Wanna see red algae go bye bye!!
- Thread starter Kimmy
- Start date
vermonter310
New member
69vette said:
Now that's what I've been waiting to read!
69Vette,
Did you have any other issues after dosing ? Ammonia spike perhaps?
Mike
H2OLUVSME said:
If you mean that the water changes would've fixed the problem to begin with, no. Before I used the maracyn, I had cyano for about 4 months. No amount of water changes would stop it. I siphoned it out every couple days and it just kept coming back.
And I've always used RO/DI water in this tank.
flugelnuss
New member
I was battling red slime for like 4 or 5 months, and almost went the chemical route with either chemiclean or the ultra red slime remover. Then a couple of weeks ago, I finally broke down and bought a RO/DI unit and since then with all of the water top offs and the few 10% water changes it just went away! Before the RO/DI unit, I was using the supermarket RO water. RO/DI water read 0 ppm on the TDS meter and I decided to test the RO water from the supermarket, and it came up at 13 ppm!
I can honestly say that I caught the problem at the source. Test your water source. JME.
I can honestly say that I caught the problem at the source. Test your water source. JME.
O.k. Daily update
Still no red algae returns for any of the guinea pig tanks including mine. I promise I'll let you know if it returns for any of the 4 of us though. Atzak, all four of us have anenomes in our tanks. My tank has a sebae, a long tentacle, a rose anenome and 2 flower anenomes and they are all fine. I check my corals closely everyday for any signs of stress but all is great so far. Domer, I have high circulation at both the top and bottom of my tank so I know its not a circulation problem. I tested my water again today to see if my ammonia raised from the algae die off and it still reads zero. It was so wierd how the red algae literally vanished into thin air. I would not have believed it had I not seen it for myself. I made my friends do it first..actully I didn't make them..they were just braver than I am.
I have loved seeing my white sand again. I shudder at the thought of that crap coming back. I did water change after water change trying to get rid of it and yes with ro/di water. I seriously tried everything to fix the problem to no avail including siphoning the bottom every day like 69vette did. I'll keep you all posted.....Kimmy
Still no red algae returns for any of the guinea pig tanks including mine. I promise I'll let you know if it returns for any of the 4 of us though. Atzak, all four of us have anenomes in our tanks. My tank has a sebae, a long tentacle, a rose anenome and 2 flower anenomes and they are all fine. I check my corals closely everyday for any signs of stress but all is great so far. Domer, I have high circulation at both the top and bottom of my tank so I know its not a circulation problem. I tested my water again today to see if my ammonia raised from the algae die off and it still reads zero. It was so wierd how the red algae literally vanished into thin air. I would not have believed it had I not seen it for myself. I made my friends do it first..actully I didn't make them..they were just braver than I am. I have loved seeing my white sand again. I shudder at the thought of that crap coming back. I did water change after water change trying to get rid of it and yes with ro/di water. I seriously tried everything to fix the problem to no avail including siphoning the bottom every day like 69vette did. I'll keep you all posted.....Kimmy
Hedonist
Premium Member
I gotta agree, i think it has to be water quality, why would some suffer of it and others do not.... or if they do it is just for short periods...??? Could it possibly be that certain pcs of rock have a tenacious affintiy toward cyan... ????? Who knows but those of you who do have RO units, do remember that the membrane will eventually fail, alway keep an eye on your water source.... i know I had problems once.. i could not pinpoint it cause there were too many variables.. but I tore down the tank, used mostly new sand, got more flow and tho it was not cyan but dinoflagattes that pusj\hed me to an RO system... and I have on problems with cyano, dinos or any sort of algae.. except the occasional bulbble
jgreen1025
New member
My tank is about 3.5 months old now and the cyano is spreading. I've tried siphoning it out (just with the end of the tube, no brushes) and killing it off with no lights for a few days (I don't have any corals yet), but it keeps coming back. I use RO/DI water and I'll change the filters soon to see if that helps, but so far my water tests very low for Nitrates (around 2) and Phosphates (0.5). I'm nearly to the point where I'm willing to try the Erythromyacin but wonder if it'll hurt any other inverts, specifically snails? Also, what is the best/cheapest source of Erythro?
