ok its offical I hate red slime

[thomasp]

I hate red slime more than just about anything.

I have an active fuge, I have a phosphate reactor, I do water changes 10% every week. I use rodi water exclusively, the tds of which measures zero, I have snails and hermit crabs in fact the trocus snails are breeding like crazy. I measure zero nitrate, phosphate and silicate. I have a mix of softies LPS and SPS and they are all growing and look healthy. In fact my birds nest grows about a 1/4 inch a week at each tip. My calcium is 450 my kh is 3.5 to 4 milli equivalents per liter. pH is always 8.2. mag is 1300. I do feed pellets to the 7 fish in 75/95 system and 3 to 4 time a week I feed mysis shrimp to lps and fish. If I slow that down any the inhabitants start feeding on corals etc. I have a mag 7 as a return pump and a korrilia 1 and 2 as circulating pumps. I have a mag 5 driving a remora pro skimmer in the sump/fuge and yet every weekend I need to literally scrub rocks with a tooth brush and siphon out the red crud and remove the top layer of sand with red crud. I do that so often that every 3 to 4 months I need to add back new live sand.

I have a 12 hour light cycle with 4 power compacts and two 5t for a total of 368 watts. I do change the bulbs every 8 to 10 months.

Have I missed something? or am just cursed by the devil of the red slime?

 

[IamRit]

Do you really need 12 hour light cycle? You may want to cut that down some. Move the flow to the direction of the red slim. Make sure you suck up red slime first before you do that.
Turn off your fuge for 3-5 days. Stop feeding your corals for a while. I never intentially feed my corals. They seem to grow fine.
This should help with your problem and good luck.

 

[tjm350z]

ALOT of water movement and shorter days of light like 6-8 instead of 12 helps ...atleast when i had it last yr thats what i did plus some big water changes for the next couple weeks

 

[thomasp]

I was thinking of changing my korrilia 1 for a 3. I took the three out and put in the one because it was blowing things around too much or it seemed so. I am hesitant about shorting the days as the corals are doing so well. in a year my ducan went from 2 heads to well over 20 now. my candy cane in 8 months went from 6 head to over 20 now. I bring 2 types of xenia and gsp to my lfs very two weeks or so. I just had to frag a frog spawn because the original stem broke under the weight of the new growth. I traded two three headed frogs for a red planet acro frag at the lfs. I think i will for a first measure replace the korillia 1 for the 3 and see what happens then. any other questions comments are welcome.

 

[kcarrol2]

+1 on the less light, at least until controlled and then move the lights slowly to a longer cycle.
I've got a new box of the Red Slime Remover I'd sell ya. Ended up not needing by reducing the light time. PM if your interested.

 

[thomasp]

I used the red slime remover in the past and the first time it wiped it out and it stayed away for a few months. That first red slime was very thin and wispy you could not pick it up with your hands. When it came back it was a thicker material that you could peel off rocks and sand. When I used the red slime remover the second time it turned the material brown for 48 hours. then I put the skimmer back on and put in some carbon and with in another 48 the brown got red again and I was back where I started. It was also a real pain as the skimmer went completely out of control for 3 days. I was advised to then to use a fuge and phosphate reactor which had almost no effect on the red slime. I may just have to learn to live with it.

 

[wicked demon]

More flow and water changes, less light and feeding, use red slime remover, it works.

 

[IamRit]

Combating red slime isn't difficult at all.
Demon make it sound simple which it is. Although I'm against using Red Slim till the last resort. I don't like using Red Slime because it is an antibiotic medication. It will undiscrimitely kills your good bacteria too.

 

[thomasp]

Well we will see what more flow and less food does and then I will entertain less light as I know my corals are all doing well with the light they have now

tom

 

[hawkfishman]

the pellets its the pellets man, and to much light can have a huge impact. on my 220 reef i was having red slime issues, i have almost 5 watts per gal. after i cut my lights from 8hrs to 6hrs its made all the difference with no ill effect to my corals and the tank is loaded. good luck!

 

[twinspots_goby]

I also agree that 12 hr light cycle is too long. try to cut it down to 8 hrs and see if it makes a big change along with a bigger portion of water change.

 

[wicked demon]

Although I'm against using Red Slim till the last resort. I don't like using Red Slime because it is an antibiotic medication. It will undiscrimitely kills your good bacteria too.

+1 if you use the red slime remover, you will have a nice brown diotome bloom after a couple days, also fixing the nutrient issue will ensure it doesn't come back in a month or two.

 

[mr_X]

It will undiscrimitely kills your good bacteria too.

it will not. i don't know how it doesn't but i have used it on customers tanks and my own and saw no spikes of any kind afterward.
used as directed it's completely safe. if your water is low in nutrients, the cyano will not return after the medication. if you feed excessively or have poor nutrient export, you'll see it again.

 

[Troylee]

get a better skimmer and your problems will resolve....i just dealt with a nasty case because my tank ran skimmerless for 3 weeks and the nutrients built up....flow didnt help i have a full blown sps reef and the slime was growing on the power heads... as soon as i got a real skimmer the slime was gone in 4 days with no treatments......no water changes no light reduction etc. just over skim and wala no problems....:)

 

[thomasp]

troy it is not really feasible to do that at this time. I made the sump/fuge too small so I would have to re-do it entirely.

 

[jjtruemper]

I think everyone has had a bout with the slime i think water movement and some big water changes along with persistent cleanings like with the glass anemones at first sight eradicate the enemy! A clean tank is a happy tank! I found you can feed just clean up after your self like crumbs on the floor attract mice...well u get it.