Red slime on sand can't shake it ahh

[RichardinMA]

Erythromycin is a prescription antibiotic. It will kill off the beneficial bacteria too.

I have to disagree. First of all, needing a prescription (which you don't for EM, it is sold at any fish store) does not automatically mean that it will kill off beneficial bacteria. Second of all, I have used it on almost every one of my systems at one time or another and have never, ever, had even the slightest impact to the nitrifying bacteria. Not all bacteria species are affected by all antibiotics. EM is mainly effective against gram positive bacteria and only a few gram negative types. Nitrosomonas are gram negative and are not among those affected by EM. Since the presence of Cyanobacteria is a symptom of excessive waste build up in the tank, ammonia spikes may occur if a large amount is killed off at once and is left to decay in the tank.

 

[Mattd7]

I have to disagree. First of all, needing a prescription (which you don't for EM, it is sold at any fish store) does not automatically mean that it will kill off beneficial bacteria. Second of all, I have used it on almost every one of my systems at one time or another and have never, ever, had even the slightest impact to the nitrifying bacteria. Not all bacteria species are affected by all antibiotics. EM is mainly effective against gram positive bacteria and only a few gram negative types. Nitrosomonas are gram negative and are not among those affected by EM. Since the presence of Cyanobacteria is a symptom of excessive waste build up in the tank, ammonia spikes may occur if a large amount is killed off at once and is left to decay in the tank.

Thanks for all the advice guys I kept the lights off for a good day and i got some good die off that my protien skimmer is pickin up now I'm only doing lights for a few hours a day and things lookin ok I did buy some chemi clean as a last resort. I have been checking my amonia levels and they are still 0 so I'm hoping the die off was not to dramatic im ready for a big 20gal water change hope i can kill off enough and let the refugium pick up the slack, we will see thanks again

 

[higorc]

After 4 months of 20% weekly water changes (I was buying 200G box of Reef Crystals seemed like every other week! Not cheap...) and vacuuming "Carpets" of cyano almost every Friday I got tired of waiting... and used Chemiclean Sunday. Did a 20% water change on Wednesday and no Cyano in sight anymore! Everything is doing good, both my Leather and toadstool were pissed off during the treatment but are back in the game now.

I have since declared “All-out War” @ Cyano and Bryopsis in my tank! Water changes alone weren't doing squat! So besides the Chemiclean treatment for Cyano, I have upgraded my Skimmer, changed all cartridges on my RODI and will be raising my Mag this coming week for the Bryopsis issue.

My 72G was virtually maintenance free, and since my upgrade 4 months ago the 120G is working me to death with these two issues!!! Hopefully I will come out alive from this battle .


Higor

 

[Intheflesh]

Good luck!

We have been battling it in our nano! It's a new tank, running skimmerless, with minimal rock. So I may have a battle on my hands. We have been doing 40-50% water changes every 3 weeks and vacuuming up the carpet. I wonder if the WCs are too big an causing mini cycles? I don't have any algae growing on the glass, just the nasty red stuff all over the sand. I may try a 3 day black out next to see if that helps.

 

[PThanh1968]

I used to have red slime on my 7.5G nano at the office, it's gone now. What I did was adding additional GFO media to the filter bag, maybe my phosphate level was high.

Good luck!

We have been battling it in our nano! It's a new tank, running skimmerless, with minimal rock. So I may have a battle on my hands. We have been doing 40-50% water changes every 3 weeks and vacuuming up the carpet. I wonder if the WCs are too big an causing mini cycles? I don't have any algae growing on the glass, just the nasty red stuff all over the sand. I may try a 3 day black out next to see if that helps.