Red Slime Looking alge?

[gene52569]

I have this redish brown slime on my glass on my tanks. I reach in and wipe it off and in a week or so I see it starting to come back. The folks at the store I buy my fish from can't seem to tell me what it is. I have green and purple alge on the back of my glass, I want that to stay. I only want to get the red stuff to go away. Any idea's?????????
The tank that has a power head in it does not seem to get the slime as bad as my smaller tanks.
Eugene in Northern Georgia

 

[tlk]

How big is the tank and how much water circulation do you have?

 

[gene52569]

I have a 10 and 29 gallon. I went out today and put a power head in the small tank, the 29 already had a power head. Both pump 160 gph. I also wiped off the glass on both tanks. I feed the fish once a day. Is that to much??

 

[tlk]

According to what I have read, you want to turn the water over a minimum of 5 times per hour. With the larger reef systems, people go up to 20 times an hour.

 

[sammystingray]

I run 27 times turn over on my 90 with 6 pumps.......red slime (cyanobacteria) actually has to create anaerobic conditions for itself....AKA the lack of oxygen, to survive. Good water movement keeps the tank high in oxygen, and cyanobacteria can not deal with good flow and high oxygen levels very well. I personally believe a tank with just one powerhead is hurtin' Cyanobacteria lives inside of just about all plant type creatures, but they live inside.....where there is no air. Cyano outside in the open is an obvious sign there is lacking oxygen exchange.....it can not live in oxygen rich areas, and must acheive anaerobic conditions to survive.

 

[finfin2003]

This post was very helpful to me
Thanks to sammysting I am aware more of what might cause the same thing in my tank.
I just hope I can get rid of the stuff, there is not a lot of it.. but I dont want to disturb anything!!!