Someday, I will make a movie called "Curse of the Red Slime Zombies" I think this is the single hardest pest to eradicate, but you can do it by persistently applying the following techniques:
- Ensure that you are aggressively skimming the tank. Many species of cyanobacteria thrive on the smallest amount dissolved organic compounds (DOCs for short) and a protein skimmer is the single best method for getting them out of the water. See the most excellent sticky thread in the "All Things Salty" forum on this topic. You should be getting measurable dark effluent on a daily basis.
- Ensure that your water has high alkalinity. High alkalinity will deter cyanobacteria growth.
- Get Nitrates to Zero. Your kit should show no color development at all. Nada, Zippo, Zilch. This is admittedly hard to do, but necessary in the extreme. Feed sparingly 3 times a day, washing frozen foods with RO water. Do more frequent, lower volume water changes. 10% a week is a routine that works well for me. Start a live refugium if you don't have one already.
- Get Phosphates to Zero. Your source water, salt mix, charcoal and foods are all potential sources of phosphates. Eliminate the source(s) and use Phosban(tm) to get rid of what you already may have in the water. See one of the many salt mix threads for more details, but I will say this: Every time I have tested a batch of fresh Red Sea salt, I have found detectable phosphates. Maybe this has changed, but if you are using this brand, I urge you to test it.
-Are your lighting units too hot to touch? If they are and yoiu are using fluorescents, you are burning them out at an incredible rate. Provide adequate ventilation, a cooling fan and change your bulbs. You might even consider changing to Metal Halides if you are currently using fluorescents. See one of the many lighting threads on this topic, but I will say here that I see an almost 1 to 1 correlation between enviable tanks and MH lighting.
For even more info on battling this evil, check out Julian Sprung's "Algae: A Problem Solver Guide"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...ref=sr_1_1/104-8797867-8511955?_encoding=UTF8
Good Luck!
