Help my get rid of the red slime in the refugium

[ggfish]

I'm trying to lessen the amout of red slime in my hang on refugium it's the cpr brand the smallest modle they make all my parameters are perfect ,the only thing I can think of is it's got low flow in there,so I put in the smallest rio powerhead I could find hopefully that will help ,any tips or suggestions would be great, thanks

 

[kmk2307]

Hey ggfish,

Do you test your phosphates? Cyanobacteria love phosphates. I'm a big fan of iron hydroxide based phosphate removers like Phosban.

Kevin

 

[moggyhill]

phosban rocks and I use it on all my tanks now just because

 

[magrath]

How do you guys run the phosban?

I am also having a bad problem with red slime in my fuge I am thinking of taking my DSB out of the fuge. It seems like it is a holding spot for debris since the flow is not very strong in there. Has anyone removed their DSB from their fuge?

 

[sjvl51]

Why not just increase the flow in your refuge? Algae does not need low flow to remove nutrients.

Vickie

 

[magrath]

The only way to increase the flow in my fuge is adding a powerhead, not sure if I want to do that.

 

[moggyhill]

I don't use a dsb in my fuge, I use live rock and chaeto and things do pretty well that way

 

[sjvl51]

Magrath, I did add a powerhead to increase my flow in the refuge for this reason - too much red slime (cyano) buildup.

The sandbed is important, if you are trying to grow zooplankton (ie pods) for the display tank. Quoting from Book of Coral Propagation by Anthony Calfo (p63) "Experimentation with different grades and depths of substrate will produce dramatically different results with species of zooplankton. Coarse substrate (coarse sand, crushed rock/rubble) will often encourage larger zooplankton like amphipods. Fine substrate like oolitic sand (sugar-fine aragonite) and sediments favor copepod populations. The concurrent culture of species of plant or algae is also helpful for some refugium-targeted organisms that will feed on epiphytic matter. Using alternate filtration techniquest to encourage the growth of microfauna such as shrimp and various larvae provides an incomparable source of natural food for numerous marine coral and other organisms."

Vickie

 

[magrath]

Did the powerhead help with your cyano problem? I do have a lot of pods in my fuge and that is the main reason I have not gotten rid of my sand bed in there.

 

[sjvl51]

It helped a lot. I haven't completely got rid of the red slime but it is only about 10% of what it was. This summer I am hoping to redrill so that I can install a bigger bulkhead and produce more flow that way.

Vickie

 

[ggfish]

hI GUYS ,I've put a small rio power head in the refugium but it has had no effect on the red slim ,I have perfect peramiters on the tank so the only thing that I can asume is that the flow in there still is not sufficent,the only thing that has worked for me in the pass to remove the red slim has ben cutting back the amount of light it gets or useing red slim remover,but I'm relucktant two try these methods because the fuge is a hang on CPR that is recieveing light from 3 400watt MH and the tank is stocked with mostly sps camptive raised frags,also the last time I used red slime remover on my old tank it prduced thousands of bubbles in the tank and took weeks to pass through the system,If any one has any new ideas amount how to handle this please respond thank you ,GGfish

 

[SiniStar]

Where theres red slime, there pods. Looks like your refigium is doing a good job, red slime is just as good a tool for nutrient export as any other algae, just hope it doesnt start growing in the main tank