still fighting red slime...please help

beeguiles

beeguiles

they call me fish geek ;p
Okay So I did the blackout and that worked for a little while. I also cut down my lights to 9 hours a day and moonlight on at night. And the red slime is back! I thought it might be flow so I got two powerheads. That seemed to help a little but not entirely. I dont overfeed. I do weekly water changes. Idk what is feeding this cyano! The only thing I can think of is that I use tap water. I don't have the money right now to get my own RO unit and I am reluctant to haul water back and forth from my lfs. I haven't used the red slime remover yet bc I wanted to figure out the cause first. But even though I do use tap water idk why that would cause it to grow soo much bc I do weekly water changes. I only have three small fish. Three snails and ten or eleven hermit crabs. Also have corals but I don't think they produce waste? Idk I never thought about that...I don't think having corals matter though. I'm at the end of the line here. I just want this stuff gone and my husband keep griping about it lol oh and i have a Rio nano skimmer running. I read very good things about the red slime remover so I think I am going to start that tomorrow. I will take the carbon out and turn off the skimmer while I'm at work so it doesn't overflow from excessive foaming. Any and all input would really be appreciated! You guys know a lot of stuff here so I know somebody will know what to do. :)
 
Try the red slime remover I had a problem and used it and did back to back treatments I still treat i.e. 2x a year when I do my major cleaning (skimmer pumps power heads) so since the chemipure is removed every 3 months so that is when I do it I even put the bubble stone in it when I am treating it. :twocents:
 
I would stay away from red slime remover, it will cause your skimmer to have issues, and if I remember right, you were already having issues with getting a good foam in one of your other posts.

If you are using tap water, and everything else has been eliminated, I would be willing to wager that your tap water is high in phosphates. I believe most water municipalities use phosphates to keep lead in the old pipes from entering the drinking water. I would look into either:

a) a different source of water, either RO water from a grocery store or a lfs or your own RO/DI unit

b) Some sort of Phosphate removal - chaeto in a refugium or some sort of phosphate removing media (GFO in a reactor for instance)

Red Slime remover doesnt solve the problem, it only solves the symptom, after using it the excess nutrients in the tank will either manifest as more cyano or some other form of nuisanec algae. I used it on my tank out of frustration and even after back to back doses it didnt really help much
 
Northstar nailed it- your tap water is feeding the cyano- before I got our R/O unit I would use water from the glacier water machines located outside the supermarkets R/O D/I units only 30cents a gal- red slime remover is only a bandaid and will hurt your bio base.
 
get ro/di unit from bulkreefsupply should help out a bunch. I have ro unit and still fight some cyano in one of my tanks. I think i got some bad live rock leaching something into my tank i have hang on fuge and fuge in my sump full of chaeto and some calupra. One thing that helps is dosing my pickling lime a little stronger. For calcium, magnesium, and few other elements i use mrs wage pickling lime 1 teaspoon per gallon of top off, this stuff will boost coralline algae into overdrive.
 
75 GPD RO/DI 5 Stage Standard System - English

great unit, pretty much same setup i use.
Best place to get carbon and gfo, try there dual media reactor with rox carbon and high capacity gfo and you will never have cyano and algae issues again. If you have mixed reef with sps, lps, softies i would recommend rox carbon and high capacity gfo otherwise i would just use Bituminous Aquarium Carbon cause both have low dust.
 
jzaso said:
A plus for kalkwasser-calcium hydroxide-is that it binds" phosphate
Click to expand...

exactly, when using pickling lime i add 10 teaspoons to 10 gallon tank next to my sump and run powerhead for an hour to mix up pickling lime. Than jbj top off unit does the rest.
I mix up 5 gallon bucket of top off water and 5 teaspoons for my 75 gallon tank it is gravity top of unit( kent aqua doser 5 gallon.)

If having algae issue i use little extra pickling lime cause it will burn algae out. Raising mag levels helps burn out algae also.
 
