after red slime skimmer going crazy?

[jacksparrow7]

Aloha all, Here's what happened. I went away for a few days and a friend of mine who is a newbie reefer as well was taking care of my tank. Just before I left, I noticed a small area of red cyno forming in one spot of my tank so I was going to take care of it when I got home but my friend decided to try and do me a favor. I am not into adding anything into my tank that I can't test for but he is of a different school so he added red slime to the tank but now my skimmer is just going crazy with microbubbles coming out. The cup overflows within a few minutes of being turned on, skimmer is a H&S. It has been a couple of days now and it is still doing this, why? What is the fix?

Maholo Jack

 

[Joshua1023]

First of all, give your buddy a swift palm to the back of the head. Never add that kind of stuff to your tank without taking severe precautions. This will settle down. Add carbon to your sump and give it a little more time. Best of luck to you.

 

[Sk8r]

You mean he added ChemiClean or Red Slime Remover without consulting you? [Pause for breath here.]
1. it's serious stuff: it's an antibiotic that will not only kill the bacteria that is red slime, it will kill the beneficial bacteria you cycled your tank to promote in your sandbed, so treat your tank very, very gingerly after this and do NOT overfeed for a week or so. Let it recover.
2. Instructions for that stuff read: turn off the skimmer for [I can't recall if it's 24 or 48 hours: you need the package] and THEN SKIM LIKE CRAZY, skim wet, and pull the dead bacteria out before the biomass does nasty things to your tank, like provoke a small cycle. Skim, yes: it will foam. Get it all out, net out anything that's floating around, and then run carbon for the next week to be sure to keep any ammonia down. Hopefully it got the cyano it was going after, but if it didn't, just let it be! Cyano is generally a minor problem. These antibiotics are for major, major cases, and then only on strong, aged tanks, taking great care in the use thereof.
3. a swift palm to the back of the head, indeed!

 

[JR719]

Wow! I would say one huge water change, skim for a day, water change again. And as you know, repeat as necessary. What a bummer.

 

[jacksparrow7]

Aloha, well thank you for all the help and I think the back of the hand to the head worked very well, atleast for me. I did a 25% water change and have been runner the skimmer since and will head out tomorrow for carbon. I thank you for your wisdom. I don't see any affects on the coral or LR yet. My bicolored anthias and true perc clowns and LMB are doing great as well. What is the best way to run carbon anyway?

Maholo Jack

 

[jdieck]

Just put it in a filter bag, rinse it well and put it in a high flow are of your sump or filter.