hair alge and red slime explosion

[jeremy petrie]

I have had a big algae prob for the last month nothing has changed that I'm aware of all my levels are good as far as amonia, trares, trites, ph, alk, and calcium don't know if there is anything else i need to test but thats all i have oh yeah sal .0025 and did change my lighting 2months ago did treat for red slime and have been doing small water changes frequently after advice of smaller more rather than large monthly any thoughts on what is causing it could really us the help thanks all

 

[indigobluetc]

I had the same thing happen out of no where in my 135.. Throw a lawnmower b in there and it will take care of it.. All my levels were good as well.. How long are your lights on for?

 

[saltwaterjames]

How many fish or what is your bio load and what kind of skimmer do you have. Algae explosions are the results of an increase in nutrient import and an insufficient amount of export. These increases cause phosphates increases and phosphates fuel algea. I suggest using a phosphate removal media and deceasing the amount of food during feedings.

 

[jeremy petrie]

9 hrs a day 12-9 had a lawnmower but died need another no new live stock except 1 RBTA tank is almost a yer old and never had this problem before

 

[indigobluetc]

I have mine for 8 so no big diff there... 10-7 is what mine are.. I would try the lawnmower or what saltwaterjames said.. If you can a sea slug would also work.. but it would more then likely die when it is all gone..

 

[jeremy petrie]

yeah I'll do that but I still don't know how it started like I said nothing has changed

 

[indigobluetc]

I had no idea as well.. Always fed the same and all.. All levels were good. It just kinda disappeared over time with the lawnmower..

 

[jeremy petrie]

hopfully mine will to and not get worse guess I need to get a lawnmower

 

[reign]

saltwaterj is right..you really want to check your phosphates.this is usually a good indicator of nutients so are nitrates..make sure you are using a low range test kit for both..Of course it makes sense that there is algae now if you didnt change a thing..Its because these nutrients build up slowly exponentially if you will. What kind of skimmer are you using..clean it once a week at least..how often you changin water or do you have some sort of NNR (natural nitrate reduction) in place..Also how is your water flow? are there any "dead" spots where detritus can build up..Finally what type of light you running and are you changing them..When bulbs are old the spectrum changes..sometimes benefitting other algae species more than others..

 

[jeremy petrie]

I have pc's and just changed the bulbs 2 months ago skimmer is a sea clown modified but does a decent job now i also have a large ball of macro algae growing in the display tank also running a 30 gal sump as far as dead spots none im pushing bout 1200gph right now for flow including the return was doing monthly 25% water changes but have switched to 15% biweekly changes

 

[reign]

So is this a 75 gallon? Or 55. cant tell from the pics.. Sounds like your taking excellent care of it.the sea clown is a lil small (performance wise not what the mfr. says)..I would still test phosphates...what is your feeding regimen like? There are a ton of articles on cyano..there are many theories on why it grows..The most widely accepted ones are nutrients and flow..also what kind of lights are you running?

 

[michael lavigne]

red slime algea

red slime algea

FYI, I have had some out breaks in my set up in the past. Be vary careful if using RED SLIME REMOVER, it's a yellow powder that is sold at South West Reef. It is a good product! However, the directions out call for 1 small spoon full for every 25 gallons of water. It will lower the PH, and lower the ability of the water hold oxygen. This I have found out the hard way (killing everything in the tank two seperate times). I have found if I only dose 1/3 of what the directions say, turn off my lights,and skimmmer for 3 days it takes care of the outbreak and then I can go to work on the real problem of getting the water quality back in check.
M-

 

[ksquared]

I tried to read through the thread, but I didn't notice if you're using RO water. With all the rain NM has been getting recently, the phosphorus in fertilizers finds its way into our city water. It doesn't make much sense to me to put dirty water into a marine aquarium and try to clean it up once it's in there...put in clean water. All hail Reverse Osmosis!

 

[reign]

Hail R.O. !!!


Hey K2..how you beem pm me...

 

[sgallant04]

Referring back to what ksquared mentioned about cabq tap water...

I’m new to the hobby so I have to ask; but wouldn't the test kits reveal phosphate levels and other water parms if they were using tap water?


-SG

 

[benjabba]

Test kits would reveal phosphates but their are alot of other organics and things like silicates in tap water. All of these things will contribute to and fuel blooms. I am not sure how your water is there but here in El Paso our tap water is generally around 400 to 500 TDS. For our saltwater tanks we should try to use water as close to 0 TDS as possible. On my RODI unit once I get any reading other then 0 TDS I change the filters. HTH

 

[jeremy petrie]

yes I'm using R/O from the local water store i am also running pc's 4 65w 2 10,000k and 2 460nm actinic yeah I've used red slime remover from rob already once and super cleaned sump skimmer and over flow and did a 20g water change the red slime didn't cause any problems but something to keep in mind definitely don't want to kill anything I am doing 2 small water changes this week and then going to us red slime again and then do another big water change as recommended by the directions on the box