cynobacteria problem

ckam

Reefing newb
first off my tank is a 55 gal. with a 40 gal. long sump/ref underneath. the sump/ref has about a quarter of it sectioned off were water enters from main tank and i have skimmer,heater in that section the rest is love rock about 40lbs and a 4.5 inch layer of fine sand. the main tank has the same 4.5 inches sand and about 65lbs live rock. 3 gobies ,3 firefish, 3 blue cromis, 1 urchin, to brittle stars. frogspawn,tubestra,varis mushrooms and gorgonia. i just got new lighs 1.5 months ago their 4 54watt ho t-5 and 4 moon lights. their 2 10,000k and to actinics. my old lights were office type t-5 same wattage. ph-8.4 am.-0 nitrite-0 nitrate-0(had some when first cycled but it never came back) phosphate was 5.0 1 month ago but have since been lowered to .5 .now i have serious cynobacteria(red slime algae) and its not really in the brite light areas but it grow where theres the most water movement. i always thought you needed good water movement to help prevent this. i have been sphioning the algae out tring to avoid spreading it.by
 
SEE THE HELPFUL ARTICLES PAGE 1. AN EXTENSIVE ARTICLE ON cynobacteria (red slime algae) IS POSTED THERE THAT SHOULD ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS. PROBLEM COULD BE PHOSPHATES AT .5, MAGNESIUM, IRON, IF YOU ADD TOO MUCH TRACE ELEMENTS, OR MAGNESIUM. YOU NEED ALSO VERY GOOD PROTIEN SKIMMING AND NO DECAYING PROTIEN IN THE SYSTEM. THE BLUE LIGHTS ARE THEY TRUE ATINIC O3 BULBS. KEEP US POSTED ON YOUR PROGRESS. GOOD LUCK.
 
Welcome to the club,were is it growing,glass sand rock or all of these,do you have live sand in the aqurium ,how deep do you penatrate sand bed when syphoning if.I could go on and on circulation aids but dosent prevent.you need to pull those phosphates down thats what i would consentrate on and syphone as much of that :pooh: out as possible.I have my phosphate levels at 0 and still have out breaks i think its becase i dont have live sand .but dont forget that the test kits that most people have cant give a very accuret reading or a complet count of phosphates so they could be higher then the test is revealing (its a ball park est).those helpful articals are great and go into a lot more.hope i can help.also low salinity can aid the bactera so if it is low bring it up a little and cut down a hour or two on lighting helps too but not all at the same time slowly im sure you know most of this but sometimes things need to be brought to attention.good luck keep us posted ;)
 
my actinic are 460nm which i think is true actinic. all the sand in both connected tanks are live(bought live) i think the sandbed is doing its job pretty well, i have 0 nitrates and haven't had any since the take finished cycling almost 2 years ago. i dont spiphon any of the sand just make sure theres good water flow above it to keep particulate suspended.i know my biggest problem is i don't have an ro filter. all my phosphate comes from my tap water. i make my saltwater in garbage cans with heater and a powerhead and in the past 2 months have been using phosban in there so im not just dumping phosphate in my tanks everyday. i use phosban for fresh make up water also.
 
I have phos ban in my filter to keep it out of the tank as well, I have had very good results with it being in the filter and changed about every month.
 
Please review the articles under cynobacteria.Also in a pinch Chemi-clean has worked well to get the stuff under control
 
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