how do i preform a black out?

[buddy08]

i have been battling red slime for about 2 months now syphoning whatever i could see and this is my last effort to fix the problem.. for starters, i will give you a run down of things that could possible be the cause but i will let you experts decide and narrow it down for me

my bulbs are roughly 8 months old (t5's)
*this a sign they need replacing?

i have 6 fish (1 yellow tang, 1 coral beauty, 2 damsels, and 2 clowns)
i feed them one 3x3 inch algae sheet daily as well as 1 frozen mysis shrimp cube.
*am i over feeding?

i used to toss the cube in my sump and it would normally disolve to where my return pump would feed it back to the DT, i felt this was better than just dropping the cube in the tank due to the fact the cube would float up against the overflows and drain shrimp back into the sump...then the thought dawned on me months later that the mag drive was most likely chopping the shrimp into smaller pieces that would just disolve and not get eaten.
*could that be another factor and if so, should i just dissolve food in a cup with tank water and then poor it into the DT?

i had a fuge full of cheato... but my urchin ate it all.
*would adding more cheato help with the red slime even though my phosphates read 0.

I just bought a new BR-110 Bio pellet reactor but after consulting many of you, it seems i need to add more flow.
*when this is properly set up, will this help fight the algae off?

Lastly, i know theres the blackout method. How would i go about preforming this? I understand the part where the tank lights stay off for 3 days but what about feeding, do i feed regularly?

thanks in advance, its alot to read over but i want to get this handled before it gets out of hand

 

[TropicalRespect]

I used to have this same problem and its the worst! I got my red slime to finally go away by using chemi-pure elite, it removes phosphates and nitrates. And also you say that your phos. is at 0, but the red slime could still be growing off any extra nitrates you might have in the tank. get ur water tested for nitrates to see what ur levels are.
one more thing, the black out method will kill the red slime, but as soon as your lights come on it will grow right back. And your fish will be fine without feeding for 3 day.
well thats been my experience with red slime.

 

[little_fish]

I would change the bulbs, especially if they are the stock bulbs, they go bad faster

I would cut down to half a cube everyother day until you get the slime under control. I would also thaw them in a cup, and then rinse them so all the little pieces that wouldnt get eaten get washed away. You will also get rid of the nitrates/phosphates that get drawn out when they are frozen. mysids are also very high in phosphates so i would consider switching to a different food.

Yes, i would add more cheato and put it in your sump where its safe from the urchin.

The reactor will help once you get more flow through there.

For the blackout, i would do a big water change before sucking out as much as you can. Then do a blackout for 3 days, and do another big water change, once again siphoning all you can see out. Finally do another 3 days of black out and a finally big water change so you remove all the nutrients the dying cyano release so it cant fuel the return of the cyano. Remember to reacclimate your corals to the light!

 

[buddy08]

how do you rinse the mysis shrimp little fish? and if i cut back on mysis, what would you recommend as a substitute?

 

[little_fish]

i would get a few variety blend from petco/petsmart and then rotate through them

But take your fish net, put the cube in the net and then run tap water over it

 

[buddy08]

makes sense with the net, thanks little fish as usual youve been a big help.

 

[Drilled 55 custom]

I had the red slime everywhere. I added a couple turbo snails & it was gone within a short while.

 

[buddy08]

the turbo snails wont touch the red slime, you sure yours wasnt diatoms?