Red Slymeeee

[Kully3xf]

Ok so finals week is over, and i have spent the past 3 weeks studying like a crazed person. Anyway about a month or so ago i developed a red slime issue (cyano i think right?) I've done some research and nothing i have found has done the trick or anything. My next options are removing all my sand, building a phosphate thing, or a black out. I'm going to build the phosphate, but i figure i should get rid of this crap at the same time. I've tried many circulation techniques, and the stuff is going everywhere, even where pumps are blowing full blast on. Its extremely annoying as it has started growing on my rocks and glass and what not. I wanted to take care of this sooner, but finals, and it has gotten out of hand.
I have 1100 gph of circulation + my return pump - head. should be enough for a 29g tank.
protein skimmer that runs 12 hrs a day (i ran out of outlets so i had to connect it to my timer)
no3- 0
no2- 0
nh3- 0
ph 8.1
po4- surprisingly small.

maybe my test kit isn't working but my phosphates are low.

Any way, I'm wondering if anyone has a good plan of action, i really need to get this taken care of. its disgusting.


Thanks

 

[kilo]

you could suck out some with a turkey baster, theyre are also many medicines out there that will take care of it for you.. try your LFS
i did this and have noticed a huge decline in cyano!!

 

[Kully3xf]

I've been syphoning out stuff, but it comes right back in a few hrs.

Ill look into medication, im just nervous about coral and meds. Ill talk to LFS tho def!

Thanks

 

[kilo]

are you using tap water?

 

[little_fish]

Be wary with the medications, its actually an antibiotic. So if any of it lives, its now stronger and harder to eradicate and wont succumb to medicine if you use it again. I would suggest doing a very intensive water change and blackout schedule, removing everything you can with a turkey baster each time you do a water change.

Also what are you feeding your fish, how often/how much? and how many fish do you have?

 

[Kully3xf]

two clowns. I feed them a mixture of pellets, flakes, and shrimp. one of those options at a time, small portions 2 times a day.
I use ro water.
I do water changes every sat and they are 5 gallons.

how do i go about doing a black out... do i need to wrap the tank? or just turn lights off. also is it bad for my coral at all or fish or anything>?

 

[little_fish]

The corals will be fine, just reacclimate them to the lights when the blackout is over.

Here is what I would do, water change before (10 gals) sucking out all of the cyano and detrius you can see (do this every time you do a water change). Then do a 4 day blackout. Do another 10 gal water changes, then another 4 day blackout and a final 10 gal water change. Then slowly reacclimate your corals to the light by increasing the photoperiod by a half hour every day from an initial lighting period of 2 hours. Keep up the every 4 day water change regime until you see all the cyano gone and stays gone :)

Also are you feeding mysid shrimp? Those are super high in phosphates and nitrates (as are the flakes and pellets) so every uneaten piece of food is going to feed the algae. I would find a different food source and only feed once a day. Petco/petsmart sell pretty good mixed food frozen cubes, I would switch to feeding that.

 

[slwedge71]

no3- 0
no2- 0
nh3- 0
ph 8.1
po4- surprisingly small.

Ph is a bit low but not totally out of wack. Should be 8.3 -8.4. Is the red slyme like a red rubber glove that is covering your live rock, sponges and other stuff ? If so you might want to take the LR out of your tank and wash the rock off. Cleaning it in your tank will only spread the problem around more and cause more headaches.

 

[Kully3xf]

So i started my black out, did a water change etc. it's about day 2 and the sand is so much cleaner already. on day 4 so christmas should i turn the lights back on for the water change? or do the full 8 days with out light?!@?!

 

[Northstar24]

I'd do the full 8 day blackout, and raising your PH slightly might help a little as well

 

[sen5241b]

Could you be over stocked with your tank? That will definitely cause 'trates to rise and then cyano.

 

[Kully3xf]

Nah, I'm too broke to be over stocked... 2 clowns in a 30g

 

[AmberSunrise]

I had a cyano problem in my fresh water tank, thought I would never get rid of it. I did 50% water changes every weekend for 4 weeks pulling out all the cyano I could get, reduced the light to only when I feed the fish and only feed the fish every other day. It finally went away after a few months.

I pretty much killed most of my live plants which really sucked but now that its gone I am slowing increasing the light and will start to restock the plants soon.

I really think it was feeding too much cheap flake food and leaving the light on too long.