fed up

L

LSAMMONS5821

New member
i have been fighting red slime algea since i started my 75 gallon about a month ago. I changed my filters in RO/DI/water changes. My parameters are perfect but i vacume the stuff up every time i change water and it comes back 3 days later. i dont want to add chemicals but it seems like the only thing left to do. any sugestions??????????

thanks,
Logan Sammons
 
dont sweat it, your tank is only a month old, youre gonna get plenty of different algae cycles. Just keep up with regular maintenance and if you want to rush it just get some
Chemi-Clean.
 
From http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bluegralgae.htm

Blue-green slime algae growth should be avoided on several fronts. By way of limiting nutrients, through careful feeding of appropriate foods and limiting use of supplements, proper lighting, adequate filtration, circulation and aeration, and stocking of competing photosynthetic life. Should you have a massive outbreak of Cyanobacteria, look to the root causes detailed here and attack your BGA problems at their root causes: lack of competing photosynthates, overabundance of chemical foods, and stagnant, low oxygenated water. Beware of chemical fixes for these noisome algae types. They don’t work in the long term, and may well poison your livestock in the short.
 
Best way to get rid of cyanbacteria is a good skimmer and regular water changes. Cyanobacteria thrive in tanks with high organics.
 
Logan,
What are your tank specs? Do you have a sump, if so, what skimmer do you use? What is your tank turnover rate? If you just started a month ago, you probably are still cycling... What live stock inhabit your tank? Do you have a clean up crew? These are all things to consider when dealing with an algae outbreak. Are you testing phosphates? Do you have a refugium? I know, alot of questions, but something in your tank is creating steroids for micro-alage. An extended refugium will certainly help to fix..... Just my 2 cents.
Take care,
Perry
 
i am running a remora skimmer with a mag 5 i bought the t-5 lights that mike had for sale it has been a little longer than a month i have 2 clown fish and some zoas live stock is fine just growing on the sand. the sump is hard to explain it is basicly a 120 with part of the dept taken by a built in sump in the rear using a mag 5 as a return and 2 maxijet 1200's. the tank is defintly cycled as far as nitrite and amonia spike. i had a pc on half of it when i moved it down from kc and it only started growing on the side where the light was so i guess it was the old bulbs. it is to the point where i want to get out of the hobby. thanks for all sugestions.
 
Logan,
This would be the point to go further into the hobby.... I would firsty start with your water. You mentioned that you are using RO/DI water. Are you mixing yourself? Are you testing your new water for nitrates, phosphates, alkalinity, calcium, and most importantly do you test with a TDS meter? My thoughts...
 
i tested the new water before adding it and all tested good. it seems some days it shrivels up and dies then comes back. i just got a phosphate test and am going to do it i will post results. this site is great
 
The red thin covering on the bottom is Cyanobacteria, it is not really an algae. It grows on sand that has some nitrogenous wastes such as fish poop, or maybe sand that had some life, but died. Hard to say, but it is something that sometimes new tanks will go through. It may grow or stay the same size for a while but will eventually go away. You might try vacuuming it up when doing water changes. You might get some blue leg hermits, I have way too many, but I'm in Sarasota. I am not familiar with a Remora skimmer, but a good skimmer should be removing dark stuff from the water. You might try some plants/macroalgaes in the sump with a small flourescent light over them, to help with nutrient export.
 
i did transport the sand that was in my nano in kansas city in buckets down here so the sand might have been alive and now dead. although i have way to mjuch $$ in it now to quit. i was told the blue leg hermits dont touch it.
 
I have seen my crabs eat the stuff. Make sure you test your H20 before mixing with TDS meter as well. If its not 0 then your membranes are shot. Only 0 is good. Of course if you don't have a choice the 5 I guess is better than 140. Also good flow helps to control slime algae, I've got a corner in my 90 that is blocked with a few large corals and where it doesn't get flow that much is where it always show's up.
 
Sounds like you are cycling....Let nature take it's course....If you are sure your water is zero... including TDS reading, then assume your water is not the source of the issue. Look then at your equipment, and make sure it can handle bio=load. Again, my thoughts.......
 
I found one of the easiest ways to remove large amounts of that nasty cyano is a little mini-brine shrimp net. My cheapo siphon would not pull it up it would just swirl in the tube. the little $1.99 mesh net lets you scoop it and a bit of the sand out. It has helped my brothers tank quite a bit.... FWIW it is driving him nuts too but we noticed a big difference after 1 good 20% water change and scooping what we could versus just spreading it / burying it before(which just adds more food for the cyano to grow on). Look up Nutrient export on Wetwebmedia, this helped me with the potential sources.
 
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