Slime Taking Over>>help!

[chris1121]

I am having a serious problem w/slime algae taking over my tank. I have a 7 month old 45 gal. with a remora skimmer, canister w/ carbon(cleaned once a week replaced once a month) I also run phos buster in the canister.I have 2 rio 600's and the canister return for flow. My lights are 2x65 pc's on timers 9 hours a day. My chemistry seems good. Its a mixed reef w/ buttons, mushrooms, 5 turbos. I manually vacuum the slime out once a week but it returns worse. Can someone help a stressed newbie out...........

[lcstorc]

Sure.
The only way to get rid of it and keep it away is to fix the root of the problem. The root of the problem is excess nutrients in the water. Even if your test show 0 that just means the cyano is eating the excess nutrients.
Several things to look at or try.
Test your source water for both nitrates and phosphates. Test the water before and after you mix the salt in. If you read nitrates or phosphates find out if they are coming from the water or the salt and fix the problem.
Rinse all food in RO/DI water prior to feeding. Most prepared foods use phosphates as a preservative so every time you feed your fish you are adding phosphates. You can rinse flakes or pellets by gettin a fine strainer.
Feed less. You like most of us are likely overfeeding. Cut the feeding in half. I can almost guarantee you are feeding double what they need. I know I am guilty of this and have the occasional issue even with my oversized skimmer etc.
If the bulbs are old, replace them. Old bulbs change spectrum to one that promotes cyano growth.
Vacuum as much out as you can with every water change. Every bit of cyano you remove you are removing the nutrients it has absorbed.
Do more or bigger water changes.
If you are feeding DTs or other liquid food, then quit or at least cut way way down. Most of them are major poluters of the water and will increase the problem.
Hope these things help. The quick fixes are just that. They may get rid of it temproarily but it will be back. Also they all drive your skimmer nuts for weeks at a time.

[chris1121]

Thanks for the help, I will try your suggestions. My pc's are about a year old should I replace them? Also I like to do my water changes once a week(5 gals)
Whats a safe amount to replace without stressing out the inhabitants? Can I do more?

[tbittner]

5 gal is 10%, you can do up to 50%

Point a PH at the area where the slime builds up. That will break it up and feed it into your filter for removal.

[chris1121]

Thank You.....

[chris1121]

Lynn,

After reading your post, I decided to do a little detective work. I tested for nitrate and phosphate before and after adding salt to my r/o water. The tests showed a phosphate reading 0.5 after adding the salt.(I'm assuming that much is ok) Then I tested one tiny flake of food for phosphate. The tube turned the darkest blue I've ever seen!! I also tested frozen brine shrimp, very high phosphate reading. Whats my next step? Should I change salt mixes? Rinsing the food w/ r/o water didn't seem to help, so I will cut down on food amounts and turn off ph's during feeding.

[Tonz of fun]

Originally Posted by chris1121

Lynn,

After reading your post, I decided to do a little detective work. I tested for nitrate and phosphate before and after adding salt to my r/o water. The tests showed a phosphate reading 0.5 after adding the salt.(I'm assuming that much is ok) Then I tested one tiny flake of food for phosphate. The tube turned the darkest blue I've ever seen!! I also tested frozen brine shrimp, very high phosphate reading. Whats my next step? Should I change salt mixes? Rinsing the food w/ r/o water didn't seem to help, so I will cut down on food amounts and turn off ph's during feeding.

Sounds like you are dealing with the same things i was just dealing with... I replaced my bulbs and ro filters. And I now rinse off my food before feeding and that seemed to do the trick.

[lcstorc]

Rinsing the food with RO should decrease the phosphates there. Try soaking it in RO and then rinsing.
I would also start using Phosban or Rowaphos. If you have a reactor for it then great but even running it passively will help a lot.
I wouldn't consider .5 with the salt to be acceptible. What type of salt are you using? You may have gotten a bad batch. It would also be a good idea to take samples to the LFS to confirm your results.

[chris1121]

I've been using oceanic salt.

[Newbie]

Chris,
Like yourself I was just struggling with a Cyano outbreak for the better part of a month.
It seems as though ours came from the tap water, although some have successfully used just tap water.
We switched to buying bottled RO water until I can get a unit, and also I took the advice and took out the baddly breading LR and scrubbed it down in a separate container of saltwater then rinsed it in a separate container of saltwater. That really helped me.
The Cyano is just about completely cleared up now (knowcl on wood). There is still a bit in the bottom that we are working on but it has stopped "taking over" sort o speak.
Lynn has some really good advice and has helped me out several times along with alot of the others here! Take their advice trust me!
Good Luck.