red slime algae problem

[jpond83]

i have been fighting red slime algae for a couple weeks now. i do water changes every 2 or 3 days, i syphon it out almost everyday and it just comes back the next day in full force. what can i do to get rid of it? this is realy starting to get on my nerves.

[mharmon]

I expect that you do not have adequate flow in the problem areas or that perhaps you have older bulbs in your fixtures. I believe that it can also be a problem related to overfeeding or food rich in phosphates.

I'd stay away from any additives that claim to deal with this. Better to identify the root cause and avoid chemicals that could be deadly.

[JimD]

Need more info on the tank, ie: flow, feeding, lighting, FLOW, sandbed, refugium, FLOW, fish, skimmer, water for changes, did I mention FLOW?

[msmith619]

Need more info on the tank, ie: flow, feeding, lighting, FLOW, sandbed, refugium, FLOW, fish, skimmer, water for changes, did I mention FLOW?

I agree with the above but, usually the problem is over feeding, or using water with too much phosphates, etc. Use only RO/DI water and stop feeding a few days or, cut the feeding way back might help.

[ErikH]

You could have trapped detritus building up in your sandbed, which is the reason flow is muy importante. How big is your clean up crew? You may need a refersher there. Do you have alot of pods?

[jpond83]

i have a koralia 1 and a rio800 with the spinning attachment, a 250w 14k MH(bulb is only a couple months old), no skimmer, 2 hang on back filters, i feed once a day and they eat it all. i have a maroon clow, fang goby, domino damsel, and a scooter blenny. tank has been up for about 5 months or so with no problems up until recently.

[JimD]

Im betting on the hang on filters as being part or all of your problem. What kind are they? Remove any filter pads or clean them well and regularly so they dont leach organics back into the system.

[ErikH]

what sized tank? how old is it? Is there a sump? Macro Algae? DSB?

[jpond83]

one has a filter pad and the other one is full of live rock rubble. i clean the pads about 2-3 times a week

[ballardjr2000]

no sump by the sound of it....also no skimmer i run a skimmer you can get hob ones that work good. i had some slim alage problem when i first set that up but my macro beat it out as well as skimming. to remove disovled "stuff" in the water. also if you don't have light needing corals kill the lights the fish can live with out light but the alage can't. and as everybody says water change water change water change....and you might want to kick up your sand bed when you do to get anything trapped in there out. also a good clean up crew helps a lot. i have 20 hermits 20 snails and already about to get more.

[jpond83]

i have alot of zoanthids and soft coral they are growing alot faster under my MH

[mikedelgado]

I had a bout with that stuff awhile back. It was getting pretty bad.The cure for me was removing the trapped detritus

[corkyGramma]

i have been fighting red slime algae for a couple weeks now. i do water changes every 2 or 3 days,
That may be too much diluting, remember that you also remove nitrifing bacteria when you do a water change. Thus causing an ammonia spike.

You also mentioned that your tank is only a few months old. Every tank will go through a cycle of all 3 algaes before the system is considered established. Many people get stuck on the cyano bac or the later hair algae stage and quit the hobby. There are many ways to naturally fix the problem. You checked your feeding habits, your nitrates are now more or less 0; the trick is to successfully export the bacteria out of your system. 1) reposition your powerheads so that they pull water from low flow areas like back behind the rockwork or in the corners 2) buy some polyfiber and stick it in front of your carbon filter (this stuff is meshed more finely together and will pick up the cyano that the other filter media missed). 3) get a turkey bastor and blast off the cyano off your rocks and sand 4) change out the polyfiber daily and rinse your carbon daily.
You'll see a big differance in a couple days.

[jpond83]

how often should i do water changes then? i actualy built a sump out of a 10g but it was 1/2" too long to fit under my stand. i had a skimmer but got rid of it due to the fact i didn't have a sump.

[corkyGramma]

Normally people do a change once a month 10-20% of water volume. If you have more than usual pollution you would do it twice a month. If you have an emergency situation once a week. For example, a 50g tank that has a phosphate problem...do a 5g water change 1-2 a week because 50/10 gallons per week is a 20% total waterchange for the week.
At this point you've done so many changes I would concentrate on getting the slime out of the system via the filter.

[dclegern]

Just got rid of my red slime.... dude at 'fishy buis.' in austin sold me a little container......"bad *** stuff"

Just be careful if you have a skimmer. it'll go berzerk when you turn it back on....... but red slime and algae is gone baby gone!!!

[danvan75]

adding bigger powerheads and a pouch of phosban, cleared up all of my red slime. I would say the biggest improvement happen after i added more flow with the bigger powerheads.