having a red slime/cyano outbreak

[prestage3ek]

about 2 weeks ago I had a catastrophe and all my fish died. My corals and crabs/snails are ok. Since then I have done 2 50% water changes and am now having a red slime outbreak. I tried adjusting flow on my sand bed but i just ended up blowing the sand everywhere and still having the red crap on my sand. Any suggestions? my lighting cycle is actinics on @ 9am, 10K 10am, 10K off @ 7pm actinics off @ 8pm. I run a mj1200 with a hydor rotating head on it and a mj600. tank temp is usually between 78-80 degrees. If more info is needed to help diagnose my problem it would be greatly appreciated to let me know so I can get my tank back on track and get some fish back in it.

 

[mcwl]

Red Slime

Red Slime

Try noredit the lfs should have it.

 

[AZDesertRat]

What are your phosphate and nitrate levels? Are you using RO/DI water for changes and from the very beginning? It really makes a difference. How old is the system, how much rock and sand and have you made any major changes lately like big livestock additions or filtration changes. What do you use for filtration? Do you have a skimmer?

 

[prestage3ek]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9641178#post9641178 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AZDesertRat
What are your phosphate and nitrate levels? Are you using RO/DI water for changes and from the very beginning? It really makes a difference. How old is the system, how much rock and sand and have you made any major changes lately like big livestock additions or filtration changes. What do you use for filtration? Do you have a skimmer?

I dont have anything to measure phosphate levels, I havent tested nitrate lately so im not sure. I have always used RO/DI for water changes, usually I just top off about 5 gallons worth during the week. The tank has been up since December and like I said about 2 weeks ago all my fish just died out of the blue. I have not added anything since the die off and even before then the last time I added something was about a month before that when I added a Bangai Cardinalfish. I had 4 fish total. I use a red sea prizm skimmer and an aquaclear HOB filter with a sponge filter, carbon and the biomax is what its called, basically from what I understand a nitrate filter. I change the sponge filter monthly and I change the carbon in my prizm skimmer every month also. It has a little plastic bucket type thing that you can add carbon into. I had been using the SeaChem carbon with the added phosphate pebbles in it, dont remember what it exactly was called.

I will say this. I do have a candy cane coral, and I have started feeding it weekly with cyclopeeze, I have heard people talk about it and recommend it. Also I have been adding weekly Kents Essential Elements as well as I dose weekly with Cycle, stuff you can buy from like PetSmart or your local pet store. If that helps.

 

[AZDesertRat]

The carbon you are using with the added stuff is for freshwater only. You want straight carbon with no extras. Same with the insert in the side filter, use only the sponge and plain carbon.
Never add anything to the tank you cannot test for, that includes Kent products and any other supplements. You can very easily throw the balance off which is probably what has happened.
Basically you need to slow down, take your time so the system matures slowly. When you try to rush things it does not get well established.
Continue with 10 to 20% water changes weekly, monitor the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, and phosphates. Add nothing. Let it straighten itself out. Continue skimming, let it wet skim so it gets more out. Also monitor you salt content since you will be removing some with skimmate. What is the temperature and how much does it swing over a 24 hr period? Try to keep the temp swings at a minimum, 2 to 3 degrees max. Maintain a temp in the 79-81 range. Reduce lighting cycle until the algae bloom clears. Reduce any feeding , should be easy now with no fish but even cut back on the cyclopeze (which I love by the way, I use the frozen FreezerBar version myself).

 

[IslandCrow]

Hmm, 4 to 5 months. I believe that's right about the time I had my cyano outbreak. Don't be in too much of a hurry to start throwing chemicals in your tank. See if you can isolate the problem (I think mine was too much flake food and unrinsed frozen food), do everything you can to reduce nitrates and phosphates, and be patient. My outbreak lasted for 2-3 weeks. Every few days, I syphoned as much of the stuff out of my tank as I could, and then almost literally overnight, it disappeared.

 

[prestage3ek]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9641405#post9641405 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AZDesertRat
The carbon you are using with the added stuff is for freshwater only. You want straight carbon with no extras. Same with the insert in the side filter, use only the sponge and plain carbon.
Never add anything to the tank you cannot test for, that includes Kent products and any other supplements. You can very easily throw the balance off which is probably what has happened.
Basically you need to slow down, take your time so the system matures slowly. When you try to rush things it does not get well established.
Continue with 10 to 20% water changes weekly, monitor the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, and phosphates. Add nothing. Let it straighten itself out. Continue skimming, let it wet skim so it gets more out. Also monitor you salt content since you will be removing some with skimmate. What is the temperature and how much does it swing over a 24 hr period? Try to keep the temp swings at a minimum, 2 to 3 degrees max. Maintain a temp in the 79-81 range. Reduce lighting cycle until the algae bloom clears. Reduce any feeding , should be easy now with no fish but even cut back on the cyclopeze (which I love by the way, I use the frozen FreezerBar version myself).

