cleaning LR with corals on it

jackp1

New member
hi i have a few very nice soft coral colanys, toadstools mushrooms finger leathers ricordeas. Anyway the LR the corals are on has got a small amount of red hair algea or red slime algea starting to spread onto the corals LR. i was hoping it would be ok to get a small tub of tank water, put in the coral then get my tooth brush, an old one dab the toothbrush in a tiny bit bleach & scrub of the slime algae rince it all of & put it back. would this help me or will it be a bad idea... the red algae started to grow on top of my sand, it spreads slowly around the sand tiny little bits starting to spread onto the LR. iv been hovering up as much as i can but i'm trying not to spread it everywere i only have 3 fish in the tank cheers...
 
You need to first figure out what is clausing the hair algae and red slime, high phosphates, Nitrates, etc, and fix the problem. Cleaning the rock with a tooth brush will not fix the problem. I have used a tooth brush to clean the rock in the past and have had problems, I think it either reduces the oxygen levels in the tank or produces toxics. I have lost a couple of yellow tangs using the tooth brush method. You could use a power head and blow the red slime off the rocks and get a tang to eat the hair algae. I would not use bleach if you decide to use the tooth brush, not sure what that would accomplish. But first try and figure out what is causing the hair algae and red slime.
 
You can also remove red slime with a turkey baster. Easier than a power head. But pwfish is right, you need to find out why it is growing in the first place.
 
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