Red Slime

[reefgirl1027]

i have had red slime for over a month. i didn't know what it was til i googled it. Only had the tank 8g. bio cube for 4 months. No fish in it yet, i have been cycling for 4 months, why you ask? i saw a article on cycling for 3 months before adding anything. so i don't know if i made a mistake doing this. Should i do a big water change? before adding any snails?

[Roy G. Biv]

Doing your standard tests will tell you if you need a water change. If you have a phosphate test,use it to see if that is where your red slime is coming from.

[ILoveReefer]

Red slime AKA Cyanobacteria. Snails won't touch it. It's caused by phosphates. Once the red slime is visible it quickly spreads feeding on phosphates and light. It may be caused from die off from Liverock or Live sand that was introduced to your tank. Or the water your using.
Do you have any Liverock or Livesand in your tank?
Any power heads?
What kind of water do you use? Tap, distilled, or RO/DI?

[Moosetache]

Ok, I am having the same problem in my 40 Breeder and have increased the flow to try to help with this problem. I use RO water, and am running a phosban reactor on the tank. I dont know where this could be coming from. Are there any other issues that you all can think of?

I am in need of a water change as it has been too long (about 4 weeks), could my lack of water change be causing this as well?

thanks guys!

[ILoveReefer]

Lack of a water change can be a definite factor. I would increase the frequence of water changes.
Overfeeding is another possibility worth mentioning.
How much flow do you have in your tank? It is recommended that water should flow 20x per hour minimum. For a 40g that would be 800g of flow per hour minimum.

[Moosetache]

flow is 790 per hour......I have 2 koralia nano's and one rio 800....I will be changing those to Koralia 1's here in the near term as well. I think that one of the problems is that I have a LOT of live rock in the tank, probably about 80-90 lbs. That kind of breaks up the water flow and does allow for some more low flow areas. I've considered removing some of it, but I dont have any pieces that dont have any coral on them, and I dont want to just get rid of corals....

[ILoveReefer]

One thing you may want to try, is to turn the lights out for 3 days. Starve the cyano of light. This will not harm corals. Oceans have cloudy days too. This will not solve the phosphate problem but maybe it will allow your phosban reactor to remove the phosphates before the cyano can eat it.
You have probably noticed in your tank you have less visible cyano in the morning than at night. Cyano starts dying back as soon as the lights go out. After 3 days of lights out all visible cyano should be gone. Follow it up with a water change, around 10%.
I do the lights out thing about every 6 months. With all the LR in my tank I do have a mild flow problem even though I have around 3000gph in my 90g. It takes around 6 mo or so to notice any red slime.

[reefgirl1027]

i use only RO/wtr. i have live sand. No fish, just a few hitchhikers (snails....) i haven't done a wtr. change for 4 months cause the article by Eric Borneman on reefkeeping on this forum said wait 3-4 months to cycle to get a really good reef tank. So i've been topping off the wtr. with RO/wtr. noticed the red slime a month ago over everything. Also when the lights are on the sand turns brown. i don't know the size of the filter it came with the tank its a ocenanic bio-cube 8g.

[Moosetache]

I do the lights out thing quite often....about once a month or so. Last time I did it was 3 weeks ago. I have the cyano come back in like 2-3 days. I am gonna turn them out for a couple days and do a water change before I turn them back on, see if that helps.

I really expected the Phosban to help, but it doesnt seem to be doing much.

[tspors]

I have to ask a stupid question to all here. I first would like to say to Reefgirl. Your 3 month aproach is perfect. I did nothing for 2 months when I upgraded from 80 to a 150g. Water, LR, and Sand. Never tested because it was worthless, the tank will cycle in that period of time. Then add clean up crew and wait another 3 weeks and so on. Anyway for the stupid question. I see that many people struggle with red slime (cyano) on and off. All I hear is water flow, lighting, da da.... Now I did come constructive resaearch and used Red Slime remover. Some other "experts" explained to me the real issues with Cyano is a bacteria. Anyway,,, I used it as directed plus one extra day as I was advised Ran without skimmer. After completion did water change skimmer back on. I never changed ater flow! Never changed Lighting. Corals were safe. Fish were Safe. Folkes... most all fo the chemicals are safe when "USED AS DIRECTED". Use the Red Slime Remover save yourself the frustration.

[tthnow]

Reefgirl

How many hrs of light? RO/DI is bs btw. More $ for the vendor hype.

[ILoveReefer]

Phosban reactors help, but it's not the miracle product they make it out to be.

