OMG I think I overdosed Red slime remover HELP!

[SharkBait_Mtl]

this is what happened....

I have had a red slime problem for the longest time now... I have done the lights out method with success before but this time it did not help.... it all came back within days of bringing the lights back on. I have no Idea where the nutrients are coming from... I only feed the tank a pinch every second day...

SO...

A friend of mine that works at a LFS told me to try using "Ultra Life Reef Products Red Slime Remover"; he used it once with success and the red slime never came back. So I decided to give it a try....

I siphoned out as much of the slime that I could at the same time doing a 25% water change (tonight).

water parameters after water change...

ammmonia 0 -API
nitrite 0 -API
nitrate 0.2 -Salifert
calcium 460 -API
pH 8 -API
alk 8 -API
SG 1.025
temp 80

after I did the water change I dosed the tank with 10 spoons of the poison (it says 1 spoon for every 15g) I guestimated I had 150g (90DT + 60sump = 150) however I did not take into consideration the water displacement of the rocks (~120lbs)....

AM I IN TROUBLE???

to add to the remedy I also just cleaned out my phosban reactor and put in some new GAC. I also have left my skimmer running.. it is going nuts.... overflowing back into the tank..... but from what I have read the poison lowers oxygen levels... so I am leaving the skimmer runnning to airate the water... is this ok???

I am preparing some more water to do a WC tomorow with some buffer to bring the pH back up...

is there anything else that I can do??

 

[Zestay]

well first of all dont let your skimmerover flow back into your tank. drill a hole in the collection cup and run some tubing to an exteranal collection cup ( BUCKET, old mc donalds cup.,. something ) be sure to check salinty when topping off if your skimmer is removing that much water


edit. i have no experience with said product, im just adding some thoughts about what you said.

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13512019#post13512019 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zestay
well first of all dont let your skimmerover flow back into your tank. drill a hole in the collection cup and run some tubing to an exteranal collection cup ( BUCKET, old mc donalds cup.,. something ) be sure to check salinty when topping off if your skimmer is removing that much water


edit. i have no experience with said product, im just adding some thoughts about what you said.

I had cleaned out my skimmer before I added the poison.... I actually clean out my skimmer every morning as part of my routine of cleaning the cat's litter box....

If I were to drill a hole in to the collection cup and run tubing to a bucket and left it overnight it WILL overflow... (I emptied the collection cup 3 times in about 5 mins) and to make matters worse I would be losing water in my system and end up running the return pump dry.... from what I have read people just turn off their skimmers but add an airstone for the oxygen.... I dont have one so in my thinking leaving the skimmer on can't hurt... unless someone can give me a valid reason that it will....

thanks for trying to help.....

thanks for your thoughts though....

 

[Zestay]

walmart sells airstones and pumps 24 hours a day. =)

 

[pararner]

I used the red slime out about 1 months ago and was heavy on the dosage. I kept a eye on the tank for a couple of hours and did not see a problem did you split the dosage, or all at one time. The product used recommened 1/2 dose and 4 hours later the other have.

I did not have any problem with skimmer being left on. I did have to empty a couple of time over two hour thought.

Hope this help

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

Walmart is not open 24h up here in montreal....

as for instructions that came with the product:

"Mix thoroughly, 1 spoonful foreach 15 gallons of aquarium water with a small amount of water, then add mixture to tank. Repeat after 48 hours if necessary. Wait at least one week before additional treatments. Keep out of reach of children. For aquarium use only. NOTE: May effect pH and Oxygen levels "

that is all it said....

as for the dose I used 10 spoons for my guestimated 150g but I forgot about the displacement of the rocks....

120lbs of rock = how many gallons of displacement??

 

[pararner]

Okay If i figured this right you used about 50 cc of red slime in your tank. I have a 75g with 150 lbs of live rock and dosed my tank at 40 cc with out problems.

Are you seeing any problems with you fish?

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

if you have red slime "cyanobacteria", using a chemical isn't going to help it's going to come straight back, you need to figure out whats fueling it's growth and remove that. chemicals are not the best way to handle things, you may see a small cycle becuase of it,

 

[abulgin]

You should have listened to your signature line :rollface:

By using red slime remover, and too much at that, you likely killed your biofilter, poisoned your water with phosphates that were released when the cyano dissolved (you didn't say what your phosphate reading was), compromised the lives of all your livestock, and probably will have cyano tomorrow. These products should not be sold or used.

You clearly have a phosphate problem or you wouldn't have cyano. Fix that by eliminating the source. Do you run a fuge with Chaeto? You should--your sump is plenty big for a fuge portion.

Now that you've been admonished . . .

You shouldn't run your skimmer until it can be run without overflowing, and the skimmate should definitely not be directed back into the tank (common sense). Turn your skimmer off. You should be doing massive water changes pronto until your skimmer runs normally.

Feeding a pinch every two days is too little. You should feed your fish every day. I have a feeling that feeding/food is not your problem. My guess is that your water or salt is bad and/or your flow is lacking.

Do you use tap water? Have you tested your water and your mixed salt water for phosphate?

