Giving Up on this Hobby......Red Slime Algae Won't Go Away
- Thread starter excitedforfish
- Start date
cherubfish pair
New member
Try stirring up your red slime and sand where it sits. It should go through your overflow and be skimmed out of your system through the protein skimmer.
excitedforfish
New member
Yeah the pics don't make it look too bad right now but it DOES get disgusting and all over the sandbed. I just turned the lights on 1 hr ago and thats how it looks. Usually 75% of the sandbed is covered with that red snot. What percentage water change should I be doing weekly?
excitedforfish
New member
Ok I will try that again
Last time I did that, it worked for 4 or 5 hours and then BOOM.....it was EVERYWHERE!!!!!
excitedforfish
New member
Thank you, I will try! Too much money into it to stop now I guess!
. It really is rewarding though when everything is "in tune".waynebrown
New member
thats not too bad.
Check your silicate level and phosphate level.
research your food products too, you could be feeding with a product containing phosphates.
I had a similar issue with IO salt, changed to Oceanic and it's gone.
Check your silicate level and phosphate level.
research your food products too, you could be feeding with a product containing phosphates.
I had a similar issue with IO salt, changed to Oceanic and it's gone.
spamreefnew
New member
+1 NOT THAT BAD by next year you will have forgotten all about it. don't give it up!!
Stusdesktop
New member
Through the summer we were battling a cyano outbreak and here is what we found:
No single thing totally cured our problem, it was a combination of small changes over time that really helped. First thing we did was change our bulbs to ATI, our T5's were at 11 months old and changing them out helped a lot.
Secondly we added a canister filter, dumped all the media that came with it and added coarse pad -> carbon pad -> phosphate pad -> nitrate pad and finally a water polishing pad. I think all the pads came to around $25 and we get 3 filters per pad. We change pads every other week, it's something you have to do or you can create a nitrate factory in the filter.
Thirdly over the course of a couple of weeks we changed our lighting cycle, we cut our white lighting period back to a little over 6 hours a day. Actinic's come on at 8.30am and run for around 13 hours, whites kick on around midday and run until around 6.30pm.
10% water changes every week for a month, we actually got our water from our local LFS and combined the canister filter changes along with our water changes. Now we're back on a bi-weekly cycle of changes unless we see something happening we don't like.
When we started all of our testing was coming back with numbers that were good but not perfect. Now we have very good numbers and the tank is doing better than it has at any point before. We have very good coral extension, very good growth even on some of the slower growing corals and the cyano is gone.
It wasn't an overnight fix and it wasn't very quick really but it worked, didn't cost thousands (probably around $125 not including the bulbs) and more importantly for us we now have a regular system for doing maintenance that we stick to.
Hope that helps give you a few pointers to small changes that do help.
No single thing totally cured our problem, it was a combination of small changes over time that really helped. First thing we did was change our bulbs to ATI, our T5's were at 11 months old and changing them out helped a lot.
Secondly we added a canister filter, dumped all the media that came with it and added coarse pad -> carbon pad -> phosphate pad -> nitrate pad and finally a water polishing pad. I think all the pads came to around $25 and we get 3 filters per pad. We change pads every other week, it's something you have to do or you can create a nitrate factory in the filter.
Thirdly over the course of a couple of weeks we changed our lighting cycle, we cut our white lighting period back to a little over 6 hours a day. Actinic's come on at 8.30am and run for around 13 hours, whites kick on around midday and run until around 6.30pm.
10% water changes every week for a month, we actually got our water from our local LFS and combined the canister filter changes along with our water changes. Now we're back on a bi-weekly cycle of changes unless we see something happening we don't like.
When we started all of our testing was coming back with numbers that were good but not perfect. Now we have very good numbers and the tank is doing better than it has at any point before. We have very good coral extension, very good growth even on some of the slower growing corals and the cyano is gone.
It wasn't an overnight fix and it wasn't very quick really but it worked, didn't cost thousands (probably around $125 not including the bulbs) and more importantly for us we now have a regular system for doing maintenance that we stick to.
Hope that helps give you a few pointers to small changes that do help.
Your pics tell your water movement story. I would suggest: 1.) Investigate changing salts away from Reef Crystals 2.) Add a couple smaller power heads to give a bit more flow at the bottom 3.) Reduce your light cycle while increasing your water changes until eliminating it 4.) And last, if you can add a couple of sand sifting star fish they will help agrigate the sand. Dont give up. You have a nice tank going.
excitedforfish
New member
OMG. Please don't tell me this is dino?! I thought it is common for cyano to go away and come back?
I had the same problem in my tank. I decreased the amount of food I was feeding the tank, did weekly water changes instead of bi weekly, added another power head to the tank and increased my clean up crew, I didn't see much of a clean up crew in your pics. My tank is back to normal.
It looks more like cyano to me.
I'd want to know three numbers: phosphate, nitrate and alkalinity. Get good tests, because there are some hobby grade phosphate kits that can't tell 0.05 from 0.5 mg/L. Find someone local with a Hanna if you can't afford one.
Every tank is different. A good skimmer or a ball of chaeto can keep phosphate undetectable in one tank but be absolutely inadequate for another. I always plan on having a phosphate strategy, for me that's automated carbon dosing AND media reactors, but for a smaller tank and budget you might dose vinegar by hand and try GFO in filter socks agitated and replaced frequently and see if that helps. And by see if that helps I mean after keeping up on it for a couple months.
I'd want to know three numbers: phosphate, nitrate and alkalinity. Get good tests, because there are some hobby grade phosphate kits that can't tell 0.05 from 0.5 mg/L. Find someone local with a Hanna if you can't afford one.
Every tank is different. A good skimmer or a ball of chaeto can keep phosphate undetectable in one tank but be absolutely inadequate for another. I always plan on having a phosphate strategy, for me that's automated carbon dosing AND media reactors, but for a smaller tank and budget you might dose vinegar by hand and try GFO in filter socks agitated and replaced frequently and see if that helps. And by see if that helps I mean after keeping up on it for a couple months.
jacob.morgan78
New member
You shouldn't give up... I've seen such worst tanks! Yours looks good, be patient and take little steps and it will get better... Don't stress about it, it doesn't look that bad
Metal Man 1221
FMMAS Executive Director
My GF's tank was ridden with a rainbow of cyano (no joke, any color you could imagine). We changed water all the time, tried skimming (FO setup), vigorously changed carbon, tried lights out, and nothing seemed to work. This went on for a year and a half, until just recently we went to visit her mom and do some tank maintenance and it was gone. I couldnt believe my eyes. We had struggled for so long to get rid of it and it just disappeared.
One thing I have learned about the hobby is that patience is the most important aspect to success. Just hang in there and as rovster said (or REO Speed Wagon) "ride the storm out"
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
I had that issue and half a dozen nassarius snails cleaned that up in no time.
BIG_KAHUNA
New member
What I'm dealing with right now too for a couple of months off and on. I am also using reef crystals...thinking about changing this. My tank may be underskimmer. PITA figuring out whats causing the problem. I do know that reef crystals have to have airstones in the holding tank to keep the organics from going bad and smelling funny. I wonder if this has anything to do with our excess nutrients woes...
