Suddenly have red slime?

[LittleBee]

Hey guys.

My ten gallon has been up and running for about eight months now. I havent had red slime in it since the cycling phase and all of th sudden I have a bit of red slime growin again. I haven changed anything. Not feeding any more than normal. The light is on a timer. Weekly water changes.
Nitrate 5
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

Here is my question. The only thing I have changed is lighting. I had a four bulb t5 fixture on it and a couple months ago I switched to marineland reef capable LEDs. I used to run the LEDs on my 29g when I had that up and now I figured i would stick them on the 10. The marineland is almost two years old. Is it possible for the Marineland led bulbs to dim and start growin algae bc the output is different? When they were on my 29g they grew all sorts of corals just fine and now since they are a bit older Im thinking that's why the algae is growin and also my zoas aren't opening as nicely anymore. Could that be possible?

 

[iamwrasseman]

it could be lighting but the "fuel" had to be there all along ,
less light = less algae , either cut down on leingth of photo period or intensity
less nutrient = less algae ,more water changes of less food
check for po4 as it is a great algae fuel too
how much live rock is in this tank and how much internal flow do you have ?
the bulbs should stay pretty close to "normal output " for many years ,like 10 of them theoreticly

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

it could be lighting

agreed

in this case you had X levels of "algae fuel" in your aquarium.

Tipping the lighting one way or another CAN create a better environment for any given algae to thrive, HOWEVER (and you know what I'm gonna say!)

DON'T BLAME THE LIGHTING :deadhorse1:

Go after reducing PO4 and nitrates. DOC's. Clean up the water and use the lighting you WANT to use.

I've burned the same exact light bulbs for 4 years (!) or more in the past.
I let the sun shine on my aquarium as much as possible.
If you keep the water "clean" you're not gonna get a red slime / nuisance algae explosion.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

i had cyano for almost a year until gary told me to raise my salinity. since i have added a new skimmer new rodi filters and gfo now it doesnt stand a chance of coming back lol i hope at least

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

i had cyano for almost a year until gary told me to raise my salinity. since i have added a new skimmer new rodi filters and gfo now it doesnt stand a chance of coming back lol i hope at least

hey- congrats! I love to hear success stories...ESPECIALLY when it was my advice that helped!

HOWEVER... never ever make the mistake of assuming Cyano can't come back.

It can if conditions are right. Even in my own aquarium. The "battle" NEVER ends.

"Battle" meaning nutrients removed are equal to (or greater) than those being put into the aquarium.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

only thing ive seen different in my tank now is a crazy dark really slow growing algea on one of my rocks that can be scrubbed off its a mat looking type really dark green

 

[BuffaloReef]

only thing ive seen different in my tank now is a crazy dark really slow growing algea on one of my rocks that can be scrubbed off its a mat looking type really dark green

Sounds like a species of cyno to me.

LittleBee, I would check phosphates. They're a likely cause of cyno. Also you want to make sure your water is moving everywhere. It's possible to have good levels in the water column but have cyno where the water is stagnant and detritus is building up.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

yeah im thinking that too. i think its time to replace the gfo what is in there is a month old now

 

[LittleBee]

I think I know what happened. My hectors goby went on strike and stopped eating. So I noticed I haven't seen him in a bit and can't find him anywhere. I think he may have swam into a small hole or crevice and died and the cuc can't get to him. So maybe his decomposing body could be fueling the algae outbreak as well? I haven't changed anything else in the last six months and have an issue with the red slime. I have an aquaclear 70 filter just for flow and to filter out excess detritus and a 240 koralia powerhead. Weekly watt changes of two gallons. The light is on a timer so that hasnt changed either. I'm going to retest everything tonight and see if anything has changed but I really think my hectors goby is what set it off.

