red slime

[ehull71]

does anyone know how to get rid of red slime that is out of control

[tb_bucs]

if you think its cyanoe then marycyn 2 will work or lights out

[Don-Coraleone]

use red slime remover. or chemi clean.

[dhammers06]

use red slime, I had a bad outbreak and i dosed twice

[jackfishy]

Make sure you use RO/Di water for water change and enough water flow for the heavier infested area.


Jack

[FUA]

im having the same problem and I am going to try the red slime.....

[dtaylor123]

Use Marcyn start at half the dose. Remove all carbon and phos control and your skimmer. Let it be for three days after dosing and if it is still present dose again at half dosage. When all is gone (and it will work), do a large water change and return new carbon. Let it be for two days that way and then change carbon again. Wait two more days and turn your skimmer on, if it goes nuts, do another small water change and new carbon. The reason for all of the carbon is to soak up the Maracyn, if you don't remove the Maracyn (erithromyacin), your skimmer will foam up like crazy and over flow.

This method does work and will save you lots of headaches. No one for sure knows what causes cyanobacteria, lots of conjecture but that's it. If you have to do this method twice a year, then no big deal, if it's more frequent you may have some underlying causes, but what I can't tell you.

Best of Luck

Dan

[Fats71]

Pulling it out by hand and high flow worked for me.

[TommyNitro]

I have a 125gal reef this green long haired algae is driving me nuts i have installed new T5 bulbs and i have 2 Hamilton 250W 14K bulbs (a 3rd coming For the middle of the tank) i have the lights on timers as follows
Actinic come on at 12
10,000k @ 1
HQI @ 2
HQI off @ 6
10,000 off @ 7
Actinic off at 8
i set all lights back 1 hour today!!! (well see what happens)
this is helping but i still think it is growing am i just being impatient!!! i have to stress the purple alge is coming back and the green is not any where as bad as it was!!! should i use the chemi-clean? I hate to use it if i dont have to!!! i have a problem getting snails and crabs i do have a few but living on this island and the only one doing any kind of saltwater tank. i want to get this tank right before i add any more fish i lost all but a damsel and my corals when my kids brought me a sick fish from anchorage. Am i on the right track? any ideas??? the middle of the tank is where the light is at its weakest is where i see the most of it developing!! any input would be helpful

[jim.l]

I fought that stuff for several years. No phosphates or nitrates on hobby test kits and a lot of flow, so I used chemi-clean. It killed it every time, for 4 to 6 weeks.... then it would come back. Finally, out of desperation I think, I tried vodka dosing after reading this articale. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php Vodka worked for me, but I don't know why exactly and can't say it will always work. If all else fails you may wish to try vodka also. It may work, or it may not. Also, I shut down all pumps and blew as much cyano off as I could and netted it out of the tank before I started, and again one week into my dosing. I also had a green algae that looked like ha but was much tougher and smelled strongly when scrubbed off. That's gone too.

[Rickyrooz1]

Is there a non-chemical method to rid the tank of cyano? Would a larger skimmer help or just perform more water changes?

[chrisstie]

Here's a free method:

Turn your lights off for 48 hours. Turn lighs back on.

Why does this work? To my understanding, red slime is a photosynthetic bacteria. Cutting off its light supply gives it nothing to sustain on so the colonies present as red slime die off and go away.

However, why do you have red slime? Do you have high nitrates or phosphates? Dead spot where flow doesn't quite reach? There are a few causes but those two I think are sometimes the most common.

I recommend doing a large water change before turning the lights on to reduce amounts of nitrates and phosphates. Keeping up on this by doing weekly or bi weekly water changes will significantly help.

To the poster who had an algae bloom after putting in new lights, this is common and should go away on its own if your water quality is superb. If it doesn't and you're still wondering what is going on its probably time to break out the test kit.

Another form of preventative maintainance I can recommend is to reduce feeding. Sometimes people have slime problems and don't feed often. To this I ask to examine what it is you are feeding. In mixed reefs you do have a combination of herbivores and omnivores. I recommend to use strained frozen food but to also remember how large the size of a fish's stomach is.

They deserve emmy awards for acting hungry all of the time. In a medium sized reef fish its stomach is about the size of its eye. Small clowns can usually subsist on 1-2 mysis a day, tangs being very active and mostly herbivoris need more veggies and a lot of it. Like I said a mixed tank has different demands so I recommend feeding the veggies first so everyone gets good nutrition. THen just a few mysis or other meaty foods after. Strained, again, will keep "algae rocket fuel" aka shrimp juice or what have you out of your water and it wont fuel the algae or bacteria.

You also have to take into account your fish's waste. Higher quality frozen foods have less additives in them than flake/pellet (though I feel a controlled good mix of this helps add variety to the diet) and tend to pollute the water less in the form of fish waste than preserved foods.

Hope this helps!

[Reefer Brian]

Thanks for the info everyone. I have this problem every few months my self......nice to know I am not the only one. Mine usually his red with lots of air bubbles in it.

[brdracing]

I had this problem in my smaller tank and I have not seen it in about 2 months. What I did was:
Change the direction of my power heads
Turned my Lights off for 48 hours
did 10% water changes every 2 days for 1.5 weeks.

Hope this helps

[seabayaquatic]

What is your phosphate level? Where in the tank is the red slime showing up? (sand, rocks, glass, dead areas, etc.)

[jacobterrell]

another vote for red slime remover

[JohnnyBassMan]

Red slime remover did not work all that great for me. I shut down the lights for 24 hours and performed 20% water change.

[seabayaquatic]

Red slime remover should be the last resort. Proper maintenance and water flow should be the first lines of attack. Test phosphate levels in the aquarium and the water source used for water changes and top-off. Gravel vac substrate and suck the red slime out directly with a siphon hose. Add high quality granular ferric oxide (Phos Ban) NOT (Phos Lock) using a phosphate reactor. Cut back on feeding and reduce photo period. In a predator system makes sure you have an over-sized skimmer, they create tons of waste. Also, use a high quality pellet Activated Carbon in a media bag in a high water flow area of your sump or filtration system. If you need access to buying any of the products mentioned I can get it for you fairly inexpensively. All this combined will get rid of your red slime. Red slime remover is only a temporary solution and can cause more resistant strain of red slime to come back with a vengence next time.

[BNS77]

+1 for seabayaquatic. Red Slime remover might kill it for a couple of weeks, however if you are not fixing the problem its going to come back. It is a nutrient problem. Cutting back on feeding, shortening the light cycle, and around 10% water changes every 2-3 days will clear it up in a few weeks