Well so far so good...no red algae return as of yet for me or any of the others. I'd have to say at this point I would do it over again. My corals and anenomes and crabs and snails and all else is doing fine. I bought the basic Erythro at the pet store. It cost me 3.99 for 12 capsules. It sure is nice having the white sand again. I may regret the decision of putting it in my tank somewhere down the road if it returns hard core but right now it still seems to good to be true. I'll let you know if anything changes. Has anyone else done it recently?? Kimmy
in my opinion, ill agree with some of the above threads, the myacin, will do damage to your benificial nitrifing bacteria. i found in my tank it was a watter quality issue. first are you on city water or using ro/di? have you all tested for phosphates. this is where i found my problem with the red slime. when i first started in the hobby of marine fish and inverts, i used city watter, where i found high phosphates. the cyano feeds on these phosphates. the lfs i worked at at the time had the same problem just not as bad as was happening in my tank, they were using ro watter, guess it wasnt getting all the phosphates out as well. i found a good PO4 test kit and some phosphate remover fixed the problem. and when i moved and got on well water. no more phosphate problem at all! ide test for that first and fix the nutrient problem by removing it if you have it in your tank. this will help with other unsightly bacteria problems returning in the future, and also help in not hurting you benificial nitrifing bacteria colony. look at it this way too. if you were to loose something in your system from the myocin. and not catch it, you would start your whole cycle again, and cause furthur undue problems and possible loss of other livestock. just my .02 cents and my opinion.
jgreen1025
New member
I posted back on the 18th that I was having a problem with slime algae and thought I should post an update: it's obviously going away and dying on it's own. I noticed some of the largest patches dying out a few days after my initial post but there were a few new ones showing up on the rocks, but none of them have grown since that time. I've done nothing different that I can think of - still haven't changed the filters in my RO/DI and haven't upgraded my lights - I don't even think I've done a water change for a few weeks. It's possible that the wad of chaeto algae I added to the tank back on the 9th had some effect. But the chaeto isn't really growing that I can see - just being eaten by amphipods. Maybe the different algaes just bloom and go away on their own - particularly in newer tanks like mine? It seems I've read that comment from Eric Borneman before.
John
John
donald altman
Member
thats what I am trying to figure out !!!
The red slime remover is like 28 bucks for a few doeses worth.. If this is some cheap over the counter pill I can get I will be Ill...
ARGH.... I've red countless posts about red slime and never heard this...
The red slime remover is like 28 bucks for a few doeses worth.. If this is some cheap over the counter pill I can get I will be Ill...
ARGH.... I've red countless posts about red slime and never heard this...
I've used myacin with a BTA and had no problem or recurrence of cyano. I use RO water for all changes and have a Euroreef skimmer rated for much more volume than my tank and sump. While I agree that flow and limiting the input of nutrients is very important, I won't discount the use of erythromyacin. If used in low doses for 7 days, IME, you won't have problems with it harming your tank and it will eliminate the cyano and prevent returns.
johnpoole
New member
i am glad someone recogmended the red legged hermit, i remembered that as the 1st true cure i found, but wasn't 100 percent sure. back before the web, someone on a bbs told me to get my hands on some of those.. and they were at the time the only cure... with wet and dry and bio balls, it's a wonder we ever had tanks at all..
Well its been a month for the other three reefers and almost a motnh for me. No red algae whatsoever for any of us. I also bougt the Erythro over the counter at the pet store. I used a third of the amount the package said to use. I still can't believe how fast iit went away. It almost vanished. I tested my water this morning and my parameters are still great. I don't think it phased my tank at all. I do agree with everyonne that if it can be fixed without usung erythro then thats the way to go but when all esle fails it does make it go away.....and super fast. If anyone tries it on this thread make sure and let us all know what you think....Kimmy
