Red Slime/Cyano bloom

[1fish2fish]

Our tank is nearly 2 months old and the reddish purple slime is covering the sand and rocks during the day and dying off at night. (Started 4 days ago.) I haven't seen anything definitive in the forums about what action to take, if any. Help?! We've shortened the light cycle. Is it bad to leave the lights off all day? We have a zoa and a torch coral. Should we siphon it out while doing a salt water change and if so, do we replace the sand and how much water should we replace?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Reba

 

[bostontim]

im no expert but i recently had the same issue. i did a water change with rodi, shut lights off for two days, and added powerhead for increased flow over sandbed. i see no more cyano.

 

[RobB]

Tim mostly has it.

You may want to try to figure out why there are excessive nutrients in you water. you can suck it out, but unless you nail the source it'll be back.

A couple common causes use of tap water instead of RO/DI, and excessive feeding.

 

[Moe_K]

i would siphon it out if possible; trying not to remove any sand.
cyano at 2 months isn't surprising. it's a new tank. you're going to get nuisance algae & cyano.
you can decrease the lighting, but your torch is eventually going to suffer if you don't supply it with light.
are you using RO or RO/DI water for the water changes?
that'd be my recommendation.

incidentally, how many fish are in there, and which kinds?

good luck.

 

[1fish2fish]

OK, thanks everyone. And now I have a few more questions! We need to do a water change, after we siphon out the slime. We have one powerhead, should we move it to blow the stuff around? (intuition says that would be a bad idea...) And if we turn the lights off, how long can we leave them off before the torch is unhappy?

Also, we are using an RO/DI converter and need to replace the cartridges very soon.

And, for fish, we have an ocellaris clown, 2 bar gobys, a lawnmower blenny, and a CUC.

 

[bostontim]

u dont wanna blow the sand around cause that will cause more detritus to escape from the lower sand. make sure u are not overfeeding. i turned off lights for 36 hrs. it didnt hurt anything and i have anemones and sps. also unless u have a nano u might want more than one power head if u plan to keep corals.

 

[1fish2fish]

u dont wanna blow the sand around cause that will cause more detritus to escape from the lower sand. make sure u are not overfeeding. i turned off lights for 36 hrs. it didnt hurt anything and i have anemones and sps. also unless u have a nano u might want more than one power head if u plan to keep corals.

Cool, thanks. We'll get another powerhead, we have a MaxiJet 900. I think another one should do the trick.

If the slime is not visible after having the lights off, do we still have to do the water change/siphoning? We just did a 25% change 2 weeks ago. (Whine, whine...)

 

[bostontim]

the fact that u have it at all says that u need to get rid of some nutrients so a water change would help. i think flow is a huge problem though.

 

[billq]

I had the same problem. I did everything that's been suggested. But I also picked up a bottle of Marine S.A.T at Aqua Attics. Three treatments over 8 days and it's gone. I also now added a skimmer. I have a 29g Bio Cube. And I also have added a second powerhead. I point it low, but not directly at the sand. It is also pointed towards the back to force the dibris toward the front where I can see it and siphon it out.

 

[stingythingy45]

It is very common to get this in a new tank.
I'm not totally convinced it has much to do with excess nutrients.Although it is always a good idea to feed as little as possible.Check your nitrates and see where they are.
I believe it has more to do with the fact that your tank's bacterial colony is stabalizing.That is,the numbers of bacteria are building and then dying off and then repeating this cycle over again.More flow and aggressive skimming will help a lot.But also time,the more your tank matures the better things will get.

 

[1fish2fish]

It is very common to get this in a new tank.
I'm not totally convinced it has much to do with excess nutrients.Although it is always a good idea to feed as little as possible.Check your nitrates and see where they are.
I believe it has more to do with the fact that your tank's bacterial colony is stabalizing.That is,the numbers of bacteria are building and then dying off and then repeating this cycle over again.More flow and aggressive skimming will help a lot.But also time,the more your tank matures the better things will get.

We are feeding very little, and we have a (crappy Seaclone) skimmer in the sump. Our nitrates are zero. We'll siphon and change the water & add a powerhead.

Thanks again for the good advice & reassurance.

Reba

 

[stingythingy45]

You can actually roll the stuff up like a carpet with your finger tips first then siphon it out.I tried the whole turkey baster thing and I ended up with water dripping everywhere.

 

[1fish2fish]

That's a good tip and something I never would have thought of! Thanks.

 

[stingythingy45]

No problem,
Been there..........done that.
It will help keep from siphoning too much sand out also.