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Unread 01/26/2010, 11:35 AM   #1
jizzy
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Red slime algae in my tank!

I have red slime algae in my 24 gallon aquapod that i cant get rid of. My tank Has original power compact light system with 4 month old bulbs (Daylight is on 8 hours Actinic is on 10 hours ), 25 lbs LR 25 lbs LS, with a maxi-jet 1200 pump in the back and a koralia 1 in the front, 695 GPH flow rate. I also had a koralia nano in it to get 935 GPH flow but it still did not help. I have LR rubble in my filter chamber with cheato. The fish and coral seem happy and fully opened. Also my clowns have small brown spots on them that showed up about a month after i got them. its not ich but i cant get rid of it. most of what i read says it is harmless. im daily dosing Microbe-lift Herbtana to see if it helps ( day 6 ).

LIVESTOCK :
2) Percula Clowns
1) Blue yellow tail Damsel
1) watchman goby/ Pistol Shrimp
1) Peppermint Shrimp
1) Emerald crab
1) Sand sifting star
5) Turbo snails
2) Nassarius snails

Coral:
green star polyps
misc. button polyps
fancy toad stool
Anemone:
White sabae anemone

Food:
Flake food ( small pinch at night )
Frozen brine shrimp & emerald delight on wed. and sun.
Half silver side to anemone every other day.

Additives: ( after water change sunday )
50 Drops Microvert
2ml Kent purple tech
2ml kentstrontium&molybdenum
2ml kent iodide
1/2 cup phosguardin a bag when needed.

Test results :
Temp. 77-82
Salinity1.024
PH 8.0
nitrate 0-10
nitrite 0
Carbon hardness 180
General hardness 180
phosphate .05
ammonia .5-1 ppm
calcium 480

Weekly 5 gallon water changes with walmart RO water mixed at home. ( to get RO/DI water i gotta drive 2 hours. dont think its worth it. ) Is it ?

The system has been running for about 1 year before i got it. It was a neglected algae pit with 1 curly cue anemone and a snail.
i brought it home cleaned it and put original sand and live rock back in. ive have it for about 4 months now.
if anybody sees something i need to do differently or something i should be using that im not please let me know.

sorry for the big post but i need some help.

Thank you
Jizzy



Last edited by jizzy; 01/26/2010 at 11:57 AM.
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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:03 PM   #2
julie180
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Excessive nutrients. The red algae consumes it so it does not show on test kits. Less feeding.

Why all the additives? If you are doing regular water changes, you probably don't need to dose anything. JMHO


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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:07 PM   #3
Guygettnby
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i think your tank is over stocked personally. i have the same tank and all that is in it is a pair of clowns with mixed CUC inverts and corals. but smaller tanks are abit harder to keep then bigger tanks.

do you have a skimmer on the tank? how about a refugium? what kinda filtration are you using? when you do water changes do you clean the sand bed? how much and how often do you feed the tank? you said you have cheato in the back but do you have a light on it and are you trimming it? are you testing for everything you are adding to the tank? dont ever add anything to your tank that you can not test for.

there are so many different reasons you can get cyano. sometimes it is very hard to find the reason.


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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:21 PM   #4
drparker
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First the ammonia is alarming you should not have any. Stop feeding for a few days , they will live, see if this drops it to zero.

Get a turkey baster and suck up any of the red slime you can get to.

When you do start feeding stop using flake, it's very high in phosphates, rinse the frozen food in RO or tank water before adding. Only feed what your fish will actively eat, don't overfeed. If you can find it locally Rod's food is great and low in phosphates.

Keep running the phosphate remover, also run some carbon.

One of the best investments I made was to get an RO/DI unit.

I have no experience with Microvert, however for the rest, Don't dose anything you don't test for. Read the chemistry 101 articles. You should only need to dose Ca, Alk and Mg. Slowly bump your salinity to 1.026 by using salt water for top-off.

I've had good luck getting rid of slime by going dark for few days.


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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:38 PM   #5
w16227
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general notes -

Food:
Half silver side to anemone every other day

--- might want to cut this back to once a week. Nems do not need that much food. You may also need to upgrade your lighting for a nem.

Additives: ( after water change sunday )
50 Drops Microvert

What are you trying to feed this this? I do not see the need to supplement your coral diet at this time - as you do not have many. Regular water changes and fish poo should keep the corals happy. This is probably one of the sources of excess nutrients.

