I've really done my research as much as I can, and it's only in desperation I reach out to you guys for help. I suppose the problem is, there are numerous things which could be causing this, and I'd like your help in narrowing it down. I'm a newbie so please consider this when responding and reading my possibly uninformed analysis of the situation.
I've got a 55gal tank w/ 20gal sump. It's only been cycled for a little over 2 months now, so it is new (possibly the only reason is how new it is?). I made a mistake when setting it up which could also be the cause, according to how I understand what I've read.
I got a 40lb bag of argalive "live sand", it was completely dry. I knew to rinse the sand, but it said it was live sand so I didn't. I later realized being dry it was more than likely actually more like base rock, not actually alive. I got a very thick white coating on the glass while cycling, which settled in layers. Once that was finished, I was told by my LFS it was the sand I used, just scrape it off. I did my best to do as follows, but to this day there are still some spots that I was unable to get to visible. I later learned that many sands will have a high volume of silicates in them if you don't rinse them, and this is what cyano uses for its skeletal structure.
I also received about 50lbs of live rock from a friend with a long established aquarium (5yrs+, the age of each piece probably varies). This was wonderful, and basically kept me from having to cycle along with some coraline algae and free hitch hiking corals (and some other things hitch hiking that wasn't so nice) etc so was very excited about that. After learning everything I've learned about the saltwater hobby, I then found out that some people run salt water aquariums in very creative and interesting ways which include not changing water etc. I discovered my friend who gave me this live rock unfortunately fell into that category. I now am not sure if there may be embedded nitrates and phosphates in the rock that are being slowly leached into the tank and the red slime algae are getting to them first, before my chaeto and making my tests read 0 on nitrates and phosphates.
Finally, it's come to my attention that flow could be the culprit. I have what I think is middle of the line here but perhaps I'm way off base. I've got the sump return which is putting out about 300gph (some people advise this isn't considered with tank flow, is this true?), and I've got a 650gph hydor koralia, that's all. Is this insufficient flow?
I have been doing increased water changes. I try to do 10%/wk for standard maintenance, but lately have been doing larger, 20-40% each week to try and keep my nitrates as low as possible.
Of all of these things, which do you think it could be? Further, do you have any suggestions on how to get it to go away? I've done major tank cleanings and even taken out each rock and scrubbed it in a bucket of salt water etc only to have the red slime come back in about 3 days time. Here's a basic rundown of my tank and params etc.
55gal DT (standard dimensions, 4ft wide)
20gal sump, only 9" water line
aquatic life T5 fixture, replaced 1 actinic with a coral growth accelerator bulb from wavepoint (bulb was replaced after the algae problem)
chaeto algae on reverse light cycle (doesn't seem to be growing nearly as quick as the red slime algae =\)
coralife 65 protein skimmer
berlin sock
koralia hydor powerhead, 650gph
60lbs live rock
aquafx ro/di system, new filters and DI but membrane may need replacing, tests at 2TDI
coralife salt mix
3 fish, a false perc clown pair and a 6 line wrasse
many corals, mostly blastos a couple of acans and a frogspawn and starpolyps (i didn't intend on adding them this soon but won them unexpectedly)
2 emerald crabs, 3 hermit crabs, 4 nassarius snails, 2 mexican turbo snails
0-0.25ppm nitrates
0 phosphates (had LFS test to verify)
1.026 SG (also had LFS test to verify)
ph 7.8-7.9
alk roughly 2.0, hard to tell with test kit, just below the middle of the "normal" range on my test kit
I've got a 55gal tank w/ 20gal sump. It's only been cycled for a little over 2 months now, so it is new (possibly the only reason is how new it is?). I made a mistake when setting it up which could also be the cause, according to how I understand what I've read.
I got a 40lb bag of argalive "live sand", it was completely dry. I knew to rinse the sand, but it said it was live sand so I didn't. I later realized being dry it was more than likely actually more like base rock, not actually alive. I got a very thick white coating on the glass while cycling, which settled in layers. Once that was finished, I was told by my LFS it was the sand I used, just scrape it off. I did my best to do as follows, but to this day there are still some spots that I was unable to get to visible. I later learned that many sands will have a high volume of silicates in them if you don't rinse them, and this is what cyano uses for its skeletal structure.
I also received about 50lbs of live rock from a friend with a long established aquarium (5yrs+, the age of each piece probably varies). This was wonderful, and basically kept me from having to cycle along with some coraline algae and free hitch hiking corals (and some other things hitch hiking that wasn't so nice) etc so was very excited about that. After learning everything I've learned about the saltwater hobby, I then found out that some people run salt water aquariums in very creative and interesting ways which include not changing water etc. I discovered my friend who gave me this live rock unfortunately fell into that category. I now am not sure if there may be embedded nitrates and phosphates in the rock that are being slowly leached into the tank and the red slime algae are getting to them first, before my chaeto and making my tests read 0 on nitrates and phosphates.
Finally, it's come to my attention that flow could be the culprit. I have what I think is middle of the line here but perhaps I'm way off base. I've got the sump return which is putting out about 300gph (some people advise this isn't considered with tank flow, is this true?), and I've got a 650gph hydor koralia, that's all. Is this insufficient flow?
I have been doing increased water changes. I try to do 10%/wk for standard maintenance, but lately have been doing larger, 20-40% each week to try and keep my nitrates as low as possible.
Of all of these things, which do you think it could be? Further, do you have any suggestions on how to get it to go away? I've done major tank cleanings and even taken out each rock and scrubbed it in a bucket of salt water etc only to have the red slime come back in about 3 days time. Here's a basic rundown of my tank and params etc.
55gal DT (standard dimensions, 4ft wide)
20gal sump, only 9" water line
aquatic life T5 fixture, replaced 1 actinic with a coral growth accelerator bulb from wavepoint (bulb was replaced after the algae problem)
chaeto algae on reverse light cycle (doesn't seem to be growing nearly as quick as the red slime algae =\)
coralife 65 protein skimmer
berlin sock
koralia hydor powerhead, 650gph
60lbs live rock
aquafx ro/di system, new filters and DI but membrane may need replacing, tests at 2TDI
coralife salt mix
3 fish, a false perc clown pair and a 6 line wrasse
many corals, mostly blastos a couple of acans and a frogspawn and starpolyps (i didn't intend on adding them this soon but won them unexpectedly)
2 emerald crabs, 3 hermit crabs, 4 nassarius snails, 2 mexican turbo snails
0-0.25ppm nitrates
0 phosphates (had LFS test to verify)
1.026 SG (also had LFS test to verify)
ph 7.8-7.9
alk roughly 2.0, hard to tell with test kit, just below the middle of the "normal" range on my test kit
