Most everybody gets it sooner or later.
Most everybody refers to it as algae or red slime.
It is slime, but it's not algae. It's a bacterial sheet.
A long, long time ago, on a planet fairly familiar, the Permian age of reptiles came crashing down in total disaster---some think because a warm spell caused the massive stores of methane hydrate in the ocean bottoms to go blooey and release tons of methane gas into the atmosphere. Not much survived that.
And what did, besides mammal ancestors and some very, very stubborn proto-dinos?
Cyanobacteria. It not only lived, it began to thrive in places like present Shark Bay, AU. It formed sheets that gave off oxygen, and it was so good at it that it revived the atmosphere and let the surviving other life on this planet recover.
It's still with us, still making sheets of bacteria and giving off bubbles in our tanks, but we, ingrates that we are, consider it a pest.
Now, the fact that it survived when almost everything on the planet died should tell you it's pretty hard to eradicate.
It's an extremophile of a modest sort---it may not live in geysers, but it survives amazing conditions. The current wisdom is that it doesn't like dead spots---true: it can form a sheet really nicely there, but I have some in my sump/refugium, which has a stronger flow than most people like in their refugium, sharply braked by a rubble pile and a ball of cheato, and, yep, righ there is where I get cyano.
Some things will eat it. A few. Most things didn't evolve to eat it, probably because most things had died out.
But if you increase flow, skim hard, and wet, and shut off all window light to your tanks, plus set up a refugium to try to get the phosphate down, yes, you can get the better of it.
There are preparations on the market that will kill it---they're antibiotics. Remember the warning about treating your display tank? Yep. Anti-bio-tics kill microbes. Bacteria. They're often called 'anti' bacterials.
REmember how hard you worked to cycle your tank and build UP bacteria to handle your waste? Right. An antibacterial will kill your surface bacteria. If you have a very young tank, particularly a fairly rock-scarce one, you could kill off your sandbed and rock with a mistake.
As soon as the treatment's over---you're supposed to do a water change and start up your skimmer [which has been off for the duration] and skim like crazy, because all that dead bacteria is now going to spike your tank if you don't move fast and authoritatively. If you have a wimpy skimmer or you've overdosed, or if it's just an unlucky day and you've blitzed your sandbed right when your tank desperately needs some biostuffs processed---well, it's very, very bad.
Don't use the chemical treatment in your first year of setup. Don't use it if you have a wimpy skimmer. Consult with older reefers before you use it. It's a good product: it's NOT for young tanks.
Mostly try: more flow, a refugium, cutting out the side-daylight from windows, or even turning the lights out on your tank totally for 3 days several times---when you do turn the mh back on, run the actinics for one day beforehand. You may have to do this several times. BUT anytime you do anything to kill a lot of the stuff, be sure your skimmer is up to it! And be ready with a water change, and test a lot.
When you're battling the Stuff from Before Time, it's a good idea to have your ducks all in a row, water ready to go, and tests adequate to monitor your tank.
HTH.
Most everybody refers to it as algae or red slime.
It is slime, but it's not algae. It's a bacterial sheet.
A long, long time ago, on a planet fairly familiar, the Permian age of reptiles came crashing down in total disaster---some think because a warm spell caused the massive stores of methane hydrate in the ocean bottoms to go blooey and release tons of methane gas into the atmosphere. Not much survived that.
And what did, besides mammal ancestors and some very, very stubborn proto-dinos?
Cyanobacteria. It not only lived, it began to thrive in places like present Shark Bay, AU. It formed sheets that gave off oxygen, and it was so good at it that it revived the atmosphere and let the surviving other life on this planet recover.
It's still with us, still making sheets of bacteria and giving off bubbles in our tanks, but we, ingrates that we are, consider it a pest.
Now, the fact that it survived when almost everything on the planet died should tell you it's pretty hard to eradicate.
It's an extremophile of a modest sort---it may not live in geysers, but it survives amazing conditions. The current wisdom is that it doesn't like dead spots---true: it can form a sheet really nicely there, but I have some in my sump/refugium, which has a stronger flow than most people like in their refugium, sharply braked by a rubble pile and a ball of cheato, and, yep, righ there is where I get cyano.
Some things will eat it. A few. Most things didn't evolve to eat it, probably because most things had died out.
But if you increase flow, skim hard, and wet, and shut off all window light to your tanks, plus set up a refugium to try to get the phosphate down, yes, you can get the better of it.
There are preparations on the market that will kill it---they're antibiotics. Remember the warning about treating your display tank? Yep. Anti-bio-tics kill microbes. Bacteria. They're often called 'anti' bacterials.
REmember how hard you worked to cycle your tank and build UP bacteria to handle your waste? Right. An antibacterial will kill your surface bacteria. If you have a very young tank, particularly a fairly rock-scarce one, you could kill off your sandbed and rock with a mistake.
As soon as the treatment's over---you're supposed to do a water change and start up your skimmer [which has been off for the duration] and skim like crazy, because all that dead bacteria is now going to spike your tank if you don't move fast and authoritatively. If you have a wimpy skimmer or you've overdosed, or if it's just an unlucky day and you've blitzed your sandbed right when your tank desperately needs some biostuffs processed---well, it's very, very bad.
Don't use the chemical treatment in your first year of setup. Don't use it if you have a wimpy skimmer. Consult with older reefers before you use it. It's a good product: it's NOT for young tanks.
Mostly try: more flow, a refugium, cutting out the side-daylight from windows, or even turning the lights out on your tank totally for 3 days several times---when you do turn the mh back on, run the actinics for one day beforehand. You may have to do this several times. BUT anytime you do anything to kill a lot of the stuff, be sure your skimmer is up to it! And be ready with a water change, and test a lot.
When you're battling the Stuff from Before Time, it's a good idea to have your ducks all in a row, water ready to go, and tests adequate to monitor your tank.
HTH.