Phosphates......

shrimpdady

shrimpdady

Member
Folks, I just got a phosphate test because my red slime is rearing its ugly head once again after almost clearing up.
I tested my R/O water and the premixed saltwater I just got from the LFS and they both tested 0.
However, my tank water tested .5
Is this the cause of my red slime?
Is this a high level of phosphates?
What can I use to lower the phosphates that is reef safe?
I have already cut my feedings down and all other levels are perfect(Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, PH 8.0-8.2, Specific Gravity 1.026, and Temp 80).
I read on some previuos posts that some frozen foods contain phosphates.
The only frozen food I currently use is silversides(for BTA) and Prime Reef.
Please help!
 
granny

granny

Member
There are chemical additives/absorbents you can use to reduce the phosphate, but I am not sure that is the problem. The .5 is not overly high-though 0 would be great (not sure its possible in a tank with fish that we feed)
I have had this recurring problem in only one of my tanks-the one with the deep sand bed. It seems to be caused by anaerobic bacteria building up in the sand bed that grows like crazy when exposed to light. Neither my tank with the crushed coral, nor the one with no substrate have ever had red slime, only the one with sand. My personal opinion is that there are lots of dead spots in the sand where waste builds up and sand is a heck of a lot harder to clean then a bare bottom or CC. This is the first time I have ever used sand and it will be the last time. Supposedly with adequate aeration, there wont be a buildup of detritus, but I have 4 powerheads/pumps in my 75 gallon and there is always debris blowing around. If the lights stay off, the cyano does not grow, but with lights on, it flourishes. Right now, I am simply scraping it off the sand daily, cutting down the on time for my lights and have added phosphate pads to the sump-which contains no biomedia at all. Good luck!! My LFS says they think that, with time, this problem will take care of itself. There is no slime anywhere except the sand-not on any of the rock, thank goodness.
 
shrimpdady

shrimpdady

Member
Well, mine is on the rock and on the sand.
My LFS also told me that with time the red slime would go away, but I have had it for nearly 3 months!!!! :scared:
I can't take it anymore.
I have plenty of flow in the tank(was told this would help) but the red slime just sways back and forth in the current and I even think that it is laughing at me.

I have 2 maxi jet 1200's and 1 rio (300 GPH) in my 55 gallon.
Anymore suggestions?
 
granny

granny

Member
Do you also have a deep sand bed?
The only thing I can think of is to remove as much as you can every day. The stuff is too heavy for the siphon to pick it up. I just reach in and scoop it up in my fingertips, then toss it into a container. You do need to keep it off your rocks. You could use a small soft toothbrush and scrub with it everywher you can reach. The slime doesnt grow in the dark so you should be ok in the back and under your rock. Supposedly, the scarlet hermit crab eats cyano, so I bought three of them (and I HATE hermits) Havent seen one of them eating any of it. They climb all over the rock and do nothing in the sand. I spotted one of them today carting around the shell fromwhat used to be my cerith snail. The shell was much to big and looked better on the snail!
There are phosphate pads and you can add erythomycin to the tank,which kills it for a while, but also clouds your tank for about 24 hours. Can be purchased on line-they dont sell it on this site, but you can buy it at DRSfosterandsmith.com
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I had a red slime problem show up when I put an LTA in my tank. I don't know why it happened but I'm sure that the LTA caused the slime problem. I've since took it out and put it in its own seperate tank by itself. Within 2 weeks, the new tank also had the same slime show up. Mine is a reddish brown color. I've had to deal with the algae for awhile since removing the LTA from my main tank but it's almost gone after several water changes and constant scrubbing. Has anyone else had an anemone cause their tank to get covered in red slime?
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I just got in an order of LR from this site. Looks good... I still was getting a few spots of red algae on my old LR and so I pulled it out of the tank. I put it in a plastic tub with premixed water so that it will be quaranteened for awhile. It's wierd... I'm quaranteening my old rock while putting my new rock into the tank. I'm going to keep it isolated in the tub for awhile (probably a week if not two) and keep it out of the light. Then before I put my old LR back in, I'm going to scrub it down real well to remove any dead algae that is on it.
Meanwhile my tank has experienced nitrate for the first time. I tested yesterday and had a 20ppm reading. Ammonia and Nitrite were both 0ppm. I'm going to keep an eye on it and do a water change if it gets much higher than this. The rock is actually cycling in my tank... Bad, I know, but I'll get through it.
So anyway if I keep my algae contaminated LR in quaranteen in the dark for awhile, it should die off. I'm going to keep the substrate stirred and the filters clean to break up any patches that form over the next few weeks and then eventually, I hope, things will be back to normal.
 
stingrayjs

stingrayjs

Member
I have tried that with my live rock and it still came back after a few weeks. The only thing I can thing is creates spores to reproduce. Dont make hte mistake I made once, don't ever stir your substrate with a slime alge outbreak!!!!! I had an on and off fight with the stuff for 6 months. Completly changed my feeding, light schedual, everything. Every day I would suck out all that I saw but by night there was more growing. I had days of no light on the rocks to see if I could kill the stuff in another tank.
The only way I was to finaly get ride of it completly was do two small water changes a week, contiunaly suck out all that I saw, and I treated the tank with red slime remover. Once I remeoved all the slime I was able to see I treated the tank on the first dose, I didn't see any more come back under a normal light schedual. I treated 48 hours again just to make sure I got it all, and havn't see any since. I was down to no choice, I tried everything I could. I was very leary on doing t also because I have a reef tank and didn't want anything to die, or crash my tank. But I must say I didn't have any adverse effects. Just make sure to follow the directions carefully!
Everything on my system was perfect, filtration, flow, water quality, I mean everything. It was the dahmdest thing.
Good luck wiht it it was driving me insance and I know it is you also.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
What is this red slime remover? Brand plz. I'll look into getting some for myself.
 
shrimpdady

shrimpdady

Member
I have read that the freshwater maracyn has the same active ingredient as the red slime remover(erithromiacin) (spelling?).
Is this true?
 
wlong336

wlong336

New Member
I went through a bad cyno outbreak in my 15 gallon nano, and this is what my lfs recommended that I do.
Add this supplement
http://www.**************.com/Produc...&N=2004+112990
Use a short siphon to suck up as much of it as you can with minimal water loss on a daily basis. I found using just the tube and not the larger end of the siphon work the best because you can use your thumb to to stop the suction when moving about the tank (allows you to suck up more cyno without a lot of water loss).
When sucking it out or scooping it out try not to break it apart, any piece no matter how small will start growing quickly wherever it comes to rest.
They also recommeneded crabs but either the crabs didn't eat the cyno or it just grew to fast for them to keep up.
I did all this and the problem went away in about a week, but I still added the special blend weekly.
I also had a reoccurance after I moved and set the tank back up, got rid of it the same way.
Hope this helps
 
stingrayjs

stingrayjs

Member
It is true, but when I get home ill post the brand. I was going to use chemeclean, but you can't get it anymore it seems. What I have is exsactly the same thing just by another company. Ill post if here in a few hours when I manage to get home. It totoaly knocked out m problem after a good 6 months of fighting it every day. I was left with no other option sof I wouldn't of used it. But now i glad I did.
 
shrimpdady

shrimpdady

Member
I have a canister filter, not a fuge so whatever I use has to go in the canister filter.
It is an Oceanic brand canister filter and has two baskets for media.
Currently, it has floss and a bag of chemi-pure in the bottom basket and floss and a sponge in the top basket (I clean my filter every two weeks).
Can you suggest something better to put in here?
 
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