Dreaded Slime

[old95er]

I have been trying to get a red slime bacteria problem under control now for months. It seems to abate, and then bloom.

I have used two courses of treatment with "Blue LIfe-Red SLime Control". During treatment I turn off the skimmer and the phosban. Wait 5 days, and then do a 20% water change.

This seems to control it a little.

Is there another method? I have removed some of the rocks with the worst slime. . .

Please help!!

[bertoni]

The slime control products will kill most or all of what's in the tank, but the cyanobacteria will return. A long-term solution would be nutrient control: less food into the tank or more nutrient export. Some people are successful with a phosphate reactor or growing and harvesting a macroalga. Feeding less might be appropriate, as well. This article covers a lot of ideas:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

It's written in terms of a nitrate problem, but the ideas are all worth considering.

[old95er]

thanks.

I don't really feed that much to the tank, and already have a healthy refugium with chaeto and miracle mud. I run a phosban reactor and change the media once a month.

I also run ozone, and ORP is always around 410mv.

Magneisum is at or above 1500mg
Alk 11-12
calcium over 400
undetectable phosphates by test kit
undetectable nitrates, amonia, nitrite
Salinity 1.025
temp 78
lights 8 months old, 250 watt 10k halide x two
moonlights on a timer from halide off to 3am
flow: plenty

There is never visible red slime on the sand bed, it is on the overflow boxes and on the sides that I do not scrape(back and right) as well as on some rocks.

[bertoni]

How much Chaetomorpha is being harvested out of the system, and how often?

[old95er]

None, never. Is that something that I need to do?

[bertoni]

If the Chaetomorpha isn't harvested out, it won't reduce the nutrients in the system. It'll still act as a habitat for animals, though.

[old95er]

Well I just took almost two thirds of the Chaeto out.

How does this work, will it grow back and in the process reduce nutrients?

[ReefEnabler]

I'm running a 20G holding tank with 1" of sand and a mound of sand for an elegance coral.

started getting red slime, it got better after feeding less and adding more flow. I went on vacation for 1 week, and came back to a huge bloom (tanksitter overfeeding :). Ended up using the red slime remover. the first time I just used the redslime by itself. It removed some of the slime, but the slime came back a few days later.


I tried again, but the second time also did my best to get as much of the cyano out of the tank at the same time. the problem is that even if you kill most of the cyano with the chemicals, they will die and give off nutrients to feed those that survive, which means they grow right back.

I sacrificed my only haircomb for the task. I was able to pretty much harvest clean sheets of cyano off the sand because the comb was a bit wider than the sand :) I got maybe 3/4 out and then used the redslime remover. gone in 2 days, then do a 25% water change.

[bertoni]

The Chaetomorpha should grow back. The growth sequesters the nutrients.