help with brown slime

J

johnnydaz

New member
I have a reef aquarium with soft coral and a few LPS. I have been having problems with some sor t of brown slime. It been all over some of the rock and coral. The coral is not affected by it. I thought there was not enough water circulation so I put in a in another power head and that helped a little but did not solve the problem. When it comes off the coral and rock, it tends to float to the top of the tank. Where at times it becomes this brown crusty fome. Does anyone have any idea what it is and how I can get rid of it.
 
That sounds like a cyanobacteria or dinoflagellate problem. Can you blast it off the rock with a turkey baster? A picture might be useful, too.
 
I second that, cyanobacteria probably. Check nitrates, keep them low (preferably 0). Water flow also works. I get that stupid cyano film in my fuge, but not in the main tank. The photo period in the fuge is much longer than it is in the main tank. This is just my hypothesis, maybe the cyano grows better with a longer photoperiod.??? Anyone else think so?
 
Any kind of algae will benefit from light. That's what drives growth. So yeah, the photoperiod would increase the growth of Cyano.
 
I have not fish in my tank at the moment and the have done a 75% water change too. Does anyone have a pic or know where I can find one?
 
A 75% water change is fairly extreme, and I would avoid doing that for fear of doing more harm than good. If the tank is fairly new, such blooms are common, and often go away on their own.

Since you don't have any fish, I would guess you're not feeding anything, or very much, so the tank might also need more flow. How big is the tank, and what does it have for circulation?
 
I was going to say dinoflagellates, but I'm thinking it's a variant colored cyano.
If you're desperate AND nothing else works, try chemi-clean. It's great for getting rid of cyano, though many reefers would call it cheating. the important thing is to find the cause of the cyano and eliminate it.
Ditto bertoni's queries. How big is the tank and what kind of flow do you have in there? Any food going into the tank? answer those and someone with a lot more experience than I will steer you in the right direction. Good luck, I've dealt with the same problem twice so far.
 
Its 135 gallon and 6 ft long. I have 3 maxi jet powerheads running in it (2 160 gph and 1 230 gph). The tank has no fish in it at the moment so there is no food going in it except C balance. It cyano if that what it is has no affect on the coral. They are doing very well.
 
I think you need a minimum of about 1400 gph circulation. Some Seio or Tunze pumps might be an idea to consider. The Tunze pumps are very expensive, although they are very energy-efficient. You can also use powerheads, or consider a closed loop.
 
johnnydaz,
Are you in Washington State? Is so what city. I live in Bonney Lake near Puyallup and Tacoma.

Regards,

Pat
 
Oh too bad. I know exactly where Quincy is. If you were closer I figured we could hook up and share some notes.

More flow my friend. To do it the inexpensive way I would get 2 or 3 Seio 1100 or 1500 powerheads in that tank and really get some flow going. That will really help with the algae problem and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. That is a big tank and as such needs the water moving.

Good Luck. If I can help feel free to PM me or just put it on the RC site. More opinions are better thats for sure.

Regards,

Pat
 
i used chem-clean and it cleared out most of the slime. i wanted to do another round of the chemical to get rid of the rest of it. I only have coral in the tank. Can I do it without make a water change?
 
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