newbee with red slime maybe

lysol4 · 12/16/2009, 03:55 PM

Hello, I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank with about 70 pounds of live rock that I purchased from someone taking down their tank. The rock was beautiful with purple corraline on it. I set up my tank put the rock in put an aquaclear 110 filter in and a remora protein skimmer. I waited a week and bought some fine sand for the bed, waited another week and tested the ph, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia and showed them to the lfs and I was ready to put in fish. I bought a small bannerfish, coral beauty and cleaner shrimp and thats when the problems started. I got rust colored everything in about a day and it grew and grew. It has been three weeks, I have done water changes and it seemed better, I lost my bannerfish but it could have came in sick. My other fish and shrimp are fine, my nitrate and nitrite fine. This rust now looks like pictures of red slime. I have Chicago water and they say it's full of phosphates. What should I do next. Thanks.

bertoni · 12/16/2009, 05:28 PM

To Reef Central

I suspect you're feeding too much. I'd also get a RO/DI filter to clean the tap water. How much food is going into the system, and how often?

lysol4 · 12/16/2009, 07:27 PM

Once a day Rod's Reef frozen food about half the size of a pencil eraser. Usually the shrimp gets none the Coral Beauty eats it all.

bertoni · 12/16/2009, 11:50 PM

That's a reasonable feeding level, so the problem might be the tap water. You might want to measure some freshly-mixed saltwater for nitrate and phosphate. More flow might be appropriate, too.

12/16/2009, 03:55 PM	#1
lysol4 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 2	newbee with red slime maybe Hello, I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank with about 70 pounds of live rock that I purchased from someone taking down their tank. The rock was beautiful with purple corraline on it. I set up my tank put the rock in put an aquaclear 110 filter in and a remora protein skimmer. I waited a week and bought some fine sand for the bed, waited another week and tested the ph, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia and showed them to the lfs and I was ready to put in fish. I bought a small bannerfish, coral beauty and cleaner shrimp and thats when the problems started. I got rust colored everything in about a day and it grew and grew. It has been three weeks, I have done water changes and it seemed better, I lost my bannerfish but it could have came in sick. My other fish and shrimp are fine, my nitrate and nitrite fine. This rust now looks like pictures of red slime. I have Chicago water and they say it's full of phosphates. What should I do next. Thanks.

12/16/2009, 05:28 PM	#2
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	*To Reef Central* I suspect you're feeding too much. I'd also get a RO/DI filter to clean the tap water. How much food is going into the system, and how often? __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

12/16/2009, 11:50 PM	#4
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	That's a reasonable feeding level, so the problem might be the tap water. You might want to measure some freshly-mixed saltwater for nitrate and phosphate. More flow might be appropriate, too. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

12/16/2009, 07:27 PM	#3
lysol4 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 2	Once a day Rod's Reef frozen food about half the size of a pencil eraser. Usually the shrimp gets none the Coral Beauty eats it all.