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red slime


redneck10304

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redneck10304

Yea so a few weeks ago i had 1 rock with some red slime on it. It was a small rock so i was able to take it out and clean it. Now it is on a bigger rock that cant really be moved.

 

I turn my lights off 2 hours earlier than normal to try to get it to go away. any other suggestions?

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Nutrients.

 

I'm dealing with the same thing.

 

How old is your tank?

What are your water params?

What is your water source?

Tank stocking and feeding practices?

Lighting and age of bulbs?

 

Answers to these questions will help more knowledgeable folks provide more help.

 

-hank

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redneck10304

I just bought a nano cube and transfered my old tank to it, so the lighting is only about a month old. I usually feed my fish about every other day. I use flakes, frozen brine shrimp, or pellets. I also add coral food (phytoplankton i think). I use RO/DI water. I also do 10-15% water changes weekly

 

I mean, it just started to come like 2 weeks ago, literally

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I just bought a nano cube and transfered my old tank to it, so the lighting is only about a month old. I usually feed my fish about every other day. I use flakes, frozen brine shrimp, or pellets. I also add coral food (phytoplankton i think). I use RO/DI water. I also do 10-15% water changes weekly

 

I mean, it just started to come like 2 weeks ago, literally

 

Moving everything over could be enough to disturb the balance and cause a mini-cycle. I doubt that you could even measure ammonia or nitrites, but I wonder if your nitrates went up.

 

Ours is a new tank and I think the cyano resulted from excessive feeding before the biological filter was ready for it. We're fighting back with extra water changes and lighting cycle reduced to 10 hr/day. I should probably cut it back more. We're also straining and rinsing frozen food and trying real hard not to overfeed.

 

Overnight, the cyano drops way back and then regrows when provided with light the next day. That tells me the conditions that encourage it remain. I'll also speculate that when the conditions that favor cyano are gone, the cyano will disappear too. I'm hoping that it is just a phase our tank is going through due to natural progression and our learning curve. It does seem to be getting better.

 

EasyEd77 - Tell us about temperature please. We're running 79-81.

 

Good luck!

 

-hank

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Cyano does not like water movement is it in a dead spot in the tank, also try cutting back on feeding,maybe same pattern but less food.

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+1 on water changes.

 

Lower nitrates and increase flow

 

But in my opinion red slime algae is kind of pretty. But that's just my weird taste.

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redneck10304

I will post a temp asap. I dont have a heater on it so it shouldnt be running hot. I think it is in a dead spot though b/c its almost directly under my power head.

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It seems to be the season for cyano!

 

Many people are complaining of cyano lately. Must be the solstice moon! Actually, I do think tanks go thru cycles and sometimes no matter how well you keep your tank you just get it. I have done everything to combat it including increasing flow, decreasing feeding and lighting period and it does not affect it that much. When you have cyano growing in front of a power head then you know flow is not an issue!

 

Keeping nutrients down as much as possible and decreasing your photo period plus good tank cleaning and water changes helps immensely. I used to have my lights on for 11 hours. I have now decreased to 8 and honestly my tank seems to be doing much better including my corals. Personally, I would like to have my lights on more but I think its detrimental to the tank.

 

I used Chemi clean and that does the job well. The last time I had it I just tried not to worry about it as much and did my best keeping my tank clean with weekly water changes and siphoning the sand. It went away on it's own. My fish always seem hungry now though!!

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My tank went through the the same thing when it was about two months old. The red slime was everywhere! I was only running the stock pump in my NC24, had the stock lights on for 10 hours a day (too much) and was feeding my fish twice a day (too much) Since then I have added a Koralia 1 for increased flow, lights are now only on for 8 hours a day (also switched to MH), and only feed once a day. Since then the red slime has vanished and has been gone for about 2 1/2 months with no sign of coming back.

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redneck10304

I just got home and it seems like most of it is gone. I guess the problem fixed itself. thanks everyone.

