Red Slime on everything

saltwater2999

New member
my 55 gallon saltwater tank has been running for about 6 months now and in the past couple weeks there has been red slime algae growing on the rocks and some on the sand and glass. I thought it was the phosphates that were causing the algae to grow but the test say I have 0ppm of phosphate in the water.

my water parameters
phosphate 0ppm
PH 8.2
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 7.0ppm

any suggestion would help me out a lot. i'm all out of ideas.
 

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I'm using ro/Di water and I'm pretty sure it's red slime algae because I have coraline on some of the rocks but it's covered by the algae. Coraline is hard to remove but this stuff come off so easy
 
What's the TDS reading?

Silicate in water feeds cyano. How often are you changing the water?

NitrAtes are higher than desirable. Phosphate number could be deceiving, all phosphates could be being consumed prior to your testing. I would guess you have a phosphate issue that you aren't seeing in testing.

Tank has not been up for that long, this can easily still be a part of the cycle. I'd watch what nutrients you are adding to the water.


On a separate note, that tang needs a new home.
 
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mix up enough water to do a large change. get a siphon hose that can reach all your rocks, and do a major cleaning. siphon out all the red slime, its cyanobacteria, not algae. once you get the tank topped off and set back up after your cleaning, shut off the lights. keep the lights out on the tank for 3 days. its ok to pu ton an actininc for a few hours a day to do feedings and such, but thats it. if the tank is in a room that gets natural light, than cover it somehow. on day 2 or 3 mix up another batch of water. at the end of day 3 make sure your lights will come on per their normal schedule on day 4. on day 4 do another water change and get your circualtion pumps so that they are hitting all your rock surfaces, try to avoid low flow deadspots. your red slime should be gone and it should stay gone for a while priovided a few things happen:
1 - test your phospahtes and keep testing a few times a week
2 - reduce your feedings
3 - do more water changes and keep testing your phospahte
you shouldnt need a gfo reacotr yet, i dont see much in the tank, but you could have phosphates getting into the tank from other sources, as mentioned above. If you do have phosphates gettign intot he system via water changes or additives, your cyano will come back...dont worry too much, it LOOKS really bad, but its not hurting anything. you just dont want a lot of it to die off suddenly in the tank, THAT would be bad...thats why you try to remove as much as you can manually befotre turnign out the lights. darkness is the only thing that kills it off safely, you just don twant a tank full of it to die overnight...
 
Okay I'll do that right when I get home from class just one last question. What should I do with my candy cane coral, flower plot coral,and my anenome when the lights are out
 
Saltwater-

DO NOT use redslime remover. Adding a chemical to your tank to fix symptoms doesn't cure the issue. It will return and return and return if you don't fix the underlying issue of what is causing the slime.

How much do you feed? What's your lighting schedule?

Try what JSCarlata suggested. The key being syphoning out as much of that crap as possible. You can use a powerhead or turkey baster to blast off the rockwork. I take some filter floss and put it in a net. Then blast the rocks and swish the net through the water trying to catch the crud. This is what I do in between syphoning/water changes when i have a cyano issue.

The inhabitants should be just fine with a few days of darkness. It happens when there is a hurricane or bad weather in nature to no ill affect.
 
Jmadison--

I know not to use redslime remover. I know that it doesn't solve the problem in the long run. im looking for a more long time fix to the problem.

I feed my two fish that I have in the tank about 3 times a week and the same time I also feed my two corals and anemone

my lighting schedule used to be 10am to 10pm for actinic lights and 11am to 9pm for normal lights. I have now changed the lights to 11am to 9pm for actinic lights and 12pm to 8 pm for normal lights. I just changed the schedule on sunday.
 
ok, you dont need to remove any inhabitants, they will be fine.
as for feeding your coral and anemone, i would stop that until you get the issue sorted out...you dont need to feed them, they get enough energy form the light. feeding corals is putting a lot of excess nutrients in the water that the corals arent consuming, which could be a cause of your cyano issues...
 
I agree on the forgoing feeding coral and nem for the time being. They are photosyhthetic beings and whether or not you are target feeding them they are still getting food from the water column also.

I read somewhere once(and I don't have the citing for it I apologize) That most nuisance algae needed long sustained photoperiods to photosynthesize and that corals are fine with intermittent light. So I have always had an hour and a half of no light in the middle of my photoperiod with great growth and low algal growth. Cyano is a bacteria but this could also hold true to it.

I am assuming your bulbs were new 6 months ago upon starting this tank? What spectrums etc? I think it's too early to tell if your new photoperiod has helped but I'd shave another hour off of both times.

I am STILL waiting for your response to your TDS readings on the RO/DI water....
 
when you say large water change how much would that be . like I said I have a 55gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump

25-30 gallons.

Remember you don't have 75 gallons of water in your system. It's likely to be more like 50-55 depending on rock, plumbing length, and sump water level.
 
I don't know my tds for my ro/di water

I originally had leds on the tank before I bought the t5 12,000k 260watt light for my tank 3 months ago
 
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