 

[iamwrasseman]

realistically, a hectors goby which is a very small fish in a 93 gallon tank and dies really wont even make a blip in your nutrient levels . the hectors goby may have the same mass of a cube of food and even though you would not do it on purpose many times that much food gets lost in the tank and gets gobbled up my your clean up crew and nitrobacters .
i have lost numerous fish behind my live rock wall and they are 100% gone in two or three days except for the bones . they are 3" long and i could see them but not get to them and saw just how fast they disappeared "naturaly".
please bring me some water and i can check it out for po4 which may be your problem .

 

[LittleBee]

The Hector's in my 10g.

 

[iamwrasseman]

okay ,still not a huge issue IMO as they are very small . how much LR do you have in the tank ? do you have good flow throughout the entire tank ?
wow i just went back and read your second post so you have tons of flow and a large filter that will work if used properly for sure . what do you have in your filter ?and #lbs of LR?

 

[LittleBee]

I have some live rock rubble in the filter and I'd say at least ten lbs of live rock in the tank itself. Also have a sponge in the filter but that's cleaned out regularly so junk doesn't leach into the tank. Could po4 make my zoas not want to open also?

 

[iamwrasseman]

so it sounds like you have enough LR in your tank/filter and that being said you could lose a tiny fish like that and not have a huge spike but there should be some measurable nutrient .
IMO zoas are finiky and po4 if its high yes it would cause them to be stressd . there are some others here on RC that may have a better insight as to what may cause them to be stressed and hopefully they will chime in to help ya

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

the dead Goby in the 10 could have tipped things in favor of Cyano. (Did you ever see it eat Cyano? I've heard they're supposed to.)

Nano reef aquariums can be trickier than large aquariums and Zoanthids... well.. we all know how tricky THEY can be!

The good thing with 10 gallons: large percentage water changes are a breeze and that's what I'd recommend doing. If it comes back, siphon out the red slime and you can return the accompanying water to the aquarium.

For Zoas keep alkalinity up (9dKH) and run a very small amount of carbon while keeping SG at 1.026

 

[Sophie10]

Check your alkalinity too. I found myself fighting a hair algae problem for months when my phosphates and nitrates read 'zero'. I had a chronically low alkalinity (6 dkH). I never dosed in my cube and things were fine with water changes, but once I moved to a larger tank, the LPS's took off! Now that I'm keeping the alk up to 9 - 10 dKH, the algae is near gone.

Also B, that light was for a 29, maybe in the 10 it's a little too bright for the Zoas...
Good luck, I know how frustrating an outbreak can be!

 

[LittleBee]

Thanks for all the great advice everyone! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. I will test my alk and see where that sits. Dave I will have to bring you some water to test for po4 since that's the only test I don't own :/ also I never thought o the light being too bright for the zoas...that could be true. I noticed that my goblets of fire zoas will open under the blue moonlights but will close up when I have all white and blues on...idk what to do about that besides buy a different light that I can dim? I wish I didn't sell my t5s Esp to someone who doesn't know how to care for their tank. I will get on the water changes to get all the cyano out. It's really not that bad, just enought to annoy me and I don't want it to start getting out of control either. I did not notice the hectors eating cyano. When he was alive there was no cyano. I will keep you all update on how things go. Hopefully I will be seeing you soon dave. I'm only off on Monday and youre not open Monday :/ again thanks for all the great advice!!

 

[iamwrasseman]

if your near by on monday you leave some water in my mail box and i will check it on tuesday .

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I never thought o the light being too bright for the zoas...that could be true. I noticed that my goblets of fire zoas will open under the blue moonlights but will close up when I have all white and blues on...idk what to do about that besides buy a different light that I can dim?

Raise them higher above the tank or put a few layers of fiberglass window screen under them to block some of the light.

 

[LittleBee]

You know I do have some of that clear mesh to make lids with. Would that work to block some light? I can't really raise the light bc I have the tank on the kitchen counter under the Cabinets. :/ I was jut trying to see if I could lift it today but I won't really work bc half is under the cabinet and half isn't. I reduced my photoperiod by an hour to see if that helps any also.