Ughhhh, im so fed up with this!

yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
ok here is my problem , i have a 40 gallon breeder tank and i have 50 lbs of lr and aragonite sand, the kind with the small shells in it. and i have 192 watt coralife 50/50 bulb. i have a sixline, a false perc and a gold midas blenny.my tank has been established for around 4 months. i have a hammer coral,zoo's,shrooms,and gsp's.so here ius my problem, i do a 25% wc every moth and since around a moth inot my tank being setr up i have had which started out as a small case of red slime which grew to the whole back of the tank on the sand and is making its way to hte front. sometimes i lightly mix the top layer of the sand every week or so. if a day or to it looks like i did nothing to it. I CANT GET THIS STUFF TO GO AWAY!!!! i have tried everything.
1)have a cleanup crew of 2 turbos, 5 astrea's, 20 nassarious,3 fighting conchs.
2) once kept my light off for an entire day
3) suctioin the slime during the wc.
4) glass top was removed and egg crate was switched to exchange gasses.
i have used distilled for about 3 months but then i swithed to ro water for the last month and im continuing to use it. I CANT GET THIS STUFF TO GO AWAY!!!!. do any of you guys have any suggestions that are reef safe that will get rid of my slime problem? also would a few sand sifting stars be ok , ive heard mixed opinions on these guys to do something about the sand bed. please someone help me!
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
no i dont have any macro's or a refugium. i am looking into a 20 high refugium though. do you think will will give an impact on the slime because it is a 20 which isnt very big? also what shoulkd i put in the refugium? i have been struggling with .1-.2 phosphate levels
 
aldog51

aldog51

Member
You should have a fuge for reduction in bad levels of nitrates and phospates. You should put some form of substrate like sand or mud... I use miracle mud, and then throw in some caulerpa.. that is a type of macro that will grow quickly if the light is kept on a 24 hour basis in the fuge. Keeping the light on the fuge on for 24 hours will also ensure less ph spiking at night. Once estblished you can throw in some hernits and snails for the excess growth of algae in the fuge.
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
i remeber bang guy posted back on one of my slime threads and he said that anytank such as a refugium that doesnt have at least a 2ft square base is hard to keep an established dsb. is this true? also i heard that culerpa can release bad stuff into your tank...is this true?
 
benj2112

benj2112

Member
If you are struggling with phosphate then you might want to put a fluidized bed filter (like the phosban 150 or a DIY if you are good with your tools) in your fuge/sump with Rowaphos in it if you go that way. Do a search for phosphan 150 or fluidized bed filter and you should find some good info here.
 
benj2112

benj2112

Member

Originally posted by YellowTail
i remeber bang guy posted back on one of my slime threads and he said that anytank such as a refugium that doesnt have at least a 2ft square base is hard to keep an established dsb. is this true? also i heard that culerpa can release bad stuff into your tank...is this true?
The 2ft dsb question: Dr. Ron Shimek has stated things like this before and if I remember right says it is hard to keep a dsb long term in anything smaller than a standard 30 gallon tank (not tall).
Culerpa can go sexual on you and release "bad stuff". A good macro to go with is chaetomorpha. It doen't go sexual.
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
so that is spaghetti pretty much? also what amount of lighting would i need and with that how many hrs of daylight should i have?
 
benj2112

benj2112

Member

Originally posted by Magic_Carp
caulpre can go sexual, it will release all the bad stuff that it collected over time, this can/will crash your tank. it would be better to use Chaetomorpha, this doesnt go sexual but it likes higher light, and a night time period.
Buy Chaetomorpha
Ahhh....Magic_Carp was faster on the draw with me on that one. :)
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member

Originally posted by YellowTail
so that is spaghetti pretty much? also what amount of lighting would i need and with that how many hrs of daylight should i have?
.
 
benj2112

benj2112

Member

Originally posted by YellowTail
so that is spaghetti pretty much? also what amount of lighting would i need and with that how many hrs of daylight should i have?
I have mine on for about 16 hours over night.
 
benj2112

benj2112

Member
Amount: Kip has said it like a bit more than Caluerpa. I have an older 55 wat pc on mine and it is growing great.
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
no, you mis under stood me................... i mean do you do like
30 min actinic in morning then 15 hr daylight then 30 min actinic at night again?
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
your getting closer
but here is one more shot. if you are farmiliar with reefs then you know how in the morning and at night you do straight actinics to get your fish and corals ready for daylight. do you do that or do you go from nothing lit in your ref. to your daylight?
 
yellowtail

yellowtail

Active Member
if i still got the 20 high and did 55 watt 50 50's and some spaghetti do you think that would put a dent in the slime and if so how long until i see a difference?
 
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