"red slime" algae

[urban79]

This is poping up in my tank. Is there somethen I can do to kill this stuff. I got over 30 snails and 15 or 20 crabs. Plus arrow and 2 Emerald Crabs. Its not bad. But I dont want it to get bad.
PLus i do 15% water changes weekly. And R/O top offs.

Please help thanks jeremy

[JimD]

Might want to do a search on "cyanobacteria", this topic has been discussed numerous times. The Arrow crab might eat some Bristleworms and the Emerald may or may not eat some Valonia (bubble algae) but wont touch Cyano. Typicly its a nutrient/flow issue.

[matt]

If your tank is new, less than 6 months old, it's a fairly typical part of the maturing processs.

[urban79]

I would said its about 6 months old. It just started when i got MH. I did look it up and the only thing I saw that turbo snail eats it and only other thing is be a snail. And take it off your self. which I have been doing. But alot of it starts to float around when i do. I was just seeing if anyone knew or has a better way of doing this.

[urban79]

Might want to do a search on "cyanobacteria", this topic has been discussed numerous times. The Arrow crab might eat some Bristleworms and the Emerald may or may not eat some Valonia (bubble algae) but wont touch Cyano. Typicly its a nutrient/flow issue.

what do you mean a nutrient and flow issue??? I have been putting trace stuff all the time. And flow maybe but dont thing so. I have been trying to move stuff around so it dont get blown around.(zoos and mushroom).

[matt]

What Jim means by "nutrient" is that proteins and other organic material builds up in the system, it's not like "nutrition." It's a nice way of saying "excess waste from the fish and other inhabitants." Putting in trace elements is probably not doing anything good for your tank and may be hurting it. So, you should stop dosing anything you can't test for. Really the only things you need to add to your tank are calcium and carbonate, and possibly some magnesium. Every other trace element is in the salt mix, usually in much higher concentrations than exist in sea water.

The flow issue is that if you don't have enough flow in your tank, the cyanobacteria can accumulate. It's really common on sand where you can't have alot of flow or you stir up the sand.

If you just added mh lighting, you're bound to have an algae bloom, as you're basically feeding the tank with way more energy via the light. Cyanobacteria is photosynthetic. Your tank will adjust to the new light eventually. For the time being just keep siphoning out what you can, try these mexican redleg hermits that Gary was talking about a while back, and maybe increase your tank flow with a couple of powerheads; remember in the ocean high light and higher flow go together in shallower depths.

[MattK]

try these mexican redleg hermits that Gary was talking about a while back


They haven't worked for me. I had an outbreak and they wouldn't touch the stuff.

[alton]

As Matt said don't add it if you don't test for it. All those nice looking bottles on the shelfs of our fish stores of trace elements need to be used with caution. Test if you need to add then add but don't add just because? Try a product called Chemi-clean, $14 to $19 bucks at your local LFS and follow it to the letter. One other thing is the fact our aquafer is dropping below 650', something that hasn't happened in a while. Which means our water quality around here is going to suck. As the aquafer gets lower the water quality gets worse. Even though we use RO it still isn't perfect, I think some bad things in the water make it past the filters?

[urban79]

well its only growing on a peice of rock and in my overflow.

[JimD]

If the tanks only six months old, give it more time to mature. As long as you're keeping up with water changes and making sure yor parameters are within acceptable ranges, you should see the stuff go away on its own.

[BIGBIRD123]

I guess I will say it before Gary does. The Chem-clean will help remove it but will not solve the problem that causes it. Once you find the cause, you can do something about it. I agree with most everyone that it is more than likely the nutrient load and flow. It is almost always a flow problem. Your tank is new. Under a yr is new. Give it some time and as Jim says keep up with the H2O changes and maybe cut back on the light period of the MHs. I had cyano for about 4 months when my tank was new. I had a cyano outbreak when I added MHs. It'll work itself out.

Steve

[urban79]

the stuff i have been putting in is idione and purple up and calcium. Every time i do a water change I put coral-vite. Is there somethen I should not be putting in. I never put in carbonate, magnesium. LOL dont even know what that is...

Bet your thinking DAM NEW BEES LOL

thanks for all yall help.

[demodiki]

You probably don't need the calcium and purple up together. I wonder what your alkalinity is.

[ou812pezz]

Check your skimmer. Once I adjusted mine and added a bit more flow to the tank, the problem cleared up.

[urban79]

with the calcium ,i put a alkalinity stablzer. Plus everytime I get my water check its not bad. Well I just bought other power head. That I put kinda low. where it seems to be growing. see if that works... Would a wave maker make things better. I kinda want one. But dont know if I really need one. Other thing at night I got my big power head turning off. So there at night I got my pump from wet/dry and uv pumping water. Do you think I should leave it on. I heard that you should calm your water down at night. Is that right.

[Instar]

They haven't worked for me. I had an outbreak and they wouldn't touch the stuff.

The tiny little Mexican Blue (not red) Leg hermits eat cyano if you really have cyano. Or the scarlet reef hermits will as well as a bunch of others. It takes a whole heard of them to form a good colony to do the trick though. The trick to algae control is a correct match in the species of animal that grazes on it with the kind of algae that needs controlled and the correct density of them per square foot of live rock. If the species was mis-identified by an inexperienced collector or supplier, then it's possible to get a mismatch that doesn't work.

[matt]

The crabs I'm talking about were the ones that Gary had that guy at the pet store on culebra order; they're definitely not the bue leg crabs or the typical scarlet leg with the really bright red legs. These have kind of a rusty red color, and they really ganged up on the cyano in my tank. I have a few of the blue leg (something tricolor I think) and the normal scarlet crabs; who knows what they eat. They seem to like eating each other, which I'm sure makes for interesting dinner parties.

[MattK]

The crabs I'm talking about were the ones that Gary had that guy at the pet store on culebra order

These are the one I have. I had a hair algae outbreak and they took care of that within days. I put them in a somewhat newly setup 30g. The outbreak was expected because it was a new tank. They worked great for that, but they won't touch the cyano. The cyano is slowly starting to recede. I manually removed as much as I could and then cut my light cycle back a bit and kept up with regular water changes. That seems to work, and as the tank matures all the extra nutrients will go bye-bye and so will the cyano.

[urban79]

I got couple of blue legs. I never see them eating it.

[kingfish]

Some good discussion here, but I am surprised that no one has mentioned phosphates here. Using Chemi clean is like a band-aid, it covers up/masks a cyano problem but does not fix the underlying cause of the algae. I would test your PO4 at a LFS or buy a kit. But keep in mind these kits only measure inorganic phosphate. I swear by the phosphate remover "Rowa-Phos." I use it even in tanks that read near zero PO4 and always notice a significant decrease in algae growth. I agree with everyone else about the flow, but simply adding another powerhead is not always the solution. An aquascape that does not allow flow around all of the LR can have stagnant areas that trap detritus fueling algae growth.

[MattK]

but I am surprised that no one has mentioned phosphates here


I was saving that for Gary :P

[urban79]

the growth is on a peice of rock. Right on the cornor in front. PLus in my over flow. thats the only place.

[GaryP]

I guess I will say it before Gary does. The Chem-clean will help remove it but will not solve the problem that causes it.
Darn, I have you guys trained well. I guess I can retire now. :)