New to the forum and need help!

[s2kchris305]

hey guys im new to the forum and been in and out of the hobby for about 4 years. ive had all reef tanks with no problems, i used to mix my water .

About 4 months ago i started a 20g reef tank . no corals in it yet. just got some live rock, a clown fish , yellow tang, some emerald crabs, snails, apple sand snail , and a sand star fish. this is my first tank buying water instead of mixing. for filtration im running a cpr bakpak with skimmer. doing weekly 2.5 gallon water changes. tank has been fine for the first 2 months and out of no where ive developed a brown algae that covered the sand, that eventually turned into red slime. no i wanna get rid of this naturally , n its been impossible, ive cut my light hours to only 7 hours a day, i feed fish every other day, i started twice a week water changes and siphoning each time about 2 weeks ago. i put in a a small pump for circulation see if that helped. and nothing it still comes back . its alot less severe then before buts its there still and it makes the tank look terrible. want to start getting corals but i want to get rid of this slime first. water levels are fine. dont know what else to do. what you guys think ?

thanks

 

[schristi69]

First....check the water you are buying. It should have 0 or close to zero TDS. Start testing your water. a test kit is your friend. I expect you have high phosphates. Your light cycle is not going to do anything until you get the phosphates under control. As long as they have light and food, the algae will thrive. A phosphate test may give you a false low reading due to the algae consuming it all. I would suggest Algaefix and/or a phosphate sponge product.

 

[Jscott11]

add flow and does your cpr bac pac have the blue filter floss? If so I would remove it a little at a time. It serves as a Nitrate sponge unless cleaned and maintained

 

[E Rosewater]

TDS of premade saltwater will be through the roof. But it could be the reason of your woes. Ever check the phosphates/nitrates of the purchased water?

 

[s2kchris305]

to answer you guys , ive never tested the TDS of the water ive been buying. im gonna check the nitrates in the water next time i buy for water change. was thinking of using the phosphate sponge until all the cyano dies and then remove the phospahte sponge. theres very lil flow coming back into the tank from the bakpak so i got a hydor 425gph pump to help the flow. thinking about buying another one to circulate the top of the water also. very lil flow on top still. i do not have the blue filter floss in the bak pak. i have the white filter media, black sponge filter media and some black bio balls. ive never had a single issue with red slime with my other tanks. im thinking of mixing my water for this one.