Red/Green Slime Remover

Alright just pm me

 

Update: The snails seem to be doing a job on the red slime but I don’t think I have enough to get rid of it completely especially the hard to get areas such as the return pipes. I was wondering if the bio balls in my wet dry are causing this. On a side note after I moved my T5 lights closer to the water my temps have been 80 to 81 with the fan on. I only moved the lights about 5 inches closer, but i would not expect it to jump from 76 to 80. Do you think it’s the lights or maybe a pump running hot?

 

FYI nothing eats cyano other than maybe a cucumber, the snails are most likely just going over it and turning the sand so you believe they're eating it. There is no creature that is consistently known to eat it or it would be widely advertised and always out-of-stock. Some snails or crabs may pick at it but it's extremely hit or miss.

Red slime happens because there's a buildup of some nutrient in your tank. You need to figure out what is causing it, dosing chemiclean may fix it temporarily but beating it naturally is the most foolproof way it won't return.

I beat mine naturally and it took me about 6 weeks but I've never seen a trace of it again.

I will find an old post of mine with basic tips to help.

 

Maybe these tips will help:

Dosing chemicals is like using a "band aid". You will get much better piece of mind when you find out what is the cause of the cyano and along the way you will gain better tank husbandry IMO.

Here are a few things I did to rid myself of the red slime:

- use RO/DI water only, that tests at 0 TDS
- cut back on your feeding, I went from once a day to every three days
- rinse any frozen foods prior to feeding (in RO water if you can)
- ramp up circulation in any dead areas of the tank
- pick out any clumps of red slime you can, use baster/siphon/tongs
- double your water changes to keep Nitrate down
- clean out all powerheads/skimmer/filters etc.
- make sure your bulbs are still good
- cut back your light cycle by maybe 40%
- make sure your tank isn't overstocked
- run a phosphate remover (I use a reactor with Chemi Pure Elite)

It seems like a lot of work, but it's much better getting rid of it naturally then wondering when it may come back if you dose with chemicals.

 

- use RO/DI water only, that tests at 0 TDS "I will definitely going to check this. I get my RO from the fish store and I dont want to say but I am going to... that ever since I have been getting water from my lfs i have seen all types of algae problems."
- cut back on your feeding, I went from once a day to every three days "Have been feeding every three days for about 4 months now"
- rinse any frozen foods prior to feeding (in RO water if you can) "Using reef food already soaked in garlic and aloe"
- ramp up circulation in any dead areas of the tank "Have a Koralia 2 and 850, plus 4 return lines."
- pick out any clumps of red slime you can, use baster/siphon/tongs "Only do it on the water changes... Will begin to use the baster every night"
- double your water changes to keep Nitrate down "Tests show 0 nitrates (I am sure the algae is making this a falso 0) but do a water change once every 2 weeks."
- clean out all powerheads/skimmer/filters etc. "Everything is cleaned out except the powerheads which I shall do this week"
- make sure your bulbs are still good "Bulbs are 10 months old. Do you think they are still good?"
- make sure your tank isn't overstocked "1 blue hippo, 1 pygmy, 1 engineer goby, and 1 false perc."
- run a phosphate remover (I use a reactor with Chemi Pure Elite) "I use rowa stuffed in a media bag"

 

I had this problem big time when i went a way for 2weeks in my 31g.

To fix it all it did was put a power head at the bottom and run my lights only 4-hours a day for 4 or 5 days not sure. I also cleaned out my filter and ran carbon like crazy and did water changes of 5g ever other day.

It was everywhere sand,rock,glass................

Never use fish feeders.

 

thats alot of realy nice info