but all the other levels are 0.00 (nitrate,nitrate....)