red slime

Poseidon · Jul 22, 2012

whats the best way to get rid of red slime algae?
how did i get it in the first place?

Gietz · Jul 23, 2012

Bad water. Check your TDS!!! Also put some flow on it and it will be gone. I actually just had a bad out break of diatoms and red cyano. It was cause I forgot to change out my DI filters

Salty Cracker · Jul 23, 2012

Red slime means phosphates. Is it slime or algae? Red algae is a different creature. If you can blast it off the rock with a turkey baster, you have slime, if it need dynamite to come off, it's algae.

spyd · Jul 23, 2012

Red slime can also occur if your bulbs on your fixture are too old. In many cases it can be caused by low flow areas in your tank as well. Lots of flow will prevent it from overtaking your tank. There are medications that you can use, however, it is simply a bandaid fix. It will come back if you don't treat the issue that caused it in the first place. Also, if you do use medication and it comes back, it will be harder to remove next time around.

Poseidon · Jul 23, 2012

ok well as of now its only on my substrate... and it comes off very easily.....
i have an urchin on stand by in my refuge and i put him in the tank last night to help me gain control and he right away goes to the rocks and eats the coraline... stupid thing

my angels pick at it to but i need to get an ro-di filter i know :?

teebone110 · Jul 23, 2012

Sometimes its just part of the "new tank" biological system. If you just keep up with your regular maintenance it will dissapear on its own.

Siphon up as much as you can, and maybe try a 3 days lights out.

How long has your tank been running?

pulpfiction1 · Jul 23, 2012

Water flow inside the tank should go a long way

Sent from my HTC Incredible S

reeffreak · Jul 23, 2012

spyd link said:
Red slime can also occur if your bulbs on your fixture are too old. In many cases it can be caused by low flow areas in your tank as well. Lots of flow will prevent it from overtaking your tank. There are medications that you can use, however, it is simply a bandaid fix. It will come back if you don't treat the issue that caused it in the first place. Also, if you do use medication and it comes back, it will be harder to remove next time around.

+1 , theres more then just one way the algea could have showed up , I would run some tests and see where your levels are at and go from there , blasting it off the sand asap is bestor it could take over thhe whole sand bed , Ive been down this rd when i moved a 75 G from one house to another , when I set back up I had a bad case of red CYANO , I did a few big water changes within a week letp lights of for a day , skimmed wet and it slowly dissapeared within a few weeks . HTH

chrisstevens · Jul 23, 2012

chemi-clean

Poseidon · Jul 23, 2012

bulbs are less than 4 months old...
there could be something with the water flow... ill tamper with that and see how it goes...
i do have to much phosphates in my system... need to work on that too

AdInfinitum · Jul 23, 2012

Salty Cracker link said:
Red slime means phosphates. Is it slime or algae? Red algae is a different creature. If you can blast it off the rock with a turkey baster, you have slime, if it need dynamite to come off, it's algae.

Cyano bacteria are amazing creatures that can live in water or any moist environment from fresh water to the hyper-saline, high mineral fringes of hot springs. No nitrates available? They can adapt their metabolism to manufacture them out of free atmospheric nitrogen no phosphates? They can manufacture them from fixed phosphorus in rock. However those processes are extremely energy intensive, starve them of those nutrients and their metabolisms turn to survival...provide those nutrients and reproduction becomes the focus....Good flow will keep stationary colonies from forming which quickly become breeding grounds for other pests that can feed on the nutrients that the cyano produces. Their simple photosynthetic systems can thrive on the low energy long wavelength range of the light spectrum that tired bulbs put out...

Gietz link said:
Bad water. Check your TDS!!! Also put some flow on it and it will be gone. I actually just had a bad out break of diatoms and red cyano. It was cause I forgot to change out my DI filters

Interesting question...since reef LED's put out discreet higher energy wavelengths rather than full spectrum light...Have the LED users out there seen any changes to the frequency or volume of cyano growth since changing from "conventional" reef lighting?

Darryl_V · Jul 23, 2012

I get it from time to time. Dont think I have high phosphate, or nitrate, or high TDS from the RO......got high flow too. I think most people with a sand bed get cyano at some time. I agree if the cyano is really bad though something might be going on.....but I have seen patches of cyano on the sand bed of plenty of nice tanks.

