Red Slime Algae... Who eats?

[sandy]

Will a lawnmower blenny eat red slime algae? What will it eat when it eats all the algae? Would it leave enough algae for the queen conches? lol
Someone said cerith snails, but my lfs does not have any . Just looked it up on Google Images and I have one small one, but it doesn't go to the red algae. It was a hitchiker on LR.
I don't want to add more fish... maybe a lawnmower blenny *if* it would be okay and *if* it would get along with the scooter blenny & sleeper goby.
What other options? I don't really want to blow it off the rocks, what a mess. It is not out of control yet... just growing and growing...

 

[wisconsin reef]

I have never found or heard of anything that will eat red slime I have always use red slime remover and it works very fast sould clear your tank up in two to three days it will run you about 20.00 bucks at you pet store good luck

 

[sandy]

What is this stuff made of? How does it work? Gee, I'd rather *not* put "sutff" in my tank. Hmmmm... Thanks, Ill try blowing it off the rocks and/or try this product.

 

[wisconsin reef]

you have seen my tank it is very healthy and i have use it in my tank alot times without killing anything off the only thing you will have to do is rasie your air flow in the tank it will not harm the good alge only the red slime

 

[richy rich]

The lawn mower wont eat it but the mexican turbo will

 

[sandy]

Okay,well I took out the offending two pieces of rock. Quickly submerged them in buckets of change out (good) saltwater. Blew off the red algae with a powerhead and returned the rock to the tank. Everyone seems fine. Rocks are a bit less colorful now ... but didn't lose the real good stuff (Corraline all over the place).
Lower bio-load and good r/o di water should keep it away. If not I'll invest in the stuff to put in the tank. Anti-Red I think. I'm just flat broke at the moment.

 

[teetee]

Apparently cowries will eat red slime. Don't know for sure. Maybe someone can verify this.

 

[me-n-my-fish]

If you use an antibiotic it will kill the good with the bad bactira. Also, if you use it alot some bactira will start to become immune to it. Think about the humans who use it, the doc's tell us to make sure we complete the subscription, or it will not be as effictive next time. Same with fish. If you dose with an antibiotic all the time your fish will "get used to it" and when they really need it, for an infection or what ever, it will not be as potent.
IMO...

 

[crispcritr]

i have used the anti-bac.it called red slime remover. i also have many soft corals in the tank. no ill effect, but i did use half the dose. worked great two days and the red slime was gone. if anti bac. would have killed the good bact. i think i would have seen an ammonia spike. could be wrong about the spike? so far everybody is great. good luck

 

[stupid_naso]

I'm trying so hard right now to remove this RED ALGAE . I bought 5 cerith, 2 big mexican turbo. No change. It's all over the place. People have said that chemi-clean works great for killing cynobacteria, the bacteria that increases the growth of red slime algae. My LFS also recommended it. I'll try it as soon as I have the time to go to the LFS.

 

[shnookums]

I too have been battling some red slime algae. I recently went in the tank with a toothbrush and brushed the rocks off, and vaccumed. I also set one of my powerheads down towards the bottom of the tank blowing parallel to the substrate to keep foods and detrius, etc. supended so the filter and skimmer can collect it. That has worked pretty well for now.

 

[mixmaster]

Sandy,
Regardless of what anyone tells you I've found from my fish keeping experience that the only thing that will get rid of red slime is proper water chemistry. You really must get rid of all those phosphates, and keep your alkalinity and PH straight. I use Kent Marine Buffer religiously, and almost every day to keep it out of my tank. There is absolutely nothing that will eat it regularly. There are some critters that will try it here and there, but gravitate to the other algae in the tank. Since I started reefkeeping, I've realized that the ONLY way to keep it down is to use RO water that has absolutely no phosphates and do at least bi-weekly water changes. In addition to that, keeping your calcium high if you have a reef will help too. GOOD LUCK! It's a chore, but well worth it for a beautiful tank.
Mike

 

[dinhouse]

Rianford goby and I seen one of my queen conchs eating on it one day.

 

[thehat]

I have been battleing the green form of the red slime algea for 4 months. I scrub the rocks vacuum it out and have a phospate spnoge do weekly water changes lowered how long I keep on my lights dont feed the fish as much, used multiple medicines and have added more current. Still cant get rid of the stuff. I have it controlled but it wont completely go away

 

[Lincoln Smith]

My LFS owner told me to take the rocks out that have red slime on it and run it under lukewarm water in your sink. Dont leave it under water till its gone all you have to do is run it through wait a few seconds and run it through till the build up is gone. The rock will be stained and thats why he gave me chemiclean to use for the stains.

 

[geridoc]

Erythromycin-containing treatments will generally kill cyanobacteria (red slime algae), without harming the gram-negative beneficial bacteria in a marine tank. However, if the underlying conditions that caused the outbreak in the first place are not remedied the red slime will return. The keys to long term control are very low phosphate and nitrogen compounds, as well as water movement. Patience is also a necessary part of the treatment!

 

[pegasus]

Erythromycin-containing treatments will generally kill cyanobacteria (red slime algae), without harming the gram-negative beneficial bacteria in a marine tank. However, if the underlying conditions that caused the outbreak in the first place are not remedied the red slime will return. The keys to long term control are very low phosphate and nitrogen compounds, as well as water movement. Patience is also a necessary part of the treatment!

+1. I've used Chemi-Clean a couple of times with no side effects. I always under-dose, so the cyano eventually returns, but at a much slower rate. I have small patches that pop up on rocks, and a light dusting on the sand, even though there's pretty decent flow across these areas. I recently added a dual GFO reactor. Currently, NO3 @ .5 ppm and PO4 @ .16 ppm, so I should start seeing an improvement pretty soon. At least I hope to...

 

[beaslbob]

sandy

Glad the dipping of the rocks helped.

I would not use the chemicals as they are antibiotics.

what would help is really quite simple. Just kill the lights and suspend all feedings.

The cyano will die off (and much faster then the corals and macros) and return the nutrients back to the tank the macros and corals need.

You then resume with say 1/2 lighting and feeding and adjust to the macros/corals/coralline thrive but the cyano doesn't come back.

You basically rebalance the tank to favor the macros/corals/coralline over the cyano.

my .02

 

[silverado61]

sandy

Glad the dipping of the rocks helped.

I would not use the chemicals as they are antibiotics.

what would help is really quite simple. Just kill the lights and suspend all feedings.

The cyano will die off (and much faster then the corals and macros) and return the nutrients back to the tank the macros and corals need.

You then resume with say 1/2 lighting and feeding and adjust to the macros/corals/coralline thrive but the cyano doesn't come back.

You basically rebalance the tank to favor the macros/corals/coralline over the cyano.

my .02

That's basically what I did to get rid of mine. It works. Gave my algae scrubber time time established.