 

New question, way different topic. does any one know if a clam (some kind of bi-vavle) moves around the tank? I purchased a piece of rock with some zoas on tuesday and I found one on the bottom of it. When i came home today it was gone and no longer attached to the rock and i cant find it any where

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Aliasnumber1

My red slime was winning slowly until i purchased red slime remover, i'm sure it's known by many product names. It made the skimmer skim wet, and killed all the cyano in like 2 days. The change in dissolved oxygen didn't seem to matter this time.

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God I HATE cyano. Before you can find a cure and you are hand removing it, let it build up for a couple days then you can remove it in sheets.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Do you have to physically remove it or will improving the water conditions and flow cause it to disappear?

 

When I defeated the monster before I would remove as much as possible during a water change just to get a step up on it. Even with increased flow I could not get rid of it. It took about two weeks of 50% water changes (3g pico mind you) and only 6 hours of lighting.

 

I'm now battling this in my coral vat, mainly because I'm an idiot and topped off with tap water (mark your containers!), which I am steadily gaining ground on. I have 34x turnover rate but the nutrients are just out of whack.

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MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!1 its getting worse.

i CUT my lighting time in half, i skimmed the hell out of my tank and pulled out ALOT of skimmate, i stopped feeding as much and i also dosed with chemi clean and it has gotten WORSE. is this cyano immune to chemiclean??????????????????

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I just had the same problem. MY boy hooked me up with some cyano remover. I put it in yesterday morning, woke up today to a crystal tank.

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  • 2 weeks later...
lilredneckman

Im going through the same thing. I am going to turn off the lights for 3 days and do a big WC the third day and see how that goes.

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Red Slime (Cyano Bacteria)

Cyano grows on top of nutrient rich areas of low flow. There are a number of things that need to be correct or possibly corrected to combat this without the use of chemical additives. The biggest thing is to get rid of the extra nutrients.

1. Evaluate your feeding. If you are feeding more than can be eaten in about 1-2 minutes it is too much and the remainder of it is falling to the rock and sand and becoming nutrient.

2. Evaluate your flow. If you have areas in the tank where there is little to no flow this can be corrected by adding power heads or repositioning the ones you already have. You don’t need to create sand storms just have water moving over the area to keep detritus suspended in the water column for removal by your filter – skimmer.

3. Evaluate your water changes. The solution to pollution is dilution! You want to continually remove unneeded nutrients as well as replace those things that are used by the system. 10% weekly is a good change schedule. Some do 20% every other week and some vary the schedule from there, but a good start is 10% per week.

4. Evaluate your lighting schedule. About 10 hours of daylight is all that is needed.

5. If you have a cyano outbreak do the above 4 items andh:

a. At water change time siphon off the cyano first. It will come up easily almost like a blanker.

b. After siphoning stir the affected areas a little to suspend any detritus for the water change and filtering - skimming removal.

c. Use a turkey baster now and at every water change in the future to again suspend the detritus for removal by the water change and your filtering – skimming.

 

Keeping nutrient levels low to non-existent will help to avoid cyano outbreaks and any algae outbreaks as well as keep your tank and you happy happy.

 

Hope that helps.

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I just had the same problem. MY boy hooked me up with some cyano remover. I put it in yesterday morning, woke up today to a crystal tank.

 

 

What did you use to remove the cyano? I need help fast!

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I finally broke down last week and dosed red slime remover. I couldn't be happier with the results. All cyano was gone within 2 days and nothing died, let alone looked stressed. Now I'm curius to see when/if it comes back.

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  • 2 weeks later...
+1 on water changes.

 

Lower nitrates and increase flow

 

But in my opinion red slime algae is kind of pretty. But that's just my weird taste.

It was kinda pretty until it covers up all my rocks and barely lets my mushrooms peek through, wish I had an answer, I H2O change, cut back on lights, cut feeding back to point where fish attack me at feeding time, pun just little chromis!!

Thanks much

 

exsarg

 

What did you use to remove the cyano? I need help fast!

Me too, what's the stuff?

Thanks much

 

exsarg

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  • 3 weeks later...
But in my opinion red slime algae is kind of pretty. But that's just my weird taste.

 

Cindy liked it too. Sadly, it's all gone. :tears:

 

For now.

 

-hank

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