Red Slime
- Thread starter Labs
- Start date
Remove it by hand constantly and syphon it off during water changes. IMO it takes some tanks quite a while for the infauna to colonize the sand bed,and until they do,the cyano will keep comming back. What seems to help in the meantime are conchs. They readily eat cyano off of the sandbed. Cukes may also help. If the cyano is on the rocks you need to blowout the rocks with a turkeybaster.
Increased protein skimming and the addition of a refugium will help.
Increased protein skimming and the addition of a refugium will help.
What kind of skimmer do you have?
Cyanobacteria thrive on DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
They do not need ANY ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. They can fix nitrogen from the N2 in the air.
In my experience if cyanobacteria are growing out of control the aquarium has a significant amount of DOC. They best way to get rid of that is a large skimmer.
Do the water changes while siphoning out as much as you can, try some carbon, and either clean your skimmer and set to produce a bit wetter foam, or get a better skimmer.
John
Cyanobacteria thrive on DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
They do not need ANY ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. They can fix nitrogen from the N2 in the air.
In my experience if cyanobacteria are growing out of control the aquarium has a significant amount of DOC. They best way to get rid of that is a large skimmer.
Do the water changes while siphoning out as much as you can, try some carbon, and either clean your skimmer and set to produce a bit wetter foam, or get a better skimmer.
John
Yeah,
If you have never used carbon.........be careful.
Use it actively (forced through a canister, etc) for about a week.
During this time either raise the lights or break up the photoperiod.
The carbon will make the light penetrate much better and some corals, usually sps can bleach.
The best way is to raise the lights but if you have a hood just set the timers to turn the lights off every 3 hours for an hour during your normal photoperiod. This will allow the corals to adjust better to the increase in light intensity.
Then you could use carbon for a couple days every month or so to keep the DOC low and clear the water. The corals will not be shocked so much if used in this manner and the lights can stay on as normal.
Bullet 1 may be a little small for a 120. But it COULD be OK if set to produce a wet foam. The current trend towards dry foam removes much less DOC.
John
If you have never used carbon.........be careful.
Use it actively (forced through a canister, etc) for about a week.
During this time either raise the lights or break up the photoperiod.
The carbon will make the light penetrate much better and some corals, usually sps can bleach.
The best way is to raise the lights but if you have a hood just set the timers to turn the lights off every 3 hours for an hour during your normal photoperiod. This will allow the corals to adjust better to the increase in light intensity.
Then you could use carbon for a couple days every month or so to keep the DOC low and clear the water. The corals will not be shocked so much if used in this manner and the lights can stay on as normal.
Bullet 1 may be a little small for a 120. But it COULD be OK if set to produce a wet foam. The current trend towards dry foam removes much less DOC.
John
add instructed amount of carbon for tank size (gallons) into some pantyhose... tie it up and place it in a high flow area. this is what i do. there are other things you can place carbon in, but the panyhose works for me. btw, i always boil the panyhose first... just in case. hth, peace 
This may just be a coincidence, but I had a small patch start in the corner of my tank the day after I started increasing the bionic in my tank to raise the ca. In addition to cracking up the skimmer, adding GAC you might also want to reduce any other nutrients you're adding to your tank.
Do you add phytoplankton or any other additives than Ca/Mn/Sr? Also, check your RO/DI makeup water to see if the conductivity is effectively still zero.
PS There are also reports that cyano will grow better in low current areas. So, to help get ride of it add some more current and more turbulance especially across your sand bed to get rid of it.
Later...
SCott
Do you add phytoplankton or any other additives than Ca/Mn/Sr? Also, check your RO/DI makeup water to see if the conductivity is effectively still zero.
PS There are also reports that cyano will grow better in low current areas. So, to help get ride of it add some more current and more turbulance especially across your sand bed to get rid of it.
Later...
SCott
I agree that it's typically a nutrient related problem and that reducing nutrient levels and increasing current in the tank will help. IME some critters actually eat it too like cerith snails and baja red leg hermits.
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
