dark red coating on reef base

[DanH]

I have a dark red coating on my reef base (2" deep 'red sea' Aragonite) that has just appeared over the last few days.

My tank is 2 months old and is stocked with 1 fish, two peppermints and 3 scarlet hermit crabs.

Is this something to worry about.

 

[Anonymous]

looks like cyano, 2 months old sounds about right, water changes or skimming to raise ORP usually fixes it

 

[DanH]

ORP? What's this?

Doing a 10% change now.

 

[Anonymous]

oxygen reduction potential

heavy skimming helps, or ozone, there's chemicals that will bump it up too

it's getting nutrients from somewhere, cut down feeding, or if your not using ro/di that'll feed the stuff

Iv'e had luck with phosguard

i've also had luck bumping orp with red slime remover chems, I forget the name, there's a few types that all do pretty much the same thing

 

[trido]

OR.... Skim wetter, feed less, increase water changes.
Blow the stuff around with a turkey baster and/or suck it out with a siphon hose during your water changes.
This is common with new tanks. Providing your skimmer is adequate for your bioload it should pass.

 

[WRASSER]

it has been a while since i have posted,


:? i am still having a lot of problems with phosphates. I am not able to bring them down. I have moved twice with a full water change each time. NOTHING I just started a reactor in hopes that this will bring it down.
the question that i want to ask is Will a refugium take the phosphates away?
thanks

 

[SnowManSnow]

all of the above.. as well as increase flow over the area

 

[JKDMan]

there is a medicene for freshwater fish called maricyn or marycin
phoneticly its mara-sin, any ways this god rid of my buddies cyano very quickly and it was much worse than yours. didnt hurt any of his livestock

check it out

 

[mr_X]

antibiotics are very risky in a closed system where we depend on bacteria to keep our tanks healthy.

 

[JKDMan]

it worked for him no problems, i would try some other methiods 1st but
maracyin will most l;ikley do the trick. like i said tho his was much much worse than yours, it was all over the glass and floating on the surface of the water.

 

[IslandCrow]

Since cyano is a bacteria, Maracyn is in fact supposed to be effective, but realize it's pretty indiscrimanatory towards bacteria. . .in other words, it's going to kill off beneficial bacteria as well. I would think this would have strong potential to send your tank into a second cycle. In addition to all the other suggestions, I would suggest using a siphon or turkey baster to suck out as much of the stuff as you can. It's a pain in the butt, but necessary. Next, turn your lights off completely for two days. Your corals will be fine (unless you have any that are already bleached or dying), and it may be just enough to starve out the cyano.

My struggle with cyano lasted a month to a month and a half, and then almost literally overnight, it was gone. Give it some time before you start dosing antibiotics.

 

[WRASSER]

i had bought some blue vet rx red slim control. i had planned on using it after the reactor took the levels down some. i was thinking in about a week. anyways will this stuff work :?:

 

[mr_X]

i have used both "red slime remover" and erythromycin. the red slime remover really screwed up my tank. my GSP got fried, but he recovered.

the erythromycin didn'd do anything that was too noticable, however my skimmer went wild for days and i had to do a series of massive water changes to correct it. when all was said and done, the red slime came back anyway. it's like others above my post have said. these "cures" are just a momentary reprieve from your issue. it will come back until you correct the real issue. excess nutrients, whether it be phosphate, or low flow, or both, bad bulbs...whatever, you gotta fix that.
http://www.lostmymarblz.com/75gal-algaecontrol.htm

 

[Anonymous]

red slime remover just bumps the hell out of the orp doesnt it? It's an oxidant very very nasty stuff follow the directions carefully, it's almost like putting hydrogen peroxide in your tank

 

[WRASSER]

no prob. i will wait and see what the reactor does and go from there