Red Slime?

[pascal32]

This morning I spotted some of what I believe to be red slime...which i found interesting considering how clean I thought my system was running. The affected area is pretty small and is in the LPS tank which has very low water flow. I was able to suck most of it out using a turkey baster.

so here is the interesting part:

levels:
CA (Salifert) 450
KH (Salifert) 9
MG (Salifert) 1400
Nitrate (Salifert) really low, as in i couldn't see a color shift
PO4 (Hanna ULR) 0.003066 PPM

I thought i would be left out of the slime algae club with next to no nitrate and phosphate...

the lights are 4xT5s which are pretty high up (Acans seem to like it!) - the light cycle is 9 hours.

Is this the result of have too little flow?

the LPS tank is a rubbermaid stock container with about 8" of water - how do you get good flow through there without nailing coral? I tried putting on a 750 Koralia evolution and it seems like way too much flow.

thanks for the help!

 

[magdelan]

Cyanobacteria needs three things to survive. Oxygen, nutrients, light. Is it possible that your ph is elevated right now do to your house being closed up for the winter? CO2 levels in the house (I believe) will lower the O2 in your water. If there is low flow in the tank, you may not be getting the surface agitation of the water necessary for propper gas exchange. Another theory is that the color spectrum is shifing in your bulbs as they age. Both of these ideas combined with low water movement may be a breading ground for red slime.

 

[pascal32]

hmmmm...interesting...

I failed to mention some key points - the tank is connected to two others as part of a larger system. this occurence is only in the LPS frag tank. The SPS frag and and display are clean. I should check the age on the bulbs...they might be getting there, can't remember. I'll check the bulbs tomorrow (marked with sharpie)

also I'm running a soda lime reactor which should be removing most of the CO2. PH is 8.2-8.4

 

[Gravesj1s]

Cyanobacteria come in many many different strains.Some are found in nutrient poor waters.They have the ability to fixiate nitrogen whitch can come from the air.

It can be tough stuff to get rid of,ime

 

[Capt_Cully]

To add on to what Mike and Steve are saying (both of them made great points), you may not get an answer. I've found it can be self limiting, merely a phase of stabilization as a system goes through its growing pains on it way to equilibrium.

Your system may be older than a year, as a whole. But if you're tacking on frag systems with slightly different lighting and flow, you might be creating an area for cyanobacterium to become an opportunistic pest.

I'd siphon as much as you can during routine maintenance and keep up on your parameters. Sooner or later, I bet you'll see it acquiesce.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

cut back on feeding LPS meaty frozen foods

 

[pascal32]

cut back on feeding LPS meaty frozen foods

I don't feed much in the LPS frag tank - I have upped feeding in the display, though I'm still not feeding that much...

 

[tmz]

I love cyanobacteria. It's everywhere there is light water and CO2 which is just about everywhere,even polar bear coats.
It is the true primordial slime. It along with related diazotrophs uniquely posesses the ability to make nitrogenase, an enzyne that enables it to break the very very strong covalent bond between two nitrogen atoms in N2 (nitrogen gas). Once separated the N atoms have a chance to join up with hydrogen(NH3/4 ammonia for example) and or carbon and be fixed into the food chain. Without the fixed bioavailabe nitrogen there would be no amino acids, no peptides to join them into proteins , no dna, no nitrogen cycle and no life as we know it.

The cyano creates heterocysts within it's stucture where anoxic conditions needed for the nitrogenase to function in breaking the N2 bond and fixing nitrogen to C and/or H are maintained.
The atmosphere contains about 72% nitrogen made in the stars. Think about it. This seemingly unattractive nuisance is a vital and unique in recylcing N removed by denitrification back into the life cycle.

It still looks bad in a reef tank and some of it,there are thousands of strains, can relaease toxins or smother other organisms.

Low PO4, NO3, low organic carbon and tanks free of detritus usually keep it under control but don't eradicate it. Even though much of it has the ability to produce it's own nutrients from CO2 and athmospheric nitrogen,it's very opportunistic and likely is feeding of some by product from neighboring organisms such as coral slime,zooxanthelae excretions,fish waste or other detritus builders.

 

[pascal32]

I love cyanobacteria. It's everywhere there is light water and CO2 which is just about everywhere,even polar bear coats.
It is the true primordial slime. It along with related diazotrophs uniquely posesses the ability to make nitrogenase, an enzyne that enables it to break the very very strong covalent bond between two nitrogen atoms in N2 (nitrogen gas). Once separated the N atoms have a chance to join up with hydrogen(NH3/4 ammonia for example) and or carbon and be fixed into the food chain. Without the fixed bioavailabe nitrogen there would be no amino acids, no peptides to join them into proteins , no dna, no nitrogen cycle and no life as we know it.

The cyano creates heterocysts within it's stucture where anoxic conditions needed for the nitrogenase to function in breaking the N2 bond and fixing nitrogen to C and/or H are maintained.
The atmosphere contains about 72% nitrogen made in the stars. Think about it. This seemingly unattractive nuisance is a vital and unique in recylcing N removed by denitrification back into the life cycle.

It still looks bad in a reef tank and some of it,there are thousands of strains, can relaease toxins or smother other organisms.

Low PO4, NO3, low organic carbon and tanks free of detritus usually keep it under control but don't eradicate it. Even though much of it has the ability to produce it's own nutrients from CO2 and athmospheric nitrogen,it's very opportunistic and likely is feeding of some by product from neighboring organisms such as coral slime,zooxanthelae excretions,fish waste or other detritus builders.

Thanks tom - I appreciate your respect for this marvelous creation, none the less it is being banished from my little empire :rollface:

sounds like my lack of flow is likely allowing buildup.

as always, thanks for the thorough explanation!

 

[tmz]

Your welcome Pascal. Just know it will always be there, it is hoped in small amounts so you can't even see it.. Flow to blow out detritus buildup and eliminate dead spots can help.