HELP! red slime algae! ASAP!

[reefNewbie]

I have been fighting this **** for over a month now. It was looking like it was going to clear up and then it came back and now its all over my rock to. I had a po4 issue but have been running phosban in the water for about a week now so po4 is 0. Im pretty sure all of my water params are how they were before, 0. but have been unable to check my water since i ran out of test kits. I will be recieving them tonite or tomorrow.

My tank is a 90 gallon AGA. All my bulbs are practicaly brand new, 2 10k ab 175watters and 2 40 watt actinic03 NO's. I have been feeding once a day very lightly to help keep all water params good. I have a Euro reef cs6-1 skimmer on my tank and around 1600GPH water movement. only 5 small fish in there now, 2 f. pers, 1 royal gramma and 2 chromis. I only use RO/DI water that has 0 po4 in it for top off and water changes. I have been syphoning out alot of the redslime off my sand bed but have revently givin up on it since i dont want to loose all of my sand and it keeps growing back anyways. I dont no what to do anymore this really sucks.

Im wondering if i might have a silica problem. I dont have a test kit for silica though. What kind of concerns me is that a fellow reefer (mulberry) in my area with a very well established tank has recently gotten the red slime algae as well. We are sort of thinking that there might be something in our water that our RO units cant pull out.

please if any of you have any suggestions, please give them as i am at my last resort. I hate to use chemicals to get rid of it because thats not solving the problem at its source. thanks guys!

 

[Unarce]

Tony,

Sorry to hear that. Please read the thread for Topic: Sand Bed Depth as to possible reasons why your cyano came back. In all my years of reefkeeping, I had a sand bed once and that was the only time I had to deal with cyano. I know you don't want to use medication, but Chemi-clean was safe enough for my acros and knocked it out in a week. COMPLETELY! Again, you'll only need to do a regular water change afterward, but can even dose monthly as a preventative.

 

[reefNewbie]

my tank is only 3 and a half weeks old though, so DSB is not the issue.

 

[Unarce]

Since your tank and mulberry's are at the opposite spectrum in terms of age than you could be right about the water in your area. If it isn't a coincidence, than you may have just introduced it by recent additions to your tank. I'm sorry I don't have much experience in dealing with algae problems.

 

[kbauer]

Tony--
I also had a fairly long running battle with cyano, blowing it off the rocks, syphoning it out with a turkey baster, losing sand, etc. I tried several remedies suggested on this message board. I increased water flow by adding a powerhead, I put my skimmer back in the sump ( I wanted to try going skimmerless), I tested and tested and everything looked good, but it was a suggestion on the feeding that worked for me. I thought I was feeding fairly lightly as well, but I guess not! I cut back on the feeding and the red slime went away. That worked for me. Its worth a try before you go to chemicals. BTW I have a chromis, one ocellaris clown, and 3 pajamas and I was feeding at least 1 frozen cube/day. Now I feed every third day and the fish seem fine. But my tank has been established for 2 years so there's lots of stuff to eat, but I hope this helps.

 

[reefNewbie]

ok, got my salifert test kits in today, measured ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. They all read 0! That means that something else has to be causing this, what could it be?????

 

[reefNewbie]

btw i also ordered chemi-clean this afternoon. I dont want to use it, but i will if i have to!

 

[Unarce]

Have you checked with your LFS if there has been an increase in cyano cases with their customers?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I wouldn't worry so much in a 3.5 week old tank. Its frequently part of the breaking-in period. I would guess that there is some level of fertilizer in the water that your tests aren't showing. How about flow- anyway you can ramp it up to get thing ripping in there?

 

[reefNewbie]

its a 3.5month old not week old tank. anymore flow and i wont have a DSB. lol

 

[reefNewbie]

WTF I cannot loose the phosphates! After a week of phosban, they are now at .2ppm. I dont no what the **** is leakin in the po4!

 

[Mogo]

The only thing I could add is something that you mentioned already-silicates. I would get a test kit and give it a shot.

 

[reefNewbie]

yes i would like to test my silicates, but why and where is this po4 comming from if the water i use for top off and water changes has 0 po4 in it?

 

[ger]

Just an uneducated guess at it. Are you using carbon? If yes, check if it is leaching phosphate.

 

[TomH]

I noitced on your website that you appear to have added quite a bit of LR between February and April. Is there any chance that you're experiencing a die-off from the LR (I noticed some sponges/tunicates, etc. that might not make the transition), thus adding to the nutrients in your system? I don't know if that will specifically cause a cyano problem, but it sounds reasonable to me. Perhaps the experts wil chime in on the theory.

If that's the possible, I'd suggest keeping up on your skimmer, watching the feedings, and checking the LR to decide if you need to scrub some deadness off of it.

Good luck.

Tom

 

[reefNewbie]

good suggestions, but 1) i dont run carbon, 2) All my readings are and have been at 0. Thus if anything was dying off, i would be able to detect it in the tests. Now, maybe there is sum stuf on that rock that is leaking phosphates in the water.

 

[Anonymous]

my tank is only 3 and a half weeks old though, so DSB is not the issue.

its a 3.5month old not week old tank.

Me so confused!

Maybe try a TDS meter to see if your RO system is working properly? Even at 3.5 months the tank is young and will be suseptible to this kind of thing.

 

[reefNewbie]

oops, i meant to say its 3.5months old not weeks, sorry!