red slime algae problem

[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.