battling red slime

[Buddy08]

i have been battling red slime for about 2 months now syphoning whatever i could see and this is my last effort to fix the problem.. for starters, i will give you a run down of things that could possible be the cause but i will let you experts decide and narrow it down for me

my bulbs are roughly 8 months old (t5's)
*this a sign they need replacing?

i have 6 fish (1 yellow tang, 1 coral beauty, 2 damsels, and 2 clowns)
i feed them one 3x3 inch algae sheet daily as well as 1 frozen mysis shrimp cube.
*am i over feeding?

i used to toss the cube in my sump and it would normally disolve to where my return pump would feed it back to the DT, i felt this was better than just dropping the cube in the tank due to the fact the cube would float up against the overflows and drain shrimp back into the sump...then the thought dawned on me months later that the mag drive was most likely chopping the shrimp into smaller pieces that would just disolve and not get eaten.
*could that be another factor and if so, should i just dissolve food in a cup with tank water and then poor it into the DT?

i had a fuge full of cheato... but my urchin ate it all.
*would adding more cheato help with the red slime even though my phosphates read 0.

I just bought a new BR-110 Bio pellet reactor but after consulting many of you, it seems i need to add more flow.
*when this is properly set up, will this help fight the algae off?

Lastly, i know theres the blackout method. How would i go about preforming this? I understand the part where the tank lights stay off for 3 days but what about feeding, do i feed regularly?

thanks in advance, its alot to read over but i want to get this handled before it gets out of hand

 

[fishmap]

What about nitrates? I think the first thing for me would be to find the source. This is possibly a combination of excess nutrients and lighting spectrum. What size tank is it and are you using a skimmer?

 

[guy9smiley2]

The impellar in the return pump would make a mess with the shrimp I would think leaving traces of excess food. Use a Cup with tank water let the cube sit in that for 5 m?inutes then feed(may have to swirl it around a little) 2nd I did everything possible to try n get rid of it nothing worked it took over my tank. LUckily was my fish only tank so i wasn't too worried (few worries in there just extras) so i tried chemi clean. It wipes it out the tanks been good ever since. Just cant use skimmer for 2 weeks due to the chemical makes it freak out. Look it up red slime remover by chemi clean I think or something like that.

 

[Buddy08]

its 75 gallons, and im running a protein skimmer rated for 150gallons. as for nitrates, they're reading 0ppm.

 

[Taino Man]

What is your water source?

 

[Buddy08]

a 5 stage ro di unit

edit: i hook it up to my kitchen sink when i need to use it, im in an apartment so i cant attach anything that would damage water lines or be permenant so i bought an adapter piece and hook it up when needed, and store it in the storage when not.

 

[Buddy08]

bump

 

[Psirex]

For the blackout literally no light for 3 days - feed a little less that you normally would, cover the tank sides with something that won't allow light to pass through or very little...

 

[Taino Man]

a 5 stage ro di unit

edit: i hook it up to my kitchen sink when i need to use it, im in an apartment so i cant attach anything that would damage water lines or be permenant so i bought an adapter piece and hook it up when needed, and store it in the storage when not.

Interesting, so your water is solid. I use Glacier water, the machine with the penguin.

Do you run a sump/refuge with macro algae?

I too have tried depriving it of light. Ive found that dosing some Nitromax has helped me in the past. But ultimately just doing partial water changes and my regular weekly water change has helped me get it tamed. Ive found that the slightest sunlight hitting the tank will encourage it as well.

I have a 15 gallon aggressive nano that had the red slime. Ive been rinsing my overflow box sponge and return pump sponge in that tank. Been two weeks and red slime is gone! :thumbsup:

 

[guy9smiley2]

Redslime remover... Does the trick. Didn't (not supposed to either) lose any fish or coral.

 

[Taino Man]

Redslime remover... Does the trick. Didn't (not supposed to either) lose any fish or coral.

What do you do when the red slime stops responding to the red slime remover treatment?

Ive read it develops resistance to the treatment and than thrives again.

I have used the stuff and it does work. Only used it a couple times in my 30 gallon.

 

[RA]

I was having problems with red slime and then I started using GFO in a reactor and it cleared up. This along with some more water changes should clear things up.

 

[yubunski]

Find the source of the problem! See if you're feeding too much. Turn off all the pump/powerhead, make sure there is no flow and see if they can actually finish all the food that you put in. Without finding the cause it'll just come back.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

I had a cyano issue in my tank. I chemicleaned it and now there is no trace of it anywhere...

Make sure you have water for the water change made up and run carbon before turning on your skimmer.

 

[SnRFishies]

i had a red slime problem on my first tank. i used the red slime remover too. it's in a tube and is yellow powder. It worked amazing to remove it but then it's up to you to prevent it from coming up again.

 

[guy9smiley2]

Mine has not come back. My source was my job skimmer sponges were holding nitrates that cause it to spike. Chemist cleaned it, cleaned skimmer out monthly now and its perfect.

 

[CoppBandbuttfly]

I have redslime for a long time...recently tried redslime Control (from Blue Life) but it didn't work. I did 20% water change(RO water), throw away 1/5bio balls from wet/dry filter, still didn't work. All water parameters are good except nitrate which is very high 80-160ppm. I feed only once a day with small pellet from Ocean Nutrition-formula one, 1 cube of brimp shrimp.

Fishes:hippo tang, browny tang, power blue tang, diamond goby, 2 fire goby, 2 chromis, 2 false clown..90 gallons tank, with PM skimmer, and gamma UV light, light is on around 5 hours a day.

I guess the main reason for the redslime is my nitrate level is too high, but what else can I do to reduce it? So far all fishes are doing good without problem.

 

[Psirex]

I have redslime for a long time...recently tried redslime Control (from Blue Life) but it didn't work. I did 20% water change(RO water), throw away 1/5bio balls from wet/dry filter, still didn't work. All water parameters are good except nitrate which is very high 80-160ppm. I feed only once a day with small pellet from Ocean Nutrition-formula one, 1 cube of brimp shrimp.

Fishes:hippo tang, browny tang, power blue tang, diamond goby, 2 fire goby, 2 chromis, 2 false clown..90 gallons tank, with PM skimmer, and gamma UV light, light is on around 5 hours a day.

I guess the main reason for the redslime is my nitrate level is too high, but what else can I do to reduce it? So far all fishes are doing good without problem.

Increase water changes amount and frequency.... When i do water changes it is always between 40% - 50%


Also add chaeto.....
What do you have in sump?

 

[CoppBandbuttfly]

Increase water changes amount and frequency.... When i do water changes it is always between 40% - 50%


Also add chaeto.....
What do you have in sump?

My local fish store does not have chaeto. Where can I buy it?

I have Chemi-Pure Elite carbon in the sump, but I discard it when I used the redslime control since it says do not use carbon when using the medication. Should I add carbon back to the sump. I have new one.

How about problem with salt mix? I use the one from Oceanic.

By the way the redslime cover pretty much all my live rock, and I left out the bi-color angel.

 

[CoppBandbuttfly]

one year later...I found out the main cause is the lighting. I stopped lighting for 2 days and it improves a lot. Probably time to change light bulb? I use Corallife 48" lighting with white & blue light.