Darn Algae, please help...

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New_Noob
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Darn Algae, please help...

Post by New_Noob »

:eek: :scared:

For a week now i have been getting really bad red slime algae (forgot the technical word) and i tried every thing, scraping, water change, more flow, but i just wont go away, its starting to grow on my rocks, what type of snail/Creature will eat this junk?? I already have 4 margarita snails, and one large mexican turbo snail.

I also have alot of deterius building up on the bottom of my tank, i have 7 ble leg hermit crabs (yeah i know im getting scarlets soon) one Fighting conch, a black sand sifting sea cucumber, and from what i'v seen little brisstle worms, Im kinda stearing away from snails because they are expensive where i live, $2 for a nassarius, $3 for a astrea, $2 for a cerith, etc, So im kinda looking for an invert (Urchin, star, etc)

Please help.............
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Post by snoopdog »

IMO the only thing that i have used to get rid of this type of algea is a filter sock. Tried everything and this is the only thing that worked on my tanks.
"When they was no meat we ate fowl, when there was no fowl we ate crawdad. And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand."--Cellmate
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Post by ShagMan »

Use a filter sock.
Use carbon.
Use phosphate sponge.

Do those three things, and I predict it'll go away on it's own.
-Josh Murrah
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Post by Snakeman »

get some Chemi-Clean or AntiRed and it will wipe it out in about 2 days. I really like the Chemi-Clean it does a great job getting rid of it. They sell it at B&B. It doesn't hurt any coral and promotes the grow of macro algae. I only had to use the Chemi-clean one time and the red algae never got a foot hold again.
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Post by Amyjoe »

Don't think they have a B&B in Wisconson
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Post by Scott »

I have never seen anything eat cyano (if that is what it is). If you could tell us some more about your system (size, skimmer, age,water parameters, etc.) it might help.

Running a phospate sponge and carbon can never hurt, might not help though. Different algae will show up as your tank matures, so it might be normal. The best thing to do is remove what you can for now. If it dies in the tank it will release anything that it used to grow in the first place. I am not that versed in cyano, but it is actually a bacteria so it must use something in the water to grow.
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Belothesurf
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Post by Belothesurf »

Waaas Up, New Noob............Nice to meet you........I spent several nice nights in Milwaukee, when I was stationed ib CHI town, back in 89,.......
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Post by Belothesurf »

...anyway, to get rid of the slime........look at your source.......silicates always feeds the slime.......use ro/di water.......that will eliminate much of the problem..............
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Re: Darn Algae, please help...

Post by Belothesurf »

New_Noob wrote::eek: :scared:

For a week now i have been getting really bad red slime algae (forgot the technical word) and i tried every thing, scraping, water change, more flow, but i just wont go away, its starting to grow on my rocks, what type of snail/Creature will eat this junk?? I already have 4 margarita snails, and one large mexican turbo snail.

I also have alot of deterius building up on the bottom of my tank, i have 7 ble leg hermit crabs (yeah i know im getting scarlets soon) one Fighting conch, a black sand sifting sea cucumber, and from what i'v seen little brisstle worms, Im kinda stearing away from snails because they are expensive where i live, $2 for a nassarius, $3 for a astrea, $2 for a cerith, etc, So im kinda looking for an invert (Urchin, star, etc)

Please help.............
How OLD is your tank??????
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Post by New_Noob »

Sorry it took so long to answer, my comp is screwing up. Im trying to steer away from chemicals, i havent heard of many people with succese using them. And i dont belive there is a B&B in wisconsin, anyways here are some specs,

Age - about 5 months old,
I have a 55 gallon long,
a 20 gallon fuge (Macros, mangrove,)
fuge is 1 month old
I was running a skimmer 24/7 sence i started, but a week ago i turned it off to see if that would help,
100 pounds of live rock,
3in sand bed,
Good water flow,
Ammonia - 0
PH - 8.0
Cal - 360 (yeah i know its low but i cant raise it, i dose but i wont go up)
Nitrite - 0

thats all i can think of.

Does anyone know what type of "creature" would be good for stirring up the sand on the bottom?
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snoopdog
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Post by snoopdog »

Stirring up sand ? Well depends on how much you want it stirred. A goby will stir it up so much it will make you sick. You can get multiple cucumbers and they will do it slower. Or maybe a sand sifting starfish.
"When they was no meat we ate fowl, when there was no fowl we ate crawdad. And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand."--Cellmate
"You ate what?"--H.I.
"We ate sand."--Cellmate
"You ate sand?"--H.I.
"That's right."--Cellmate
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Scott
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Post by Scott »

A queen conch for sand stirring is good.

You might test for nitrates and phosphates. Turn your skimmer back on too.

How are you trying to raise the calcium level? B-Ionic wont do it alone. I use Kent Turbo Calcium and it works good and is relatively cheap.
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Belothesurf
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Post by Belothesurf »

yeah, sand sifting gobies will stir up the sand, but they feed mostly off pods, and may not last long. I have limited experience with them. But I have a queen conch, bout 2 months, and I've not noticed a lot of sand stirring. But, she may like other stuff in my tank better.... The best sand stirrers I have found so far have been Nass and Cerith snails......and a big unknown hermit crab, about the size of a golf ball ( shell included ). Your tank is as old as mine, and I had one cyano outbreak, but I filled it up with tapwater, and then used distilled or RO/DI. You may have a different type of algae.......???????
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Brandon
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Post by Brandon »

I think I've determined my culprit to this same problem. It happened after my last water change. My filters were over 1 year old. Bought new filters, and it is looking better after the last water change. Probably high phosphates.
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Post by New_Noob »

right now i got a black sand sifting sea cucumeber and a fighting conch, Would a brittle star fish help?
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