How to rid your tank of Red-Slime!

saltyrich

Active Member
A few years ago I used some red slime remover. It is a yellow powder that you mix a very small amount with some of your saltwater. some argue that they would not advise putting any chemicals in their tanks. That is fine for them. I used this product however and had no ill effects and I have a tremendously diverse invert population, as well as fish and corals. nothing was harmed and the slime was as dead as a dorr nail in less than 48 hours never to return. I'd do it again too if necessary.
 

nickmetcal

New Member

All the above information is good and scientific and helpful and should work. Here's a method that I have used that has a lot of other benefits that I will explain.
As mentioned above this red slime algae (if you will excuse my lack of scientific naming - I"m an aquarist, not a biologist) is a healthy addition to your aquarium (and to general air quality and ozone and all that). Erradication of it is not a healthy solution. Control of it is what is desired. We don't want it coating everything in the tank and killing stuff and looking like a fish tank from hell rather than a small piece of paradise behind glass (or acrylic in my case).
The last thing that you want to do is to put in some kind of chemical to kill the stuff - NOT GOOD - The light method is good for a FO tank; In a reef aquarium there are things like anemones, various corals, and algaes that depend on light quality and duration to survive adequately. Of course some people do have a tendancy to leave lights on too long (timers are the key... you select the exact amount of time... don't try to remember to turn them on and off.... that's never gonna work). I would suggest that 11 hours of full light a day is just about right for a healthy reef.
OK, now that that's out of the way here is my solution. Part 1: Nassarius obsoletus snails - and a lot of em! I have an 85 gallon reef and I have 200 of these guys in there! They're awesome! during the majority of the day they are buried under the sand out of site (good for those of you who don't think snails are attractive). at night they come out of the sand and clean the glass for you (which is pretty cool in my opinion, although sometimes they miss a spot or two... guess they can't see the big picture like me
) They also will come crawling out of the sand every time you feed your fish and do an excellent job of eating any excess food that falls on the substrate and eating detritis in general. This helps your water quality in a huge way!
Part 2: Astrea snails! I have about 40 in my tank. These guys are great because they're a bit more attractive and they are hard workers (sometimes they will have macro algaes growing on their shells... kinda cool!) They tend to clean all the places where the other guys miss eg: LR! The will keep you LR slime free (almost)! When I had a problem with slime I would hand place these guys smack dab in the middle of the problem patches and let em go at it! They'de desimate the red slime on a medium rock in one day.
Part 3: about 20 little tiny hermits (never get big ones!!! Huge problems!) these guys not only keep the slime down, but they also graze on the hair algea as well.
Basically this solution is to keep critters in your tank that eath the algae which allows the algae to grow and benefit your tank without taking over your tank. Also the snails that burrow into your sand will help keep the substrate clean simply by moving it and thus slowing the spread of slime algaes.
The bio diversity of this method is very beneficial to reef tanks! just be careful that you don't mix things that kill eachother and things that you are trying to keep alive!
 
I gotta tell ya, Im about two steps away from looking at a chemical fix for my cyno problem. I have new lights...so that isnt the problem. I run my lights for about 4-6 hours a day since all this has started. So to much light cant be the problem.... I run a Euro-Reef skimmer 24/7 and empty the cup every couple days. Im running a fuge with Chaeto. The tank is a 72g bowfront tank.
20 nassarius
5 Astrea
5 Ceriths
2 Emeralds
1 Fighting Conch
1 Fire Shrimp
2 Percula Clowns
1 Yellow Tang
1 6-line Wrasse
1 colony of Clover Polyps
small patch of GSP
The lighting is 2 DE 150w HQI. I do 5g water changes weekly using RO/DI water. I feed the fish once a day, small amounts. Usually the fish have it all eaten within a min or two. I dont have any other algae but the cyno. It covers the rocks and in patches on the sand. My return pump is a mag9.5 fully open and 3 maxijet 900's in the tank. I am really frustrated with all of this. If anyone can give me some advice on how to fix this I would really prefer to fix the problem instead of using "medication".
Thanks guys....
:help:
 

razoreqx

Active Member
I used a product from Red Sea to get rid of Cyno in my setup. I have over 400g of water pumping through five display tanks.... About a year ago I treated it once and I have never had a problem since.
It was gone in two days :)
Just my .2
Jim
PS my inverts, fish and corals, and macro algae are just fine......
 

dskidmore

Active Member
If your determined not to use medication, you might try the following:
Up your skimmer output until the outbreak is over, runny white foam is less efficient, but pulls out more excess nutrients with the extra water.
Feed every other day instead of every, or half the feeding every day. (Resume what's best for your fish when the outbreak is over.)
Increase your snail population, if they don't eat the stuff, they will still stir the sand around.
Try adding a phosphate remover to your sump. Some people notice a big diffrence even if thier measurable phosphate is 0. Phosphate remover may not be a purely natural option, but it's designed to pull stuf out of your water rather than put it in.
 

nickmetcal

New Member
soccer, I would defenitely up your snail population... I have well over 200 snails in my tank (80 gal) and I am thinking of adding more. They will cut down on this problem significantly. do you have enough LR in your tank? also try adding about 30-40 of the tiny hermits.... they will crawl all over and help keep your agae down.
 