Reefgirl1027 I think flow is your biggest problem. I would definitely consider a small power head of some kind. Koralia NANO or a Maxi-Jet 400 are two good choices. Most nanos come with less then ideal flow. Also, I think it's time to do a water change around 10%. When doing the water change remove as much cyano as possible, Turkey basters work well for sucking it up. You have a new tank and what your going through is very common. I will also applaud you for setting it up for for 4 months and not adding any Live stock. I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of adding fish that long.
This is what I recommend.
1. Add more flow
2. Physically remove as much Cyano as possible.
3. 10% water change using RO
4. As stated above with my post regarding 3 days of lights out. Turn all lights off for 3 days and place a towel over the tank to block out as much light as possible. Red slime feeds off phosphates and light. We are trying to eliminate it food sources. You shouldn't notice any cyano in your tank at this point.
5. Wait one week and test for Ammonia and Nitrates. If Zero I would add 4 Nassarius Snail's to stir up your sand bed, and consider the addition of a fish and maybe a turbo snail or two.
6. Water changes should be conducted weekly at this point.

Good luck and don't lose hope.

[aaron7405]

I have a problem with Cyano too. and I have try everithing all I can sthink is the incoming water has to much silicates.

I have a 55 G Mix reef
-2x Tunze 6055 at the maximun power with a 7095 controler, I have a mix reef, in the top only SPS, so flow is really high,
-Run RODI unit change the filters when they need
-I runt t5
-Feed my fish 2 times a day only and enough, never over feed
-Run phosban
-and water changes everyweek as a clock

but still the algae keep coming, it gets really frustaring some times.

[ILoveReefer]

Red slime remover is only to be used as a last resort. Yes it's coral, invert, and fish safe. It does a wonderful job killing Cyanobacteria but it also kills many other bacteria's. What makes Live rock and live sand so beneficial? Bacteria. In moderation Cyanobacteria is a healthy part of your reef. It has it's purpose and does it well. When it grows out of control It now becomes a problem. But with that being said Cyano is only doing it's job.

[ILoveReefer]

Originally posted by tthnow
Reefgirl

How many hrs of light? RO/DI is bs btw. More $ for the vendor hype.

RO/DI is not BS.

[aaron7405]

BS?

[tspors]

A stable tank will refurbish that bacteria faster than the Red Slime Remover hurts it. Research it.

[ILoveReefer]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...+slime+remover
Please read this thread about red slim remover.

[Lemeshianos]

Sorry if this sounds stupid but, since cyanobacteria is doing its job removing the phosphates from the water column, why not keep cyanobacteria in the refugium or sump?

We don't want it in the display because it just doesn't look good, but if we keep it alive somewhere out of site then it has a beneficial role. Unless its hard to constrain it in the sump/refugium and it will keep coming back in the display.

What is you opinion on this ILoveReefer?

[aaron7405]

EVERY algue will do his job removing PO from water thats what they feed from (beside light), the problems is the look at your tank and the invasive growth.

Of course the better way is to find the couse of the cyano, and figth that.

MTC

[dead beat reef]

Hey 1027 . Red Slime lots of fun.
Red Slime/Cyano can live on very little. Flow no flow.
Light no light. You must starve it. Phos. Nit. and others
must be removed from your reef water. New tanks
get this stuff. Its norm. Buuuut stop it now. Good
water changes, tank maint. will do it. all the best dbr

[SaltyDr]

Cyano is ubiquitous. I don't think you can grow it in the fuge and not in the tank. It feeds on nutrients in the water column or in/on the rock and sand. It is an indication that your nutrients are high and need to be reduced. Some people battle this and cannot seem to get rid of it. I am convinced that it can be due to "bad rock". Some rock may have phosphates trapped inside. Cooking it may help. Some aquacultured rock may have high phosphates that are inherent in the rock and cannot be removed.

[roxsburyrage]

Hey Guys I tried a product out just to test it.It does not kill Bacteria but add it.Its not really used for the purpose of Cyno however it will work great.Its Seachem Stability.I could not believe how fast it work and has not come back after a year.It is a probiotic it adds to you tank to help eat up organics.And in return your Cyno will go away.Just follow the Directions and should not have a problem and I do mention make sure you use good Aquarium Husbandry after using the Product.Test your water coming out of your RO unit it may not be pure.I find out the Hard way many years ago.Buy a good Quality RO unit and make sure you have a TDS meter and Calibrate it properly.

[captstinky]

Siphon off the red slime with airline tubing as you do a water change. Keep up with good maintenance until the tank is cycled/stabled i.e. no crazy red/green/blue or brown algal blooms. Might take a tank more than 4months to cycle, but you are doing your tank a favor in the long run by waiting. Do you add any supplements? I find that some systems can't take a full recommended dose of supplements, while others can handle it- and then some.

[thomasp123]

I had the red slime really bad. it covered everything and would come back while you watched after I cleaned it out. My phosphate is 0.5 mg/l. I do use tap water but it tests 0 for phosphate. I test 0 for nitrate as well. I used the red slime remover a few days ago and all seems well now. The only side effect is my skimmer is making so many bubbles that they are all over the tank. Skimmer company says that is normal as the red slime remover contains surfactants.

Now that the red slime is gone the brown alge is growing, but the clean up crew keeps that in check. Seems like the red slime is a marine growing pain. I will let you all know how it comes out in the long run.

Tom