Red Slime

I have had a problem with red slime for a few weeks now and yesterday, I noticed that the red slime is turning to green. I have not used any chemicals as of yet. Basically, I just added some Margarita Snails at the suggestion of my LFS. So, what is happening?

 

how long has ur tank been setup? Params? would help

 

i dont think margarita snails will do the trick with the red slime. the red stuff is called cyanobacteria so its not quite an algae. chances are that you have some excess nutrients in your system like nitrates and phosphates or a lack of oxygen to the tank.

i would:
-increase flow to areas which the slime are present
-sypon as much red slime while water changing. keep up weekly water changes.
-clean all filters/sponges/powerheads etc...
-run some carbon
-find ways to get more oxygen to the tank. water movement at surface. use of skimmer
-lower feeding amount

just some ways to help get rid of it

 

Thanks Craft Kid21, and Nu-2reef. My tank has been set up for about 3 months and my parameters are: PH= 8.3
SG= 1.024
PO= .2
NH4= 0
NO2= 0
My tank is a 90 gal. reef, T-5 lighting (on 8 hrs.) Reef Master 100 refugium(lights on 24/7), SeaStorm 75 skimmer, Carbon reactor, Rio 2100 return pump and I use a MP40 for water movement. I thought that the use of a MP40 would provide be more than enough water movement and oxygen. My skimmer is located in the sump as well as the carbon reactor. At present I have only 1 fish (Six-Line Wrasse) so I feed very little(I thought) I do 5% water changes every 2 weeks. So, Nu-2reef, do you think weekly water changes would help?

 

Cyano bacteria or red slime algae is usually caused by aquarium water with excess nutrients like phosphate, nitrates etc. You can try adn siphon out what you can to remove the algae in the short term. 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 no NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin will really help too. Adding a phosphate remover and increasing flow in your tank way help too.

 

Water changes are never a cure. Get a phosphate reactor and use Granulated Feric Oxide. If you don't have one one already, a Ro/Di unit should be employed.

 

What they said, I have hermits that love eating it and they sit on one rock for hours plowing through it, at the end of the day it goes from thick red carpet to bare rock, buuuuut, the next day its almost back to how it was when they started. It's just too fast for them to keep up. Phosphates and Nitrates are key and if you have taken care of them and still can't stop it blast your rocks with powerheads. Mine are totally free and clear where the water flow is strong, everywhere else is falling to the red horde. Also if you use a turkey baster to get it off the rock and suck it off right as youre doing it should help eliminate it a great deal.

 

sweet

 

I got a decent cyano outbreak about 3 months into my 58g reef as well, I think it's just part of a cycle we all experience. Nothing about what we do is natural, so obviously it's something we've done - done wrong? I don't know. I think it just happens.

In my case I ignored it for a few weeks. Then I started to siphon it off, I even made fancy glass siphon tubes with tooth brushes epoxied on to them. that worked to remove the visible cyano every few days, but it was a lot of work, and replacing 5-6 gallons of water every other day was getting expensive.

my PO never registered on any testing, N compounds were equally at or below detectable trace levels...

I doubled my clean up crew, but to my dismay nothing would eat the cyano except my female clownfish, which just wasn't enough, plus the cyano can survive the digestive tracts of fish... her poop was like a cyano plague bearer doing it's work.

Finally I broke down and used Blue Vet Red Slime Remover chemical stuff, followed the directions, did a couple 30% WC's and siphoned off the dead cyano a few days later...worked like a charm.

I got a 2LF Phosban reactor and ran Seachem PhosGuard in it for a couple months after that.

It's been about 8 months since I beat it, and I haven't seen any recurrence of it, and the phosban reactor has been off for a good 5-6 months now with no detectable rise in PO. I do run a small sack of Purigen in my over flow, but I don't even think it affects PO.

Anyways.... I hoped it would go away on its own but after 2.5 months of fighting it I decided that better reefing through chemistry was the right call in this case. As I said, nothing about keeping captive reefs is "natural" and for that reason a lot of things that can happen in a natural reef can get out of hand in a captive reef, and IMHO the best way to cope is equally unnatural treatments.

... and for my next trick I will be teaching my cleaner shrimp to juggle.

-Doug

 

Thanks for the info/advise Doug. Your method of fighting this thing sounds like a winner. My slime (fortunately) is only on the sand bed. So, I used two fish nets and kind of scooped it out of the area it was most prevalent (LFT corner front of tank) I know this is only a band-aid solution and so I will be trying your successful method. Thanks again everyone.