 

[Paul B]

Rd Slime Remover is an antibiotic and it will take some time for the bacteria to return. They will return but it may take a few weeks. There is nothing you can do except let your skimmer run as the antibiotic will be killing beneficial bacteria and you want to remove it. I think you should keep up your feeding schedule of every two days until the bacteria return. You may see the ammonia rise but thats OK because it is needed to grow back the bacteria.
Don't use that stuff anymore. Chemi Clean is much safer and does the same thing with no antibiotics. In your new tank you should not need anything. Red slime sometimes grows for seemingly no reason. Light will not affect it much nor will circulation. It is a bacteria and needs very little to grow. I always have a little of it in my tank which is fine as long as it does not become a plague. I don't know what type of substrait you have but see if it is full of detritus

 

[rogergolf66]

I think you will be fine. Turn off the skimmer go get an air stone and pump as this is a must for every reefer. I have used this stuff before with good luck. as mentioned though you need to get the phosphates under control. it sounds to me if your feeding so little and have this problem it is one of two things

1. your skimmer is not large enough for your tank.

2. the water that you are using for your water changes is bad. are you using RODI and do you have a DTS meter to make sure your water reads zero. if you don't you need to get one.

3. I know I said one of two things well how often do you change your filter sock/pad? I would change it everyday till you get this under control

by the way it worked for your friend at the lfs because he also much have done something to remove the PO4 in the tank.

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

In response to everyone....

I test for phosphate and it always reads 0.

I have chaeto in mu fuge.

I have fine crushed aragonite as substrate.

I use RODI and changed the filters 3 months ago.

the DI resin beads were changed 6 months ago.

from what I have read unless I read wrong the ASM G1X is rated at 150g.

I siphone detrius out of the substrate whenever I do a water change. 25G every 2 weeks.

I dont use filter socks/pads.

as for running the skimmer I am only doing because I want to keep the water airated(sp?) until I can get an airstone today. I will only be able to put it in tonight as I have to work until 6PM.
-------

The only reason I decided to use this product is that cyano was growing everywhere.... even creeping up on my fox coral, my brains, my plate, my candycanes and my little acro frag. I tried the light out methode but it just came back.

I dont understand why I have this problem... I know feeding every 2 days is not enough but I did that to try and control the nutrients in the water and to lower my nitrates.

This morning my blue hippo and my clown appear to be swimming like normal... no labored breathing or anything... My wrasse is still buried in the sand ( as he is every morning until about 10aM... and my convict blenny is hiding in his cave... as usual...

on an up side....

all my leathers poyps are out... they look happy, and my MH isn't even on... ??? same goes for my candycanes...

On the downside... the water is very cloudy...

I will be adding an airstone and doing another 25% WC tonight..

where do I put the airstone??? in the DT or in the sump/fuge? how big of an airstone do I need?

any other advice???

 

[Paul B]

The red slime remover or the red slime will not affect the tank inhabitants directly. The stuff limits the bacteria from reproducing and the effect is temporary. It will eventually pass and all will be as it was probably including the cyano but it should stay under control for a while now.
It will probably come back as a tank that has the stuff for whatever reason seems to always have at least a little of it.

 

[rogergolf66]

get a large airstone and put it right in the center of the tank where it will not force air directly on any of the coral.

by the way you said you don't know why you have the red slime. Well it only comes around if you have a nitrate or a phosphate problem, so what every your tests read could be giving false reading. Phosphate test kits are very unrealiable so that could be the problem is what I was getting at.

 

[jim.l]

What you added is, I believe, an antibiotic. The GAC will remove it, as will your skimmer. By now your dosage is probably low with the skimmer running and new GAC in the system. I would shut down the skimmer for the treatment period ( 48 hrs ??), and remove the GAC. After treatment do a water change, put in a double load of GAC for 24 hrs, then start your skimmer. Watch it for overflow, it may need adjusting until the tank is clean.

PS - if you're going to use a chemical treatment, and this one fails try ChemiClean. I've had better luck with that. They both work sometimes, but unless you get nutrients down it will come back. Also Cyano is able to release bound phosphate rock / substrate which will not show up in your water column. Another thing which seems to drive it is temperature. If you run your temp high, you could try dropping it a couple of degrees and see if that helps.

 

[maxheadroom]

I used the Ultra Life Red Slime Remover 2 months ago and this happened:

Over $1500 down the drain. I emailed the company 2 times and never got a responce.

 

[rogergolf66]

Wow sorry to hear that

I have used Ultra Life Red Slime Remover with no problems.

 

[Tswifty]

Chemi Clean & Blue Life Red Slime Control were the only 2 products recommended to me.

However, even though I have the Blue Life stuff, I wanted to wait to see if I could beat it on my own before pursuing a chemical fix... and I tried about every non-chemical fix known to man.

Daily manual removal of the cyano, cheato (no GFO), increased flow, relcoated flow, heavier skimming, and filter socks finally got it under control... and my tank is just about cyano free now.

I see nothing wrong with the dosage... you're talking a very small overdose... If you had accidently used tbsp. instead of tsp, or something to that effect I would be more concerned.

I'll finish by saying, don't be so quick to dump chemicals into your tank. Especially if your tank is young, everyone wants a quick fix, and usually don't realize that the outbreaks are completely normal, and just a part of the tank's aging process.

 

[Tswifty]

Oh and you may want to think about mesh & gate valve modding your ASM to boost its performance.

 

[maxheadroom]

All but 1 corals that I lost came from my frag tank, which I didn't dose red slime remover in. I was kinda busy and dosed a bucket of rock that had red slime in it. A few hours later I used a few pieces of LR rubble from the bucket to mount some zoas. I put 2 pieces in my Biocube and 3 or 4 in my frag tank. The only coral I lost in the BC was my new scoly:

When I came home from work the next day it looked like this:

I checked the frag tank and my green birdsnests were stripped to the bone. I did a few large WC but it didn't help. Every day other corals died for a total of 34. Scoly, plate coral, WWC watermelon chalice, ect, ect. All from a second hand dose.