RED SLIME

[cardsfan12]

Right before christmas I had an outbreak of redslime after I had unfortunatly neglected my tank for a few weeks. I then went out of town for another couple weeks and when I got home it was...well, out of control. Since then I've used "Red Slime Remover" and was impressed as you can actually see the progress as it just seems to disappear. However, I never completely eradicated it. I stopped using it because my mushroom corals seemed to be angry when I used it and I have since added a bunch of sps and lps frags. Other than the few weeks when the slime first showed up I do weekly water changes and finick around with the tank probably more than necessary. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this stobborn stuff? Thanks guys.

[joshman1204]

We really need to know a little more detail. What are your last water test results. What kind of cleanup crew do you have and how heavily is your tank stocked.

[cardsfan12]

ok here are my parameters

salinity:1.022

High range Ph: 7.8

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 0

I just bought Kent Marine aquarium pH-buffer to raise it to 8.2 ish. But the test i just did shows I'm not there yet. I guess while were at it let me know pointers with sps corals as well.

[cardsfan12]

I forgot to mention my cleanup crew. It's pretty diverse I think. I also forgot to mention I have a 140 gallon with another 30ish gallons in the sump.

As far as the substrate(mixed sand and crushed coral)

nassarius snails:2 huge "fancy", 5-6 white

Sand sifting cucumber: 1

Damond Goby: 1

I'm planning on getting a couple horseshoe crabs also to help stir up the sand bed. They might be the dumbest creatures I've ever layed my eyes on, but they are pretty entertaining, especially when they try to swim.

I have lots of scaret and blue legged hermit crabs alond with atrea snails. Probably a handful of emerald crabs a sally light foot. There is a cleaner shrimp and three peppermint shimps. I also have a lage didema urchin that goes to town on any algae in its path.

I'm sure I forgot ot mention something.

I've read that left handed hermit crabs will eat red slime. Is this good intel and are there any drawbacks to them?

[JamesR]

What is the make of test kit that you used? Also, don't use buffers to correct pH problems as this will raise the alkalinity. The Ph can actually fluctuate a little throughout the day and 7.8 is fine. Having an alkalinity that is too high can cause a lot of stress to corals.

Here is a run through of things to try. How big is your tank and give us a run down on your equipment

Red slime boils down to having too many nutrients in the tank. If you can control the nutrients you won't have much growth.

Adding more of a cleanup crew just adds more bioload that requires more food to maintain and can actually make the problem worse.

some suggestions

1). Increase the overall circulation in the tank. red slime doesn't like a lot of movement in the water.

2). Check the source of water you are using. Use RO/DI water or distilled for all of your make up water. If you are using RO/DI

change your membrane and cartridge regularly and inspect the water you are getting with a tds meter.

3). Do regular partial water changes and remove detritus as you see it.

4). Regularly clean, rinse or replace all mechanical filtration components. I find a weekly rinsing of all mechanical filters goes a long way.

5). Be careful to avoid over feeding.

6). Use a high quality activated carbon and change it regularly. So far I have used bulk reef supply's carbon and it is the best I have ever used.

7). Use Purigen and recharge it regularly

8). What skimmer are you using?

9. Consider using a good quality GFO and get a reactor. It will help lower the phosphates.

10). scrub down the affected areas with a tooth brush and siphon off all the detritus around it.

there are other things you can try of course but the main thing to remember is excessive nutrients are the problem. No nutrients no red slime.

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

Do you have a phosphate test? Others with more experience can chime in but what I've read and experienced is that phosphates really feed cyano/red slime more so than any other nutrient in the tank.

Nutrient export seems to be vital for controlling cyano growth combined with limiting import of nutrients into the system (ie- too much feeding, using non filtered water that is high in phosphates or anything else that lets nutrients build up).You need to figure out what the source of your problem is and then fix it, addind more CUC may not be the best fix.

I just fought a major cyano battle with my tank due to nutrient build up. After most of it cleared up I had a little bit of a return outbreak and I did a 24 hour black out on the tank and it all disapeared! It's been several days now and there's no cyano at all. It took about 2 months to get rid of all the cyano.