I dont think pickling lime is really neccesary at this point. I think if she simply gets better quality water from the start the cyano will work itself out over the course of water changes.

On a side note, what kind of lighting do you have, and how old are the bulbs?
 
Yeah, having your mg 1300+ will inhibit/stop algae growth-I had a hair algae problem for years until I started paying attention to my mg level-raised to 1400 for a month algae died off quickly! I now keep at 1300 with Ca @420/450 need to keep in proper ratio! Must/all syn salt mixes will not mix at proper levels need to supplement
 
Northstar yea I was having problems getting my skimmer to foam and now of seems to be fine so I'm reluctant to mess it up again. I figured since I did every other thing else it must be my water. I have the LED lighting system with the white and blue lights. It's brand new. D.French I rlly would love to get the ro di unit but I just dont have 160 bucks to spend right now. So I guess that means I'm getting water from my lfs. They already told me its free. I'll just have to get enough of it where I don't have to get more every week.
 
You can disregard my question about lighting, with LED's you dont have to worry about the phase shift that takes place in metal halide / T5 bulbs. This was one of the factors that lead to my Cyano outbreak.

I fought it from January to about 2-3 weeks ago. It sucks, and its discouraging, but dont give up. The red plague can definitely be beaten. From what I've seen in these posts, I'm fairly confident that the tap water you're using contains high phosphates.

Phosphates and nitrates are what algae use to grow, and in most systems phosphates are low enough to be the limiting factor in algae growth. Thorw in tap water with excess phosphates (my tap water tests at 2.0 ppm phosphates, about 10 times what would be considered a problem in a reef tank) and you see the algae rear its ugly head. Unfortunately, cyano / dinoflagellates are about the worst that you can get. If you want to educate yourself some more on the types of nuisance algae, check out this site - I would also reccommend them for clean up critters and macroalgae

ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Nuisance Algae Guide
 
Why are you reluctant to use water from your LFS? Your tank isnt that big you can do it. The buckets are heavy but it helped me build some lil muscles and I have to go upstairs!! LOL

I would take two 5g paint buckets I got from Homedepot for like 3 bucks and get one salt water and one fresh for top offs. It cost me like 10 bucks a week and you get it for FREE!!! stop being lazy girl go get that good water!! lol

I just got the cheap unit from bulk reef supply last week i think it was $129. If you are strapped on cash just go with the buckets for now.

Trust me its much better to tote around buckets than to keep having algae problems
 
Amber I most likely will get water from my lfs. I do go there once a week anyways so I should just bring a couple buckets with me. :) ill be bringing them upstairs too lol. I'll make my husband carry it.
 
And your lfs gives the water FREE???? Mighty generous of them :shock: You should be absolutely sure they're not giving you just "treated" tap water cuz you'll end up right where you started.

I normally say testing for Phosphates is useless, cuz it will most likely test as 0ppm since your red slime is sucking it all up...but maybe test your newly made saltwater before putting it in your tank just to be sure. I'd test it for nitrates and phosphates if you're ever worried about the lfs water quality.
 
I think it really is RO water. I've been going to this place for a couple years now and they have never mislead me. They are very knowledgeable unlike a lot of other petstore employees. I talk to the manager about everything and he hasn't steered me wrong yet. But I do have to get a test kit. I only have the API freshwater kit so I normally have them test my water but looks like ill be getting the phosphate test kit.
 
If you wanna be sure about their water, ask them what the last TDS reading was on the RO water, and when it was taken. Makes you sound like you know what you are talking about and looking for, even if you don't know what the readings mean.
 
at one point long time ago i have a problem with red alge in my tank and all the problem was from my light ( to much light) i cut down my cycle light to 4 hour a day for a week and the red slime sh... was gone for good plus you need a a good water flow with power head and a good foming skimmer 24/7,'
and 25% water change's every 2 week's
 

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