red slime

[osteo23]

I'm in the process (slow process) of building a 90 g reef for myself, the question I have is from my dad who still thinks that everyone on the internet is crazy. I don't know all the specs, but he has a 20 gallon aquarium, only live rock, and a few green polyps, 2 clowns (to impress my kids) and 1 damsel. No corals, no crabs or snails, one shrimp. He bought some pretty expensive liquid to remove this red slime on the glass. I told him to find out and treat the cause of the problem. Any ideas of what can cause this slime? Again, I don't know any of his test parameters for his water, sorry.

[fliynhi]

It's probably red cyano bacteria. Over feeding and no clean up crew are likely contributing factors. IME I've found that cerith snails do a fantastic job at cleaning it up and keeping my tank clean. He should also look into getting a few hermit crabs for scavenging uneaten food and other garbage the fish leave behind. My guess would be no more than 4 hermits and maybe 8-10 snails. Just my .02, there are plenty of others on here with a lot more experience and may have a different take on it.

[kevin2000]

Must be a zillion cyano threads on RC ... take some time and review the threads in the last two weeks and you should see plenty of info.

[osteo23]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. It's too bad my dad's really old school. He thinks I still play video games on my Atari 2600!!!