Red Slime Algae

[banditpowdercoat]

Just did a 3 day lights out in my tank, Cyano started to disapear in a matter of hrs. Alot of people do 3 days no lights every couple months. Doesnt hurt fish or corals. My torch still came out during the day.

[Whatigot]

I had a really bad Cyano outbreak in my new reef.
I just adjusted the flow so there was no dead spots at all and got pretty religious about siphoning off all detrius and Cyano and replacing it with clean ro/di water.
Took a week of care and about 70 gallons of water changes but as of this weekend there is barely any cyano and what is there is diminishing.

[bv_reefer]

had it once, and it was always in deadspots, added another power head, siphoned it out and used that blue vet red slime remover and never seen it since, my bulbs were about 8 months old at that point i believe, i'm pretty sure I've read alot of times that as you're bulbs age, there switching spectrum becomes more favourable for nuisance algae growth. makes sense i don't see a single strand of any algae under 20k's

[Joe Reefer]

I read in the zeovit guide, that if you dose coral snow and zeobak mixed together it will eliminate cyano.

[supersmile]

My bulbs are brand new......I just changed them about a month ago thinking that might have been the problem. I also added a power head. My tank is only 44 gallons and I have 1 powerhead. Do you think I need another powerhead? I am also battling really dirty sand. Even when I do a water change every 2-3 weeks. Do you think these 2 problems are related?

[bv_reefer]

bulbs are definitely not an issue, are you running a skimmer at the moment? 1 power head isn't all that much for a 44-gallon imo, for now just try to position the power head as best as possible so the tanks getting even flow, just my 2 cents

[ElGuappo]

Originally Posted by bv_reefer

bulbs are definitely not an issue, are you running a skimmer at the moment? 1 power head isn't all that much for a 44-gallon imo, for now just try to position the power head as best as possible so the tanks getting even flow, just my 2 cents

Agreed.....

i added a korialia 1 and nano to my 34 G rsm as there was little to no flow on the front of my rock face. the korialia 1 is behind my rock face to blow out debris and the koralia nano is pointed at the front of my rock face.

I keep meaning to get pics when i do maintanece so others can see. i have been asked to do this on another board and have just forgotten. the reason being is that I built my rockscape around the Koralia to ensure no POOp would end up settling behind my rock wall. ( I ABSOLUTLY LOATH SIPHONING)

[Gordon H]

From what we have been able to learn, red slime algae is primarily the result of too many nutrients in the tank. We are struggling with it now. We have been reducing our feeding and increasing frequency and volume of water changes. We also added a few brittle star fish to supplement our clean up crew. It seems to be going away in line with our reduction in nitrates (got pretty high for a while). Also, we just picked up two orange spotted sand-sifting gobies, and those have been helping us get rid of it - and they're cute to watch while they work.