Red Slime on sand !! What is it?

[blue oasis]

We have had our tank up and running for approx 5 mos and started to see over the last 3 weeks this red slime over the top of our sand. We remove it by hand when it get too bad, but it always comes back.
We even added a 400 maxi jet to the bottom of the tank for circulation and it still shows back up. Any one wih a suggestion??
N & G

 

[bang guy]

It's probably Cyanobacteria. A search on "Cyano" should give you some good information.
IMO you probably have excess nutrients in your tank but you'd need a Phosphate test kit to know for sure.

 

[coachklm]

what he said

 

[just&ash]

what kind of fish do you have and how much do you feed them ?

 

[granny]

Oh Yeah,
It happens in the best of tanks!! A buildup of nasty stuff-phosphates and nitrates.
Heres the solution.
1. Large (at least 20%) done once a week with RO or distilled water.
2. siphon as much as you can, but breaking it up-spreads it.
3. If you are running a skimmer, bump it up a little so you are getting more effluent in your cup.
4. If you have a bio wheel or something like it-remove the bioballs-etc. You probably dont need them-and not if you have adequate live rock and a deep and or coral bed in your tank anyway.
5. Go to **************.com and key in TD-908171 and TD 908167.
They are pads you can put in your filter that will wipe out Red slime and hair algae.
If your nitrates continually run high, you may want to run Nitrex with a NItrate box in your system.
This works-IN a matter of days (assuming you have done the big old water change first and cleaned all the debris out of everything)
all that stuff will be gone!!

 

[ruaround]

you might want to change out your bulbs too... as bulbs get older the red spectrum is more previlent, which will spark cyano too...
do you run a skimmer???