Sorry I havent been around much guys and gals. Ive just had alot going on and been too busy with work. Thats no fun though.
Anyway, the title should make it fairly obvious. Whats the best way to get rid of this nuisance? Its just started creeping in but seems to be adding up fairly fast. I had some Phosgard in there for a little long and Im thinking it could have leached some stuff back in. But for the most part I have just been running Carbon and Skimming. Thanks in advance for any help.
John
By the way Ive been using Distilled water since I set the tank up about 4 months ago. Just figured you might need that. Also dosing with Bionics 2 part.
28 Gallon Bowfront Tank
35lbs Fiji rock (taken by Katrina)
50lbs Live Sand (taken by Katrina)
175 MH lighting
110watts of PC lighting
First of all phosguard by seachem won't leach back into your system. It will however exhaust itself so it needs to be changed now and then. Red slime algae is in fact a bacteria not an algae at all. Try increasing your current in the areas of cynobacteria ( red slime) it usually pops up when you have dead spots. Try using some chemi clean. Most fish stores have it and works really well if directions are followed. Try to remove as much of the bacteria manually as possible before using the chemi clean and do a small water change after treatment. You might have to dose it twice, but it will work. Just be patient and if you need any help just ask. Hope I helped.
THanks for the help. I posted here before doing any research, but after doing some I have gotten the same types of info. I will Chemi Clean a go. Thanks again.
John
28 Gallon Bowfront Tank
35lbs Fiji rock (taken by Katrina)
50lbs Live Sand (taken by Katrina)
175 MH lighting
110watts of PC lighting
Red Slime algae is really bacteria (cyanobacteria). This is not caused by phosphates. The natural way of ridding the tank of this is to first skim off as much as you can. Then do a 50% water change. Several smaller water changes will not work. You will never get the bacteria down low enough to catch up.. I expect the tank is less that a yr old and I has not matured all the way yet.. After the water change cut lights back to 4hrs a day for 4-5days then start bringing the lights up 1hr a day till back to normal. Also cut back on feeding some. Another suggestion is make sure you have a deep sand bed of at least 3-4in. This will let enough good bacteria grow to help prevent this problem..If you just cannot wait You can use a product called chemi-clean by boyd enterproses, inc... you can do a search on the internet for thier phone # or where to purchase. After using wait 2days then do the water change...Their are no short cuts...good luck...
If your tank has 100gal and 50ppm nitrates, a 10gal water change has the following affect:
This example shows that nitrates are continously it would take over a week to reduce the concentration of pollution in your tank 50% with such small water changes.
This doen't take into account that nitrates are countinuously added to the tank via waste coversion.
You need to do a 50gal. water change to be effective and add a DSB to prevent further nitrate buildup naturally.
The question is why did you get it in the first place..Is the clean up crew large enough? Is there enough current flow in the tank? Have there been overfeeding? It is real hard for red slime to grow with heavy water current. Move heads around to get rid of dead areas.
