Algae problems raise their ugly head

Bikerharold

New member
:uhoh3: Have just noticed a small patch of red slime algae in my tank about the size of a silver dollar on one of the rocks, also had a major break out of dino algae at the same time. Have a 90 gal tank everything looks to be growing great, have a GFO reactor working and have just change the medium, skimmer is working fine, LED lights have been installed for over 9 months no change there. Water parameters seem to be in check. Did start putting seaweed in for couple of fish. Could something like this cause a sudden problem. You think you have learned a lot then find out not so much. Any suggestion would be appreciate. :rolleye1:
 
Hi! I had a Cyano (red slime) out break a few months ago...I tried everything... Siphoning it out etc...It just came back worse a day later. Finally I bought Chemiclean....Two doses but it wiped it out...And it hasn't been back since....And that was two months ago. And all my params were in check too.
 
Thanks Cancun was hoping not to add chemicals but will try the siphoning first. Did adding Chemiclean do anything to your live stock. I have 4 clowns and a couple of other fish but quite a few sps and lps corals, no ill effect on any of your corals.
 
Yep, I've used Red Slime Remover years ago back when I just started in the hobby with good success. It is made by Ultralife and is available for sale from Bulk Reef Supply.
 
Might try cutting back on the white light spectrum a bit and decreasing both the amounts/days you feed. Maybe every other day and be sure to rinse frozen food and dispose of the rinse off before introducing into tank. We tend to way over feed those little bellies. Also be sure to use a pellet food (if you are) that is free of phosphates. I like Hikari and New Life Spectrum for those various reasons. RowaPhos is great stuff and highly recommend if your not using that media already. I changed over to RowaPhos and have had no issues with Red Slime since. A combination of everything of course is best.

Food + Media + Light + Export with water change weakly.

luck
 
Once again thanks to everyone for your suggestions. ajoe have started doing some of your suggestions already. Less feed, turned my white lights way down and shorten the time they are on have left the blue, royal blue violet up full. I went for a new cheaper GFO probable got what I paid for, will go back to RowaPhos. Will also cut out feeding of corals for awhile and hopefully that will correct my problem. Just when you think you are beginning to get good at this game you find out you really don't know much. LOL
 
This might here: Nutrient Export

What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.

So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients comes from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.

Then, the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on the rocks consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks from when they were new. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crews, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

So whenever you have algae or cyano "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients out of your tank compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then after a year, there is a problem).

So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals :)
 
Have cut back on feed to fish and to corals. Might have gotten a little out of control with food for corals. LOL Did a major water change of about 25 % turn down my lights, turned of green red and white levels will leave these off for a couple of days and see what happens. Thanks for all the info.
 
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