Salty Cracker · Jul 24, 2012

AdInfinitum link said:
[quote author=Salty Cracker link=topic=2847.msg22969#msg22969 date=1343022904]
Red slime means phosphates. Is it slime or algae? Red algae is a different creature. If you can blast it off the rock with a turkey baster, you have slime, if it need dynamite to come off, it's algae.

Cyano bacteria are amazing creatures that can live in water or any moist environment from fresh water to the hyper-saline, high mineral fringes of hot springs. No nitrates available? They can adapt their metabolism to manufacture them out of free atmospheric nitrogen no phosphates? They can manufacture them from fixed phosphorus in rock. However those processes are extremely energy intensive, starve them of those nutrients and their metabolisms turn to survival...provide those nutrients and reproduction becomes the focus....Good flow will keep stationary colonies from forming which quickly become breeding grounds for other pests that can feed on the nutrients that the cyano produces. Their simple photosynthetic systems can thrive on the low energy long wavelength range of the light spectrum that tired bulbs put out...

Gietz link said:
Bad water. Check your TDS!!! Also put some flow on it and it will be gone. I actually just had a bad out break of diatoms and red cyano. It was cause I forgot to change out my DI filters

Interesting question...since reef LED's put out discreet higher energy wavelengths rather than full spectrum light...Have the LED users out there seen any changes to the frequency or volume of cyano growth since changing from "conventional" reef lighting?

[/quote]

I should post a pic.... I used to have almost 100% coverage of cyano on my whole system. I ran MH and power compacts, there were definite jumps in cyano when the bulbs hit 6-8 months, since I've switched to LEd's I haven't had a single outrbreak of cyano, but I added a GFO system when I upgraded the lights, so can't say for sure which was the biggest factor in the removal.

Neopimp · Jul 24, 2012

I have LEDs from day one, had one small blob of slime in 2 years

Poseidon · Jul 25, 2012

at night when the lights go out the red slime literally dissapears...!
then during the day it comes back.... its really weird.... im looking into buying an r/o filter now... i can get a brand new one for 150$ but would like to maybe trade some stuff for one .... if you have one please contact me... can trade frags or fish or w.e....
thanks

reeffreak · Jul 25, 2012

Brandon link said:
at night when the lights go out the red slime literally dissapears...!
then during the day it comes back.... its really weird.... im looking into buying an r/o filter now... i can get a brand new one for 150$ but would like to maybe trade some stuff for one .... if you have one please contact me... can trade frags or fish or w.e....
thanks

RO/DI is what you want not just RO

Darryl_V · Jul 25, 2012

reeffreak link said:
[quote author=Brandon link=topic=2847.msg23089#msg23089 date=1343228286]
at night when the lights go out the red slime literally dissapears...!
then during the day it comes back.... its really weird....

That is actually quite normal behavior for cyano.

RO/DI is what you want not just RO

[/quote]And get a good one. A used one might be worthless if the filters are used up. The canisters that hold the filters are nothing special but the filters are what makes a RO/DI unit good.....and they only last so long.

Best prices on good RO/DI units running good filters is on www.bulkreefsupply.com IMO.

Salty Cracker · Jul 25, 2012

I started using the refillable DI resin from BRS, so far it works great, TDS of 0 within 3 minutes of changing out the cartridge.

Cheap RO units tend to have 5 micron pre and post filters in it. You want 1 micron or smaller to prolong the life of the membrane. I find the better the filters, the longer the DI resin lasts too.

reeffreak · Jul 25, 2012

BRS 5 stage 199.99 best deal IMO , I bought mine used with filters still working and new replcment filters and DI resin not BRS mind you but I didnt pay 200 either .. If i did not find mine used this would have been my purchase

unibob · Jul 25, 2012

reeffreak link said:
BRS 5 stage 199.99 best deal IMO , I bought mine used with filters still working and new replcment filters and DI resin not BRS mind you but I didnt pay 200 either .. If i did not find mine used this would have been my purchase

I have the 5 stage from brs, works awesome. Comes with colour chafing DI resin which gives you a heads up when it needs to be replaced.

Haven't had to replace anything yet, looking into the upgrade for saving water just to send it through another membrane, turns 75gpd into 150gpd.

red slime

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