Red Algae in the frag tank.... help! (pic coming)

[o2zen]

I took all the LR out of my 29g along with the fish and tossed them into the 90g. A few days later I come home from work and the 29g is full of red algae that is blowing in the flow. My plans with the 29g was to turn it into a frag tank and start playing with some softies and see what I could do. The only thing in the tank now is about 10lbs of LR Rubble in the overflow and another 2-3lbs LR in the display along with the 40lbs of live sand. It also has about 20 nas snails and 5-10 hermits/crabs and a few shrooms. I have not fed the tank since I pulled the fish so where did all this algae come from since it was never there before?

What can I do it kill it off or can I put in the frag tank to eat it gone? My wife was asking what fish I was planning on putting in the tank with the frags as well so this might be a good place to start.

I was sorta leaning towards an no fish clean environment frag tank myself or only one fish to clean up anything that needed to be removed from the frags I brought in.

Any ideas?

PS should I leave the sand in the tank or remove it and go barebottom or LR rubble?

 

[SoundsFishy2me2]

red slime remover product.

red slime remover product.

UltraLife reef products makes a powder called "red slime remover" it easy to use and is ok for fish, invertebrates & corals.. they suggest a partial water change afterwords to protect slight PH level drop but I havent seen that occour before.

About $16 http://www.ultralife.com/picts/slimenew.jpg

 

[o2zen]

Is it Red Slime?

 

[CMcNeil]

yes it is cynobacteria

 

[SoundsFishy2me2]

Looks like it in the pics.

 

[Kubi]

.

 

[Kubi]

red slime remover is just a band aid, find the cause

 

[o2zen]

Any ideas to the cause of these types of outbreaks?

I removed all the fish and LR from the tank. Nothing should be feeding it right now that I can think of. I have a few snails and hermits in the tank. The temp is still the same as before. The lighting and flow is the same. The LR rubble is still in the tank. Changed out the filters on the tank so there should not be anything breaking down that was before except the sand itself and the Nass snails are still in the sand.

I have another Snail tank with Nass snails, a few Turbos, a few crabs and hermits and a light coat of sand on the bottom. There is a few pieces of LR in it and just a HOB crappy filter and it has no algea at all. It has some sponge and a shell with some other type of sponge on it that is dying and it still has no algea in the tank.

Hmmm...

 

[mflamb]

Probably stirred up a lot of detritus when you removed everything, causing waste breakdown into nutrients.

 

[gobyone]

Don`t waste your money. Do water changes an keep alk up an ph up reduce feeding & light & keep filters clean

 

[Saliki]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9623490#post9623490 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gobyone
Don`t waste your money. Do water changes an keep alk up an ph up reduce feeding & light & keep filters clean

Good advice. The redslime meds dont actually fix the problem, they mask it for a period, at best. Its some type of water quality issue that promotes the slime. Water changes and a good phosphate filter should clean it up. What type of water are you using to do water changes? This may be a culprit too.

BTW I think the frag tank is better off going bare bottom. Just my 2 cents.

 

[o2zen]

Water is RO/DI and then I salt it up with Pro Reef.

How does a bare bottom frag tank filter the waste out of the water. Now assuming I only have a small fish in the tank if any at all or do people not put fish in frag tanks?

With bare bottom I will only have a wet/dry system with 7-10lbs of LR rubble and a filter media like floss in the top of the overflow. Looking for ideas on how best to keep good water quality here.

 

[Saliki]

The bare bottom system still need some type of biological filtration. The wet/dry with bioballs and LR should be ok, but a skimmer added to that system would help it too.
Water quality and good lighting are pretty important for coral tanks.

 

[o2zen]

Once I get the system converted I will be putting a Nano-6010 or something Skimmer in the middle back section of my BC29. I will be turning the first section into a Fuge of sorts and I am thinking of changing the lighting mod back over to the HQI lighting mod with 2xHQI-70s

When I put the Nano in the back I will lose the 7-10lbs LR Rubble so am also thinking of doing a LR Rubble wall on the back to maintain some LR in the system.

Of course I could also sell the system and build up a cheaper 30gal long with 2x AC110 and a HQI150 or something for about the same money.

Bah.... life is rough

 

[o2zen]

Tested the water

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 7.8

Nothing for the Red Slime to be growing off as far as I can tell. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[drives300]

red slime actually uses organics which cant really be tested for. they can exist with zero nitrates. They can even exist with a small amount of phosphate as well. I recommend increased water changes and a phos reactor( you can get one for lie 120 dollars w/ pump at foster/smith)
2.) run carbon in sump and change it every 2 days.

3.) try to skim a little wetter, Clean skimmer every 2-3 days to make sure its operating efficiently.

--Like I said most likely your problem is organics possible some phosphates. See reef chemistry articles as well on this topc

Anthony

 

[cwegescheide]

The last time I had a cyano outbreak bad I had high nitrates. Did several large water changes for a few weeks and it went away. Make sure your skimmer is running as well as it can.