Red Slime on everything

[saltwater2999]

my 55 gallon saltwater tank has been running for about 6 months now and in the past couple weeks there has been red slime algae growing on the rocks and some on the sand and glass. I thought it was the phosphates that were causing the algae to grow but the test say I have 0ppm of phosphate in the water.

my water parameters
phosphate 0ppm
PH 8.2
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 7.0ppm

any suggestion would help me out a lot. i'm all out of ideas.

[sail33]

Can't tell from the pick but are you sure that's slimey ? Might be coraline. That's a good thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coralline_algae

[jmadison]

Where are you getting your water from? RO/DI?
What's the TDS reading?

[saltwater2999]

I'm using ro/Di water and I'm pretty sure it's red slime algae because I have coraline on some of the rocks but it's covered by the algae. Coraline is hard to remove but this stuff come off so easy

[saltwater2999]

And my salinity is 1.024

[powdertang05]

water changes with ro/di water. make sure phosphates are as low as possible. Increase flow. should fix your issue.

[saltwater2999]

What the recommend flow rate for a 55 gallon tank. Right now I have 2 750 gph powerheads

[jmadison]

Originally Posted by jmadison

What's the TDS reading?

Silicate in water feeds cyano. How often are you changing the water?

NitrAtes are higher than desirable. Phosphate number could be deceiving, all phosphates could be being consumed prior to your testing. I would guess you have a phosphate issue that you aren't seeing in testing.

Tank has not been up for that long, this can easily still be a part of the cycle. I'd watch what nutrients you are adding to the water.


On a separate note, that tang needs a new home.

[saltwater2999]

I do a 10% water change every week and if the phosphates are hiding then should I get a phosphate reactor

[jscarlata]

mix up enough water to do a large change. get a siphon hose that can reach all your rocks, and do a major cleaning. siphon out all the red slime, its cyanobacteria, not algae. once you get the tank topped off and set back up after your cleaning, shut off the lights. keep the lights out on the tank for 3 days. its ok to pu ton an actininc for a few hours a day to do feedings and such, but thats it. if the tank is in a room that gets natural light, than cover it somehow. on day 2 or 3 mix up another batch of water. at the end of day 3 make sure your lights will come on per their normal schedule on day 4. on day 4 do another water change and get your circualtion pumps so that they are hitting all your rock surfaces, try to avoid low flow deadspots. your red slime should be gone and it should stay gone for a while priovided a few things happen:
1 - test your phospahtes and keep testing a few times a week
2 - reduce your feedings
3 - do more water changes and keep testing your phospahte
you shouldnt need a gfo reacotr yet, i dont see much in the tank, but you could have phosphates getting into the tank from other sources, as mentioned above. If you do have phosphates gettign intot he system via water changes or additives, your cyano will come back...dont worry too much, it LOOKS really bad, but its not hurting anything. you just dont want a lot of it to die off suddenly in the tank, THAT would be bad...thats why you try to remove as much as you can manually befotre turnign out the lights. darkness is the only thing that kills it off safely, you just don twant a tank full of it to die overnight...

[saltwater2999]

Okay I'll do that right when I get home from class just one last question. What should I do with my candy cane coral, flower plot coral,and my anenome when the lights are out

[saltwater2999]

Reefaddict123 how long did you leave your lights on before when you had the red slime

[jmadison]

Saltwater-

DO NOT use redslime remover. Adding a chemical to your tank to fix symptoms doesn't cure the issue. It will return and return and return if you don't fix the underlying issue of what is causing the slime.

How much do you feed? What's your lighting schedule?

Try what JSCarlata suggested. The key being syphoning out as much of that crap as possible. You can use a powerhead or turkey baster to blast off the rockwork. I take some filter floss and put it in a net. Then blast the rocks and swish the net through the water trying to catch the crud. This is what I do in between syphoning/water changes when i have a cyano issue.

