green and red slime problems

[kjswift]

I have serious bright green slime in 37 gal eclipse, and red slime in my 55 gal. The slime covers corals, glass, etc. Any suggestions on getting rid of this problem? Thanks

[kjswift]

I have no skimmer on either tank, would this help out?

[Chris]

A skimmer would help... sounds as if you have too much excess nutrients in the tank which can be caused by numerous reasons... (overfeeding, tap water, etc..)

A shorter light cycle could help slow down their growth, but you'll need to determine what the problem is to stop it.

Macro algaes can help out as well...

;)

[utmachete]

Getting a skimmer or a refugium would be a good Idea. You should also try to increase the flow in your tank, powerhead etc. but for a quick fix you can try chemi-clean, it will get rid of the slime for sure but its really expensive and shouldn't be used often. I wouldn't decrease the amount of light because you also want your coralline algae to grow. The red slime will grow because of the excess nutrients as Chris said, so its going to grow anyways. The lights will increase the growth of coralline algae which also feeds on excess nutrients but needs the light more than the slime.

[Henry]

Getting a skimmer or a refugium would be a good Idea.

I second this motion!!!!!

I tried to go skimmerless, but so found I was feeding a little too much and my tank became over-run w/ugly algae. Once I re-installed the skimmer the algae has gone away.

Henry

[kjswift]

Thanks guys. What about red slime remover from ultralife reef products. I just picked up a prizm at Fintique for $74.99. The cheapest I found in SA. Texas Tropical $90.00, and get Alamo's whopping $119.99(is anything not expensive at Alamo?). I'll see how it works out.

[Triggerman]

right of the bat the prizm will help, but it's not going to die off overnight it'll take 1-2 wks. also make sure you're using ro/di water for water changes and top off that'll make a big difference. don't try all of the other red slime remover products they're crap. the only one that i've found to actually work is chemi-clean usually runs somewhere around $16.00 a bottle, it doesn't harm your inverts, and it'll die off within a couple of days. it's a good quick fix, but don't use it all the time.

[Yves Nobleza]

Have you tried increasing water flow...eclipses dont have too much water flow on their own. It seems that eclipses are prone to cyano and phosphate problems... I have heard that carbon will leach phosphate into the water if left in too long, could that be whats happening? I tried purigen to correct this problem but it seems that it worked too well, After adding it all my star polyps and zoo's closed up...don't know if it took too many trace elements out or all the invert foods, anyhow i removed it and all the corals opened back up...Any Ideas?

[kjswift]

My green star polyps where bright green and started to turn brown or not even come out at all. My green button polyps where bright green and growing well. Now you cannot tell they were green at all, just brown and shriveled looking, but seem to be still growing. I use distilled water only, no tap. Mabee it is something else.

[jcoxe]

For the Record. I tried the UltraLife Red Slime Remover and it worked great. Got rid of it overnight. Now, 2 months later. It's back again. I am hoping it will go away soon because my tank went through some drastic changes last week. My blueface angel was murdered in front of me by my snowflake eel. It was pretty interesting but not worth my 70.00 fish! Then a few days later I found him on the floor of my apartment dead. He made his way through my canopy! The bioload was a little high so these subtractions from my tank will have a huge effect on the bioload and my water chemistry which in my opinion needs to be **** close to perfect to fight this stuff. it just keeps comin! One of the things that helped me keep my phosphates down was rinsing (not soaking) all of my frozen foods in RO water! Good Luck :P

[MikeP]

I had a outbreak in my 46 gallon reef which is not surprising considering I feed fairly heavy (trying to keep my niger trigger full). I had it on the sand mostly and on a few patches of rock. What I did was get two beefier powerheads - hagen 402's in opposite corners which created a ridiculously high flow - after tweaking I had a nice even path with no dead spots. Also I added 10 nassarius snails and a queen conch (**** hermits killed my queen within 2 days) the nassarius are great sandbed cleaners and even if they don't eat cyano directly like the conch, they eat a lot of the crud that settles out and give it nutrients to grow. Also get a refugium and start growing some macro algae - best single thing I ever did and am going to put one on every tank if I can in the future (currently have one on my 46 and 18 gallon nano - may turn the 46 into a seagrass refugiuim after I get 75 gallon running). The macro algae/refugium is a natural method for nutrient uptake and you can just prune out the stuff that grows thus removing nutrients.

Also get a skimmer - I skim lightly but it really helps in keeping all that crud out of the water for micro algae and cyano.

[Chuck]

I try to stay away from any chemicals designed to clean up. A skimmer can help but if your bio load may be too much and that could cause the problem. What are you feeding?
I have an occasional patch on the sand bed but it is easy to remove and rarely is over 3". I think my Xenia filter the water fairly well and I am skimmerless... I am trying to grow sargassum in my main but the tangs think otherwise...
What brand of salt do you use? temp / photo period?