2ml Kent purple tech
2ml kentstrontium&molybdenum
2ml kent iodide


What specifically are you dosing these for? And how are you testing to determine if the correct values are in your tank? If you care changing water once a week it is very unlikely that any of these are making a difference. Also - any supplemental "dosing" should be accompanied by equivalent testing so that you have constant levels.

1/2 cup phosguardin a bag when needed.

Not bad if you have high phosphates - but how are you running this? to really make a difference, the water needs to be forced through the medium- just dropping a bag in the tank or sump has little effect. Reactors are cheap and could be used to run carbon as well.


Weekly 5 gallon water changes with walmart RO water mixed at home.


Walmart is all about volume sales. Do you trust that their filters are changed on a regular basis - AND produce pure (0 TDS) water? You are best off purchasing a good RO/DI unit (the filter guys are great as are many other of the sponsors). You WILL save money over buying your own. "RO" water is proably not good enough for your nano.


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Current Tank Info: 125g All Glass rr, 50g sump/fuge, RKE, T5 Retrofit Lights, Deltec Turbo Skimmer, PM Kalk Reactor
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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:41 PM   #6
w16227
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drparker View Post
You should only need to dose Ca, Alk and Mg. Slowly bump your salinity to 1.026 by using salt water for top-off.

great advice by drp ---- and you will only need to dose these items IF your levels fall. The corals listed are not calcium hogs so you may never need to supplement these items beyond water changes.


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Current Tank Info: 125g All Glass rr, 50g sump/fuge, RKE, T5 Retrofit Lights, Deltec Turbo Skimmer, PM Kalk Reactor
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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:45 PM   #7
jizzy
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i dont think i overfeed the fish. i only put in a small pinch of flake food they eat in in about a minute. 1 time a day. same with the brine shrimp 2 days a week. the usually eat it all in about a minute. my filter system is LR rubble with cheato on the top of the LR rubble with a light attached to the side of the tank shinning in on the cheato. i have also tryed it with LR rubble in the back and a 2 inch deep spunge filter on the top. with the cheato on the display side of the tank at the overflow attached with magnets.
i have not trimmed my cheato yet. it does not grow very fast. how do i know when to trim it ?
i dont touch the sand bed when i clean/waterchange. should i ?

also i have a little high ammonia since day one with weekly water changes. what can i do to cure the ammonia problem ?

are you saying dont use flake food at all drparker ?

so if i do whaterchanges weekly i shouldent need additives ?
how long should/can i leave lights out before it affects the coral ?


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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:53 PM   #8
jizzy
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ok ill quit the additives. ( though coral needed them ) ima noobie i also have no way of testing for purple tech, strontium&molybdenum, iodide, or microvert. i just bought and used them because i was told to for the coral. lfs schmuck was wrong.

saving up for new light sytem then uv sterilizer and ro/di unit.

ya im not sure about walmart water.


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Unread 01/26/2010, 12:58 PM   #9
drparker
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Try another test kit and take your water in to a LFS to get tested it could be a bad test kit.

Even though it's cheap an easy don't use flake food. All I feed is Rod's and that covers everything in my mixed reef.

Yes once you get the levels correct weekly water changes should do until you get some LPS or SPS stoney corals that will use it faster than water changes can replace it.

Your corals can survive several days without lights, I'd try 3 or 4 days, then only run the lights half as long and slowly adjust the time up so you don't shock them. If you can block out all light to the tank that would be even better. This would be a good time to halt the feeding also and restart feeding when you start the lights again.


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Unread 01/26/2010, 01:00 PM   #10
drparker
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I'd skip the UV filter and get the RO/DI before the lights.


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Unread 01/26/2010, 01:06 PM   #11
jizzy
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what is rod's ?


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Unread 01/26/2010, 01:46 PM   #12
drparker
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A very high quality food made in IL near Dekalb. http://www.rodsfood.com/


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Unread 01/26/2010, 02:29 PM   #13
jizzy
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thank you all for the help i will go get some rods food and try that. just searched it and alot of good reviews. thanks again drparker for the link to the food.
any others have advice feel free to let me know. i need all the help i can get.

BTW great website. thanks RC!!


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