Cyno/redslime problem

[entice59]

First it started out with a little bit, i stirred the sand a little like people suggested, but that made it worse, now its spread out everywhere. Is there a snail/invertabrate to take care of this slime. My macro algae has slime on it too, and i thought they were supposed to help fight against it......guess i didnt have enough.
so yeah
Is there any invertibrate that can take care of this slime?

 

[entice59]

another pic

 

[entice59]

another

 

[fmarini]

I would recommend to you to use cyano or redslime as you call it, as an indicator. This is a warning to you that you have excess nutrients. So I would do a few thing, 1) increase water flow, 2) more water changes to lower nutrients levels, and 3) reduce feedings or biolad, and 4) remove visible cyano w/ a vacuum.
Once you have the nutrients under control the cynao will go away
AS a last resort and only after everything else has failed, you can treat the cyano w/ an antibiotic (like redslime remover) slime algae as you call it is actually a bacteria, its real name is cyanobacter. My personal opinion is not put your tank at risk by adding antibiotic, but somepeople have done it successfully and it does work well.
AS an aside, what is that white coral in the top 2 photos?looks like a gonipora-but the wrong color
frank

 

[entice59]

it actually is gonaporia, my dad bought the yellow one arrgggg i wanted the neon greenish one
thanks for the help
so once i do all that, is there something i can get that will eat this stuff off the rocks?
=)

 

[j21kickster]

hermit crabs love it- any sand sifting gobies will eat it too, but get a few hermits- they will go to work on it

 

[entice59]

scarlet reef hermits, ok? i have a small tank and dont generally other hermits eat stuff in the tank, like coral?

 

[j21kickster]

na- your blue legs and scarlet are reef safe - i would put a few in

 

[entice59]

cool, i was planning to buy some too, i already have one red scarlet but i cant find him, do you know how many can i add in my tank?

 

[j21kickster]

for a 15 i would probably go about 6-7- once the algae is gone just make sure to put a tiny bit of food for them

 

[hnf2k]

first...get trochus snails. they will do a much better job then hermits. some hermits wont touch it. cyno tends to grow on the glass also. hermits wont clean that either. get a few trochus snails. they work great. for keeping your tank clean. they are eating machines. just makes sure you have something liek a crab or something to clean the sand, because they will leave trails of poop. adding the antibiotic will get rid of it, but it wont cure it. it's like taking a pain killer if you have a torn ligament or something. it will mask your pain making you think you are fine and you will go out and destroy the ligament even more. in this case you will think your tank is fine when it isn't. like fmarini said, cyno is an indicator that you are having a problem with your tank. how old are you lights? what's your water flow like? how long are you tank lights on? what kind of water are you using? all adding the antibiotic will do is clear up the cyno, but it will still leave you with the problem of excess nutrients. they cyno will start to die off when all the nutrients are used up. how old is your tank? cyno is common in a new setup. also you said you stirred up your sand. i would advise against this. if i am correct it is not good to stir up a dsb. you want the sand to become live and by stirring it you are disturbing it. i think it's best to leave your dsb alone. do a water change or two. get a few trochus snails(from swf.com if you want). and use a higher quality water source. hope this essay helped a little.

 

[hnf2k]

o, sorry. i forgot to mention. the snails will tend not to help you much on the sand. get a few trochus snails for the rockwork and glass. for the sand i would get a few hermit crabs. they will eat any uneaten food that could be causing the excess nutrients. or any dead fish or anything like that. they might eat the cyno. in my case the hermits wouldnt eat it, but i never had it on the sand. mine was on rockwork and on the glass.

 

[entice59]

lights are 3 months old
the powerheads are pointing where they should be, on each end making a V formation
Generally i believe the problem started when my father, over fed my tank with live brine shrimp, i mean he used a lot when i wasnt around and my lights are on 8-10 hrs a day, i know thats long =
my water hasnt been changed in about a month and i changed it because an anomie died and clouded up my water, i think it caused my clam and my coral beauty to die =( i had the tank about 4 months
didnt know that about live sand, thanks for the info, im thinking about adding about 10 lbs of more live sand
do bumble-bee snails work well? but its 3 bucks at the lfs =(. Blue leg and red leg, is there a difference besides color?

 

[hnf2k]

8-10 hours i day i believe is fine. they shouldn't all be coming on at once. they should come on slowly. some corals release a toxin when they die. was your anemone venemous do you know? i dont know really know a lot about swf. i just know what has worked for me. my hermits are red legs i guess. but they are big. not the small ones. how many gph are you moving through your filter and how many powerheads do you have in the tank at how many gph each? how big is your tank?

 

[entice59]

i dont know how many gph, 15 gallon tank, the stuff is on the bottom of my threads if you need to know the info on my tank =)

 

[j21kickster]

im tellin ya- some crabs will clean it right up

 

[entice59]

i'll buy some when i have the chance later this week

 

[entice59]

ok i got 3 blue legged hermits and they didnt have the astrea snail thingy so i bought a bumble bee snail, they are soooo cool looking!!!

 

[entice59]

ok i offically cant find the bumble bee snail, though i think its alive, and the hermits do nothing but go around the slime....
thought the slime does not look much like slime anymore and looks like strands of hair and its thining out like its going bald, its mostly on the macro algae, i heard its good for fighting against cyno, but is it true? because already most of the cyno has transfered itself on to the macro algae, i dont know if its good or bad....