I currently have approx. 90lbs of Fiji rock. I dont have any green algae at all...if i do its so small the ceriths and astrea and keeping it down. or the two emeralds. I was trying to stay away from any hermits. From what i hear they only eat green/hair algae....and i dont have a problem with that yet. Please correct me if im wrong. Should i go ahead and add another fighting conch? How many snails do you think I should raise it too? I have heard alot about Marine SAT. I guess it is just another type bacteria, not a medication??? Anyone used this and had any results? My number one thing is my fish. I dont want to use anything that would harm them.
 

razoreqx

Active Member

Originally posted by soccer4life94
I currently have approx. 90lbs of Fiji rock. I dont have any green algae at all...if i do its so small the ceriths and astrea and keeping it down. or the two emeralds. I was trying to stay away from any hermits. From what i hear they only eat green/hair algae....and i dont have a problem with that yet. Please correct me if im wrong. Should i go ahead and add another fighting conch? How many snails do you think I should raise it too? I have heard alot about Marine SAT. I guess it is just another type bacteria, not a medication??? Anyone used this and had any results? My number one thing is my fish. I dont want to use anything that would harm them.

I wouldnt worry about your fish using those products. The main side effects i have seen from chemically fighting Cyno is drops in PH levels. The product I ended up using didnt effect my PH levels or any other "core" chemistry level for that matter.
I would however worry about any macro algae you might want to keep alive. Im not sure how it would effect them. Since I use Xenia in my fuge and not macro algae I wasnt worried about that.
I do have shaving brushes and flat plants as macro in my tank displays as you might have seen in the past. They all did fine during the process of riding the cyno.
My advice is this. Dont let something as stupid as red slime ruine a GREAT hobby for you. By god I want to look at a clean tank!!!! I spend enough of my time doing husbandry for everything else. Im not going to let some red bacteria spoil my fun :)
good luck.
Jim
 

mikeyb

Member
huge props to justin:happy: , totally awsome and imformative thread....i will be using your methods to try to get rid of the crap that has started to show up in my tank:mad: . thank you so much for the extremely insightful thread!!
 

fireemt_us

Member
This is a really good thread with tons and tons of good insightful information. I have been having this problem for a couple of weeks and even posted a thread about it with no real reply. I am going to experiment with some of the things I read here and let you know how I make out. Great thing we have going here, thanks for the information and al hale Jason
:happy:
 
C

capschamp

Guest
sorry for moving this up seems like a hot topic lately. people with red slime read this thing.
 

dskidmore

Active Member
I suggest providing links to this tread instead of the constant bumps. The thread won't stay on top for very long.
 

mary

Member
After being on several forums and discussing my problem with the "slime" scenario,was glad to come upon this forum. I am in agreement that not enough flow in the right area, and improper lighting and light exposure are the key elements to ridding myself of the problem. Do have high phosphates and nitrates, and am working on that issue. Got very sensible advice from the other forums but it does not hurt to read as many ideas as one can. Where the red slime is the worst is where I have the least, almost no flow, and that is on the sand bed and back glass and tops of glass on sides. That is a real problem for me because I haven't a clue where to put unsightly flow pumps with out disturbing a tank that has been tampered with too much. Also don't want to take space away from the fish who enjoy the ins and outs of the rock structures. Now I have a leather that does not open up unless there is at least 10 hours of light on it. Have ordered new power compacts with the correct balance of lights. Right now I have 6-96w., mostly blue, one daylight and one blue-red actinic for a 90gal. deep, with a 27 gal. sump. We will see if any changes occur when I add the new lighting. Have not been happy with this change in lights since they were put in 6 months ago. Have overheating problems which help to incur algea blooms. Am convinced that useing lights less will also help as well as feeding less which I was made aware of on other SWF forum. Thanks for this addition! New lights have flourescent and actinics, two, with 4-65watts. Gotta be enough!
 
Well, as my posts show...I have always wanted natural over Chemical...but I finally went with Chem Clean last fall and I havent had one patch of cyano again. Right after the treatment, my Xenia and Chaeto took off and now it looks great. My theory is that the cyano was using all the excess nutrients or whatever and was not letting my macro take off...now it uses it all and the cyano has none to grow on. So although I do believe you need to exhaust all options prior to chemical... you shouldnt be afraid too. Its best to get well without antibiotics once in awhile too, but sometimes taking them is the best way to get back in good health.
 
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