For export I used:

- fuge with chaeto

- phosguard (granular media, primarily absorbs phosphates, changes color when exhausted)

- polyfilter (absorbs all kinds of nutrients changes color when exhausted)

- pure filter pad (also absorb all kinds of stuff and has carbon with it)

- weekly 15-20% water changes

- limited feeding for the fish, went to every other day and fed lightly

**24 hour black out** only after the problem was already in check. I think I had a slight return because I changed my lighting and started feeding the fish heavier. My tank is adjusting to my new lighting and I eased back on the food for my piggy fish again. I DO NOT think a black out will work long term if you have not already gotten the nutrients feeding the cyano in check.

Liz

[muddybluewater]

For your clean up crew I would add 50 Cerith( if dwarf then 100) and probably 10 more nassarius. Check your Po3 and Kh. I have found that if I keep my Kh above 11 dkh my Ph never dips below 8.3 and my sps are growing great.

[Rjohn]

I recommend 3 days of darkness, and wrapping your tank in towels or a sheet to block ambient light, except for the top. It worked wonders for mine. You might want to pick up a fighting conch or two. Mine likes the stuff.

[Bill B]

For export I used:

- polyfilter (absorbs all kinds of nutrients changes color when exhausted)

- pure filter pad (also absorb all kinds of stuff and has carbon with it)

Liz

Liz,

Just curious what are these things, where did you get them and how do you use them? Are you running a HOB, canister or something?

Bill

[Rjohn]

Bill, you can get both filter pads from RCA or Aquatek but as always, it is cheaper online. Mark puts his in his outflow sock.

[Bill B]

I forgot to mention my cleanup crew. It's pretty diverse I think. I also forgot to mention I have a 140 gallon with another 30ish gallons in the sump.

As far as the substrate(mixed sand and crushed coral)

nassarius snails:2 huge "fancy", 5-6 white

Sand sifting cucumber: 1

Damond Goby: 1

I'm planning on getting a couple horseshoe crabs also to help stir up the sand bed. They might be the dumbest creatures I've ever layed my eyes on, but they are pretty entertaining, especially when they try to swim.

I have lots of scaret and blue legged hermit crabs alond with atrea snails. Probably a handful of emerald crabs a sally light foot. There is a cleaner shrimp and three peppermint shimps. I also have a lage didema urchin that goes to town on any algae in its path.

I'm sure I forgot ot mention something.

You don't have a bad CUC there, per se. I am curious what actual fish you have. Seems you would have to overfeed almost just to feed your CUC. Also James made a really nice list but I ALSO see people mention not using flake food.

Bill

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

Hey Bill,

Like Ric said you can get them at Aquatek, I've gotten mine at RCA (I'm kinda an RCA junkie I think). Of the two the polyfilter is the better product in my opinion. It will absorb a variety of things from nitrates/phosphates to chemicals like copper and other metals. The pad will change colors and let you know what it's absorbed. On the bag it has a chart to tell you if it turned this color it absobed 'X'. The pure filters are kinda all in wonder things. Absorb trates and phates, has a layer of activated charcole, basic mechanical filtration. I get those when the polyfilters are out of stock.

I keep mine in the baffles of my sump. I spaced the bubble trap/baffles about 1" apart when I built it. On one side I run phosguard in 2 plastic media containers (that I ripped off from a dual biowheel, they fit perfectly) and in the other I put the polyfilter. Doesn't inhibit water flow and all the water in my tank has to go through it so I figure it gets good exposure. I tell ya, the various media sure changes color so I know it's absorbing stuff. Yuck!

Interesting point about the flake food and I've read that several times now. During the whole process I got 'real' fish (vs. the big ugle monsters my tank came with) and decided to feed them the good stuff. I've switched to all frozen foods and nori sheets for my tang and angel. Not sure if that helped or not.

Forgot to add I also added a good skimmer! I'm constantly amazed at how much nasty stuff the skimmer sucks out.

Liz

[cardsfan12]

What is the make of test kit that you used? Also, don't use buffers to correct pH problems as this will raise the alkalinity. The Ph can actually fluctuate a little throughout the day and 7.8 is fine. Having an alkalinity that is too high can cause a lot of stress to corals.

Here is a run through of things to try. How big is your tank and give us a run down on your equipment

Red slime boils down to having too many nutrients in the tank. If you can control the nutrients you won't have much growth.

Adding more of a cleanup crew just adds more bioload that requires more food to maintain and can actually make the problem worse.

some suggestions

1). Increase the overall circulation in the tank. red slime doesn't like a lot of movement in the water.

2). Check the source of water you are using. Use RO/DI water or distilled for all of your make up water. If you are using RO/DI

change your membrane and cartridge regularly and inspect the water you are getting with a tds meter.

