Red Slime Blues

[mike3843]

Hey everybody I need avdice. I have set up a 20 gallon via aqua tank I have 27lbs of live rock 1.5" of live sand a emperor 400 powerfilter and a small powerhead for circulation. The tank has been set up for 3 1/2 months now and for the past 3 weeks i have been fighting this red slime. I have tried chem clean and it goes away after a few days but just to reapear. I have tried water changes and even added calurpa. I use reverse osomses water and still no results. My lighting is a via aqua 2x 36 watt 1 actinic 1 7100k daylight. Am i missing something here My 30 gallon reef i never went through this and it is flourishing great. What if i let the red slime grow will it harm the tank or will it turn into another type of alge. By the way when i test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate . I have no ammonia or nitrite and nitate is 0.

[patsfan1130]

Hey everybody I need avdice. I have set up a 20 gallon via aqua tank I have 27lbs of live rock 1.5" of live sand a emperor 400 powerfilter and a small powerhead for circulation. The tank has been set up for 3 1/2 months now and for the past 3 weeks i have been fighting this red slime. I have tried chem clean and it goes away after a few days but just to reapear. I have tried water changes and even added calurpa. I use reverse osomses water and still no results. My lighting is a via aqua 2x 36 watt 1 actinic 1 7100k daylight. Am i missing something here My 30 gallon reef i never went through this and it is flourishing great. What if i let the red slime grow will it harm the tank or will it turn into another type of alge. By the way when i test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate . I have no ammonia or nitrite and nitate is 0.

Are you testing for PO4? high phosphate is commonly the culprit where nuisance algae is present. What are your feeding habits and what do you feed? PO4 is present in practically everything. Even when tests yeild an undetectable reading,you can be assured that PO4 is present. I doubt your lighting is the problem but what is your photo period? How about your substrate? what do you have?

poor circulation can also be a major contributing factor.

[Penguin]

Check the Emperor filter. IME it needs to be cleaned frequently, at least every month, preferably more often. A lot of detritus gets sucked in and collects inside the main chamber. If you haven't cleaned it recently take it apart and you'll be surprised at the amount of stuff you'll find in there. If you're using the biowheel part you'd also want to make sure that it's clean too. You can swish it around in tank water when you're doing a water change (not tap water or you'll kill the bacteria on it).Testing for phosphate and using phosphate removing media is definitely a good idea too.

[mike3843]

Check the Emperor filter. IME it needs to be cleaned frequently, at least every month, preferably more often. A lot of detritus gets sucked in and collects inside the main chamber. If you haven't cleaned it recently take it apart and you'll be surprised at the amount of stuff you'll find in there. If you're using the biowheel part you'd also want to make sure that it's clean too. You can swish it around in tank water when you're doing a water change (not tap water or you'll kill the bacteria on it).Testing for phosphate and using phosphate removing media is definitely a good idea too.

WIll i checked for phosphte and it read 0.1 so i think this is pretty low. anyu other suggestions

[big 5]

WIll i checked for phosphte and it read 0.1 so i think this is pretty low. anyu other suggestions

if your phosphte reading is at .1 think how high it would be without red slime consuming it
i rid my outbreak 6 months ago by uping my water changes to 2 x's a week = about 15 % a week instead of 10% 1 x a week
test your r/o water, whens the last time the cartrige(s) were changed
i also stopped over feeding my fish, beefed up my clean up crew and added more current. red slime in my tank grew more in less current
last i did was when doing water changes i vacumed the slime out of the tank