The owner of my LFS told me it would be a good idea to use that product by SeaChem because it helps control phosphate levels.
Do you know which Kent product I am refering to? I looked at the back of the bottle and it looks like it just has a bunch of calcium, magnesium and iodine in it. Like I said I only add that once every 2 weeks or so. I dose PurpleUp everyday. My temp in my tank pretty much stays between 80ish and 78ish everyday, I usually look at it in the morning at at night. I guess I could look into shortening my light cycle since I dont have fish now, will that throw off the balance of my current tank inhabitants though? I only use the cyclopeze once a week cause my candy cane corals feeder tenticles seem to be coming out more and more lately since I started feeding it.

 

[AZDesertRat]

Again, if you don't have test kits for calcium, magnesium and iodine, or for whatever is in purple up don't put it in your tank period! The LFS owner is making a profit off of you. He will also make a profit when you return for more carbon and products to correct the wrongs.
Take your time and let it happen naturally. Good RO/DI water and a good salt mix will have everything you will need for some time to come. Until you have a heavily stocked SPS or stony coral tank you should not have to add anything at all except weekly water changes with a good salt.

 

[returnofsid]

Get the test kits you need, increase flow in the areas that the Cyano is growing in. Get the sponge out of the Aqua Clear. That sponge is a nitrate factory!! Phosban is a great product for decreasing phosphates. It binds the phosphates and allows them to be skimmed out of the water by the skimmer. I'd increase the amount and frequency of your water changes as well. You talk about flow and power heads but you don't mention what size tank this is. That'd help us figure out if this is a flow issue. Cyano is usually cured by increasing flow though.

 

[prestage3ek]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9644535#post9644535 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by returnofsid
Get the test kits you need, increase flow in the areas that the Cyano is growing in. Get the sponge out of the Aqua Clear. That sponge is a nitrate factory!! Phosban is a great product for decreasing phosphates. It binds the phosphates and allows them to be skimmed out of the water by the skimmer. I'd increase the amount and frequency of your water changes as well. You talk about flow and power heads but you don't mention what size tank this is. That'd help us figure out if this is a flow issue. Cyano is usually cured by increasing flow though.

Yikes, yeah guess I forgot to mention tank size. Its a 30 gallon. Last night I added my extra mj600 that I had sitting around into the tank so I have 2 mj600s blowing left to right now and 1 mj1200 blowing right to left. I rinse the sponge filter weekly and change it monthly. If I didnt use it, what would I fill up my HOB filter with? As far as what I add to my tank, these problems only started happening when I started feeding cyclopeeze and adding the Kent essential elements. Maybe ill just kick off using the Kent and see what happens.

 

[prestage3ek]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9644083#post9644083 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AZDesertRat
Again, if you don't have test kits for calcium, magnesium and iodine, or for whatever is in purple up don't put it in your tank period! The LFS owner is making a profit off of you. He will also make a profit when you return for more carbon and products to correct the wrongs.
Take your time and let it happen naturally. Good RO/DI water and a good salt mix will have everything you will need for some time to come. Until you have a heavily stocked SPS or stony coral tank you should not have to add anything at all except weekly water changes with a good salt.

My LFS owner is a good friend, I doubt he would sell me anything that wasnt good.

 

[prestage3ek]

Just did some testing.

Ammo- its either 0 or .25, my green graph is kinda hard to read
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0
PH- its either 7.8 or 8.0
tank temp is about 80 degrees

and thats all I can test with the kit I have

 

[Steverino]

When you water change, try to get some of the red cyano off the rocks and sand. How much rock do you have in that tank? Was it "live" rock?
If it makes you feel better, I also had a cyano outbreak at about 6 months (or was it 4, or 5?) or so. I increased the water flow, changed about 10% water 2-3 times a week, kept the salt level constant, used only RO/DI water. It was frustrating but the increased flow, smaller frequent water changes and vacuuming as much of it up finally did the job and it was gone after about 3-4 weeks.

 

[prestage3ek]

It is live rock, id say about 20lbs worth. I guess ill just have to try doing more water changes and hopefully things get better.

 

[IslandCrow]

My LFS owner is a good friend, I doubt he would sell me anything that wasnt good.

Good friend doesn't always mean he's giving you good advice. There's a lot to know about this hobby, and it's pretty much impossible for anyone to know it all. Of course, I know nothing about the carbon you were talking about, so I'm not saying your friend doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm just saying don't automatically assume anything he or we say is necessarily correct. The owner of the LFS where I usually shop is a very honest guy, and I don't think he's ever tried to sell me something he didn't think I needed, but I've also gotten some bad advice from him. Not because he was lying to me, but because he was simply mistaken.

Anyway, good luck with the cyano. I hate that stuff. You may want to hold off on the cyclopeeze in addition to the Kent stuff while you're at it. . .at least until you can get that cyano under control.

 

[Bambalam]

I'm not big on additives. Regular water changes will help you IMO. LFS advice should always be taken with a grain of salt - even when it's someone you have known for a while. JMO