The inhabitants should be just fine with a few days of darkness. It happens when there is a hurricane or bad weather in nature to no ill affect.

[saltwater2999]

Jmadison--

I know not to use redslime remover. I know that it doesn't solve the problem in the long run. im looking for a more long time fix to the problem.

I feed my two fish that I have in the tank about 3 times a week and the same time I also feed my two corals and anemone

my lighting schedule used to be 10am to 10pm for actinic lights and 11am to 9pm for normal lights. I have now changed the lights to 11am to 9pm for actinic lights and 12pm to 8 pm for normal lights. I just changed the schedule on sunday.

[jscarlata]

ok, you dont need to remove any inhabitants, they will be fine.
as for feeding your coral and anemone, i would stop that until you get the issue sorted out...you dont need to feed them, they get enough energy form the light. feeding corals is putting a lot of excess nutrients in the water that the corals arent consuming, which could be a cause of your cyano issues...

[saltwater2999]

okay so ill stop feeding my corals completely.

and may I ask what you guys have for your lighting schedule

[saltwater2999]

when you say large water change how much would that be . like I said I have a 55gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump

[jmadison]

I agree on the forgoing feeding coral and nem for the time being. They are photosyhthetic beings and whether or not you are target feeding them they are still getting food from the water column also.

I read somewhere once(and I don't have the citing for it I apologize) That most nuisance algae needed long sustained photoperiods to photosynthesize and that corals are fine with intermittent light. So I have always had an hour and a half of no light in the middle of my photoperiod with great growth and low algal growth. Cyano is a bacteria but this could also hold true to it.

I am assuming your bulbs were new 6 months ago upon starting this tank? What spectrums etc? I think it's too early to tell if your new photoperiod has helped but I'd shave another hour off of both times.

I am STILL waiting for your response to your TDS readings on the RO/DI water....

[jmadison]

Originally Posted by saltwater2999

when you say large water change how much would that be . like I said I have a 55gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump

25-30 gallons.

Remember you don't have 75 gallons of water in your system. It's likely to be more like 50-55 depending on rock, plumbing length, and sump water level.

[saltwater2999]

I don't know my tds for my ro/di water

I originally had leds on the tank before I bought the t5 12,000k 260watt light for my tank 3 months ago

[jmadison]

Originally Posted by saltwater2999

I don't know my tds for my ro/di water

I originally had leds on the tank before I bought the t5 12,000k 260watt light for my tank 3 months ago

Do you buy your water or make it yourself? If you make it how old are the filters? Your water may not be as "pure" as you think, that is why a TDS reading is important.

Bought back? As in had them for a month had LEDs for a few months and now back to t5s for 3 months? Whats the history here? Also what are all the bulb combos in the fixture and quantity? When did the cyano appear in relation to fixture changes?

[saltwater2999]

I make my own ro/di fitlers are about 4 months old I used to buy ro/di water

when my tank first started I had leds for the tank which lasted 3 months. then I upgraded to the t5 fixture.

heres my light fixture

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[ga330411]

when i first started the hobby i also had a red slime outbreak. im not a fan of using any chemicals for removal but i was running out of options and used some kind of red slime removal (like ultralife red slime remover) and it was completely gone in a matter of 36 hours! didn't harm any fish or corals either

[saltwater2999]

Originally Posted by ga330411

when i first started the hobby i also had a red slime outbreak. im not a fan of using any chemicals for removal but i was running out of options and used some kind of red slime removal (like ultralife red slime remover) and it was completely gone in a matter of 36 hours! didn't harm any fish or corals either

how long did the red slime stay away for

[jmadison]

Originally Posted by saltwater2999

I make my own ro/di fitlers are about 4 months old I used to buy ro/di water

when my tank first started I had leds for the tank which lasted 3 months. then I upgraded to the t5 fixture.

heres my light fixture

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Do you have a TDS meter on your RO system? I would HIGHLY recommend getting one if you do not have one already.

Are the bulbs on the link the same as what you are running?