3). Do regular partial water changes and remove detritus as you see it.

4). Regularly clean, rinse or replace all mechanical filtration components. I find a weekly rinsing of all mechanical filters goes a long way.

5). Be careful to avoid over feeding.

6). Use a high quality activated carbon and change it regularly. So far I have used bulk reef supply's carbon and it is the best I have ever used.

7). Use Purigen and recharge it regularly

8). What skimmer are you using?

9. Consider using a good quality GFO and get a reactor. It will help lower the phosphates.

10). scrub down the affected areas with a tooth brush and siphon off all the detritus around it.

there are other things you can try of course but the main thing to remember is excessive nutrients are the problem. No nutrients no red slime.

I use API Master liquid test kit. As far as equipment I have a 140 gallon with a refugium/sump. In the sump I have a Precision Marine protein skimmer. I'm not sure the model, but I know that sucka works well(nice dark foam and my nitrates are nilch). When I bought the whole set up this is the one they recommended at the shop in Dallas I bought it from. If anything I would think they oversold me. I basiclly walked in and said I wanted this entire setup, tell me what to buy. So if they were much of a salesman they would reconize the blank check that walked in. For lighting I have a 24 hr lighting system with metal halides and power compact in the day and LED moon lighting.

I only use RO water and do weekly water changes. Every couple days I scrub the tank down with a mag float and a toothbrush.

Edited February 24, 2010 by cardsfan12

[cardsfan12]

I recommend 3 days of darkness, and wrapping your tank in towels or a sheet to block ambient light, except for the top. It worked wonders for mine. You might want to pick up a fighting conch or two. Mine likes the stuff.

Will my corals be fine with a black out for three days?

[cardsfan12]

You don't have a bad CUC there, per se. I am curious what actual fish you have. Seems you would have to overfeed almost just to feed your CUC. Also James made a really nice list but I ALSO see people mention not using flake food.

Bill

As far as fish, I have a yellow tang and a blue hippo tang, a sixline wrasse, a bicolored blenny, diamond goby, mandarine dragonette, two false perc clowns with a bulb anemone they've been flirting with for about 5 months but are yet to move in, two pajama cardinals, firefish goby, and a lemon damsel.

I forgot to mention with my CUC I have a green brittle starfish and a serpant starfish as well. I think I also neglected to mention the sally lightfoot.

[mFrame]

Will my corals be fine with a black out for three days?

Yes, everything should weather it fine, it's no different that a storm lasting for a few days over the ocean.

Be sure to do a significant water change after the days of darkness, otherwise you won't be removing the cyano from your tank, you'll just be shocking it into a temporary retreat.

[innate1]

I did it all. Red slime, rowaphos in a media reactor, as little feeding as possible, water changes, shorten the photo period, you name it. It wasn't till I did the black op that the red devil was/is gone. Lights out!!!!

[cardsfan12]

Awesome! Sounds like after the lights go out today I'll be blacking it out till Sunday. I'm going to hate it the whole time though. I stare at that thing more than I do the T.V.

Edited February 24, 2010 by cardsfan12

[Bill B]

Yes, everything should weather it fine, it's no different that a storm lasting for a few days over the ocean.

Be sure to do a significant water change after the days of darkness, otherwise you won't be removing the cyano from your tank, you'll just be shocking it into a temporary retreat.

IMHO everything may be fine, but don't be surprised if a few things are really pissed, especially if you have any zoas or palys that are a little slower to open all their polyps anyway.

Bill

[Bill B]

Ric and Liz

THANKS for the info. If nothing else for costs sake I am resisting putting every little absorbing, resisting, reducing, water quality improving additive in my tank/sump, but it might be interesting to check those out. I was not aware of various 'types' but I had seen these in HOB power filters, just not in sumps.

Bill

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

Keep resisting Bill unless there's a reason not to. I was fighting a full on phosphate battle and wanted to be fully armed. I'm the kinda gal that shoots a .44 magnum and likes it but has conceded to the fact that if I want to carry concealed I will need something smaller. Darn it.

I digress... my phosphates were out of control thanks to the nasty nutrient problem I inherited when I bought my tank. Once everything is totally under control I'll cut back to the bare minimum of chemical stuff necessary to maintain proper params. Ideally I'd like to just rely on biofiltration but I think that's a ways down the road if it's even possible.

Until then, I am considering buying stock in the company that makes phosguard!!