Battling red slime

[Teeb]

I've been fighting cyano in my nano for over a month now. I'm looking for advice on what else to do. I've heard that lighting, high phos, and low flow all contribute to the problem. So I've been tried the following:

Bulbs in the cube were about 8 mos. old, so I just ordered new bulbs.

I had the pump backed down a little and hadn't been using my hydor flo, so I upped the pump to max (Minijet 606 160gph) and put my hydor back on there.

I've been dosing with Blue Medic red slime remover for 3 wks consistently. I'm doing large (30% - 40%) water changes every 5 days as well.

Nothing seems to be helping, I have pulled my phosban out (per medications instructions), but did stick some cheato behind the rock to help keep phos down. Any other ideas, I've already lost my GSP and some zoas and it's climing up rock and ****ing off my mini carpet nem. What else could be causing this?

[Europhyllia]

try Polyfilter by Poly Bio Marine - filters out all kinds of junk (including excess nutrients, phosphates, etc.)

[dmweise]

Chemiclean will get rid of it in a few days. I use it when it happens in my tank. At the very least it will knock it back.

[Gseclipse02]

Clean off what u can and do no lights for 2 or3 days

[justahobby]

Red Slime controls don't advertise the extent to which they work. Most of them are anti-biotics which kill the bacteria... doesn't matter wether its good or bad, it kills it. The tank needs good bacteria to fight off the nitrates that cause bad bacteria (purple slime). Lights off can help keep in under control. It sounds like you already have a good grip on the other things to monitor and ways of fighting it. If its cycling then sit back and make the best out of the ride. It wouldn't be unheard for this thing to take over a month to finish. As my signature says: only bad things happen quickly in this hobby!

[kkiel02]

My buddy got some turbos for his biocube. They cleaned it right up. Also a phosban reactor will help starve it to death.

[allan]

I was fixing to put in a phosban (still plan on it), but these are the steps I took to push it back. I had such a thick carpet of the stuff over everything that when I'd get home I would siphon out the debris that I would stir up trying to keep it off of my coral.

Anyway, none of that worked for me so this is what I did.

I increased flow (added a K4), after turning the lights off completely for two days. I changed the direction of one of the K4s (I have two) to agitate the surface area to increase oxygen exchange.... oh, and began feeding sparingly. This worked for me. I had it for about two or three weeks, but the above combination cleaned it up within three days (two with the lights out, and another day with the lights on and the last vestige of red slime disappeared.

That being said, I still have red slime in my overflow, not a lot but it's definitely there. I don't mind this since it actually helps eat the nitrates which helps cut back on my water changes. It's like I've always said, it's not that I'm lazy...

Hope your slime issues are taken care of brother.

[corruption]

Red Slime controls don't advertise the extent to which they work. Most of them are anti-biotics which kill the bacteria... doesn't matter wether its good or bad, it kills it. The tank needs good bacteria to fight off the nitrates that cause bad bacteria (purple slime). Lights off can help keep in under control. It sounds like you already have a good grip on the other things to monitor and ways of fighting it. If its cycling then sit back and make the best out of the ride. It wouldn't be unheard for this thing to take over a month to finish. As my signature says: only bad things happen quickly in this hobby!

I couldn't have said it better myself! To reiterate one of the keys here -- this is something that everyone, at some point faces. Cyanobacteria, simply put, is one of the oldest, most present, and invasive life forms on the Earth -- so simplistic that its been found to exist in periods before major multi-cellular creatures had evolved, so invasive that you can literally encounter it anywhere... From creek beds to streets after a rain, to fresh and salt tanks -- it is always likely present in some minor form.

The keys here are nutrient control. If your tank is new (Ex, under 6 months), you're likely still experiencing part of the natural progressive cycle of a new saltwater tank. If its more mature than this, look to nutrient export -- step up water changes, use Poly-Filter and/or Boyd's Chemi-Pure as a chemical filtrant. Move your rocks around and clean out your sandbed well.

Good luck!

-Corruption

[Teeb]

Should I completely remove all light or just not run my lights? As in, put a towel around the cube so no light gets in? Will this have any adverse effects on my already stressed corals?

[corruption]

I wouldn't go that far, just turning off the lights should be enough. Personally, I wouldn't turn off the lights myself, I'd just work towards exporting as much of the waste as I can -- good sized water changes, every day or 2 for a week or so. You should see a difference quickly.

-Corruption