Red slime algea

WonderBoys

New member
any one knows what the best methods to remove red slime algea? it start to spreads through out the tank. i scrape them but it kept on returning. Help! :mad:
thank you.
 
What is your water paramenter? How old is your tank?

Red Slime Algea (cyano bacteria) is caused by poor water quality (too high nutrient) and/or poor water flow. It is also common to see an outbreak in new tanks.

Some people have used ChemClean to get rid of it, but this is only getting rid of the symptoms and not the cause. If you provide us with more info, we might be able to help.

Minh
 
it's a 55 gal. i use RO/DI water so there are 0 nitrite, little in nitrate, got coral and few fishes. light, i got 4 CP light 2 artinic and 2 10k and a 8 LEDs for moonlight. i got 2 medium powerheads and 1 small powerhead.
i also has a sump running with a skimmer.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7031130#post7031130 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WonderBoys
it's a 55 gal. i use RO/DI water so there are 0 nitrite, little in nitrate, got coral and few fishes. light, i got 4 CP light 2 artinic and 2 10k and a 8 LEDs for moonlight. i got 2 medium powerheads and 1 small powerhead.
i also has a sump running with a skimmer.

Seems like your speculating? Nitrate would be the one youd want to test for as well as phosphates, give us those numbers and we'll be able to give you a better solution. Also, give us the total amount of GPH your water is circulating at, not to ridicule but 2 medium and one small powerhead is very vague at best.

-Justin
 
Flow, flow, flow. You probably should add some more powerheads. I'm running about 4600 gph in my 200 gallon tank.

Also, start with removing the slime manually as often as it shows up. RO/DI usually doesn't relate to how much nitrates are in the tank. You should test the source (fresh product) water pre & post filtration to make sure the filters are working proberly. Depending on where you live the tap water could be better or worse, and the worse the water coming out the faucet, the more frequently you need to change the Carbon & Sediment prefilters and the DI post filters. In my area the prefilters are only good for about 500 gallons so I change them every 3 months. I test the TDS (total disolved solids) of my finished product water frequently to let me know when my DI resin needs changing. RO membranes should also be backflushed every once in a while to help them work at maximum efficency, otherwise they clog up and don't work as well. A cheap TDS meter is $15 and lets you know a lot about the water you use to mix salt. Usually red slime can be traced back to bad source water, but over feeding the tank can be a whole other problem. Be sure to keep the skimmer and the air intake for the skimmer clean so it works like it's supposed to.

It's always best to figure out what's causing the problem, not to add some "Wonder Chemical" to try and fix it.
 
thanks for all the suggestions. i got the tank setup by a friend, friend of mine so i wouldn't know much in details. the light is about 6 months old. the same timei got the tank setup.

i do have a TDS device and measuer the water at 1 ppm. maybe i didn't do much water change. should i reduce my light time, currently set for 10 hours. maybe also i should cut back on the feeding, i feed twice a day with brime shrimps.
 
The brine shrimp could be part of the problem. Not that its bad to feed with them(other than there low in nutrients for your fish and coral) but more importantly the water that there packed in. Best way to use frozen foods is soak and strain them with pure water before putting it in your tank. I know its alot easier just to wiggle your frozen bar till they thawe off into the water, but easiest is not the best in this case.

It would still be very important for you to test and find out what your nitrates and phosphates are as this is the fuel thats feeding your undesirables ;)

-Justin
 
2X per day is way too much. I feed (3 large tangs, 2 clowns, 3 Bangaii cardinals and a couple shrimp) once every other day, and not very much at once (unless Jeni sneaks some nori into the veggie clip ;) ). Brine shrimp is the most nutritionally deficient thing you could put in your tank (live or frozen). Freshly hatched (within the fist 12 hours) is different, of course. But I'd recommend start with weekly water changes of 10 gallons at least (more if you can) for the next month. Dilute some of that polution first and see if that helps. STOP feeding brine shrimp, and cut down your feeding drasticly. Trust me, your fish won't starve. They're more likely to starve if you keep feeding them BS (brine shrimp, but the innitals are the same as that other stuff). What fish do you have, by the way? Figuring out what to feed (I prefer frozen Mysis and Cyclop-eeze) would be easier if we knew what fish you had. Also get a quality test kit for Nitrates and Phosphates (Salifert is a good brand).
 
