At my witts end, need help!

Kully3xf

Reefer Madness
Hey guys, so i've been fighting this horrible (what I think to be) red slime algae. It's really reeking havoc on my tank. It started with an issue on the sand and moved on to the rock. I've been doing weekly 25% water changes. I've bought new bulbs for the tank, done blackouts, bought scarlett crabs, bought a vortech, installed a 90 gallon skimmer. I've even tried dosing with chemiclean... none of this has done much of anything, even the chemiclean. I just seem to be SOL and I'm really out of Ideas. I'm willing to do what ever, if that means getting everything out of the tank and starting over.

If anyone has some good ideas, i don't mind spending money, time, or temporarily loosing my stuff for a bit.


I'm going to be buying some LED lights for the tank, another question, should i get 120 1 watt bulbs or 40 3 watt leds??

here's some pics

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and a bonus of my frogspawn who is apparently loving the slimey conditions

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Just gotta ask, what are your params, what/how much are you feeding, what kind of flow do you have (I know you said you bought a vortech, but what other powerheads do you have, how many gph, pointed in which directions), and are you using RO/DI?

Also, in the pics, it kind of looks like the algae has more structure to it than typical cyano - I'm wondering if it could be something like red dynoflagellates or another type of algae with a red variety?
 
That is a type of turf algae.
Not too sure about what actually fuels it since it seems to like basically the same parameters as most corals.

My best advice for that crap is to scrub it off the rock with a wire brush.
We recently bleached 400lbs of other wise good quality live rock at the LFS because of that stuff.After a 90 day black out failed to kill it.
 
Aw shucks! that's really tough. Would it be a good idea for me to purchase new rock and swap them? would that cause a cycle?

and my water params are good, nothing out of the normal, I use ro/di that I make my self, 0ppm.

I've been brushing with a toothbrush and it doesn't help it comes back with in a day or two.

I'll read the thread biff. thanks
 
I think even if you get new rock, there's a good chance a spore of the stuff will somehow get transferred when you put your corals, etc., into the tank from the old rock. I'd just try to work on battling it or wait for it to run its course.
 
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