Rich - I didn't know you feed your fish so infrequently. Maybe I should reduce my feeding down as well. I tend to feed my fish very little food. My blue hippo is FAT though. :D

Minh
 
I feed on that kind of schedule because I don't know when I'll get a chance to do the next water change :lol:

Seriously, feed as much as you want (but feed good quality foods), but you'll end up doing waterchanges more often than you want. Simple math.
 
Do the usual stuff with getting nutrients under control, increasing flow, and siphoning the cyanobacter. Sometimes after all that you can still have a problem. I think it may be because some of the cyano doesn't get removed and it dies off, only to regrow elsewhere in the tank.

If you still have a problem, you might try erythromycin. I had to do that on the wife's softie tank because she had been overfeeding her fish. I treated the tank maybe almost a year ago, and it has been cyano free ever since.

Here's directions that I pm'd to someone a while back:

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I'm thinking you might want to wait on the erythromycin because the red slime is just from the slight overfeeding and the skimmer being off. You might be able to get rid of the remaining cyano by siphoning it out and increasing the water flow. If that doesn't get rid of it, then try the erythromycin.

The brand we used was E.M. by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. Very inexpensive compared to Red Slime remover and Chemiclean.

When using E.M., you dose at 1/3 strength. The directions say 1 tablet per 10 gallons, so you would use 1 tablet per 30 gallons of actual system volume. If you use just slightly more, it shouldn't be a problem. The erythromycin is safe for your biological filtratration even at full strength according to the product info.

If I remember right, the med affects mainly gram positive bacteria, and also gram negative that are facultative anaerobes. The gram negative non anaerobes which are your nitrogen cycle bacteria aren't affected. Cyano is gram negative anaerobe.

When treating your tank, you leave the skimmer off and run without carbon. Open up the capsules to dump in the med. That way you don't have the extra gelatin capsule dissolving in your tank. Put the med in your tank some place where the fish won't chomp on the particles. You could try to dissolve it in some tank water before dosing. I just put mine in the sump.

You do the treatment for 3-4 days straight. Prior to each successive treatment, you run your skimmer for an hour or so to pull out the dead dissolved slime. Your skimmer will pull a lot of water, so you'll probably have to adjust the air and/or water flow to skim a little drier. Make sure you're around when the skimmer is on, so you can make adjustments or top off the water as necessary. Turn off the skimmer when you're ready to dose.

After your last dose, just let the tank run without skimmer for the rest of the week. You should be seeing the cyano disappear by now, if not sooner. After 1 week, you can run your skimmer for about an hour each day to pull out the dissolved slime. You probably will need to gradually adjust your skimmer back to normal settings over the course of the second week. You could skim out about a gallon of slimey water each day.

2 weeks after the start of treatment, you should do a large water change, 40% or more. Then you can put your carbon back, and get your skimmer adjust back to it's normal settings if it's not there yet. Mainly, you don't want to reset your skimmer too fast, too soon, because you'll come home to find half your tank water skimmed out onto the floor.
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Thanks for all the ideas and supports.
Do these medicines safe for reef and fish? and where did you get the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals?
what about PH, does this change the PH?
thanks
 
Im a big fan of every-other-day feeding myself. Keeps the load down and water cleaner longer.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7031381#post7031381 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thereefgeek
It's always best to figure out what's causing the problem, not to add some "Wonder Chemical" to try and fix it.
 
Reminds me of the movie "Envy". Think of your red slime problem like a pile of poo. You spray on that product called Va-Poo-Rize, and it's gone!

But where did it go?

Same thing with Red Slime Remover. Where does it go?
 
I had the same problem with my tank a couple of years ago. I ordered some chemicals to clear it up. While waiting for my shipment I removed what I could by hand daily and did some water changes. It had improved so much before they arrived I did not need to use them.

I had the problem again a few month later. I repeated my removal and water changes, added 3 more powerheads and readjusted my skimmer to run wetter. I have not had any since. Not to say that there have never been any problems, just different ones. Mostly not big ones. I have to strongly agree with those that advise against adding chemicals. Try to find the cause.

As far as feeding I only feed about 3-4 times a week. Most of my fish eat algae and there is live food in there already.
 
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