Red Slime or Hair Algae or ??????

[ensquire]

Have had this tank running for 4 weeks like this as I decide how to replumb it and all has been good until earlier this week. The tank was acquired from someone that didn't take care of it, and was covered with this same infestation. But when I got it , I took it all down and stored the rock in old water for almost 3 weeks. I set the tank back up a month ago and the rock looked like it was mostly dead, but it had a few good looking pieces that started to revive all the rock, and then this came back.

Water parameters are:
Temp - 28
SG -1.027
NO2 - 0
NO3 -10 mg/l
NH3 -.01 mg/l
KH - 100 mg/l
Ph - 8.4
Phos -1.0


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tank%20pics/algae%2002-800.jpg



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tank%20pics/algae%2003-800.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tank%20pics/algae%2004-800.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tank%20pics/algae%2008-800.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tank%20pics/algae%2007-800.jpg

I'm tearing it all down again and adding another feed line maybe a herbie, but should I treat this now , before putting the rock in a rubbermaid with powerheads and heaters ? What is it ?

[reefwars]

cyano bacteria blow off what you can and throw it in your bin it will be fine if thats what your planning. basically theres dieoff in your tank and excess nutrients and that stuff loves it, lots of flow and water changes can help but it works best if manually removed.it will come and go throughout your systems life but shows when there are problems like something dies, excess of nutrients,too much light or poor water quality.if left be it can get worse but if you tackle it now it will go away with a little love.you can use things like red slime remover but im not a fan of liquid fixes best thing is to find out what the causes are and based on your parameters you have a few problems.


nitrates need to be as close to zero as you can get them they dont have to be zero but the lower the better

phosphate has to be zero.... if theres any at all youll get algae blooms and then other problematic algaes.

salinity does best at around 1.025

would raise your alk just a tad but thats not your problem so forget that for now.


when a tank has its water parameters all over the place its then " unstable"untill its stable youll see alot of problems like this and they can and will get worse. first you need to solve these problems and then youll see a difference using ro water , lots of flow, and manual removal.

cheers and theres lots of great threads on here regarding cyano and brown algae:)

[ensquire]

Thanks reefwars, best of luck on your move.
I will clean and store the rock do a few water changes and get these numbers balanced out. Not set up for ro water so I guess that needs to be addressed.
Guess Im off to do some reading.

[reefwars]

Thanks reefwars, best of luck on your move.
I will clean and store the rock do a few water changes and get these numbers balanced out. Not set up for ro water so I guess that needs to be addressed.
Guess Im off to do some reading.


thank youy very much:) ro water is nice to use for obvious reasons but at minimum put prime in the water. are you sure your test are done right 1.0 seems awfully high for phosphate ??:)

[ensquire]

Nutrafin test kit and I'm color deficient, but will test again with better set of eyes.

[ALang]

When you stored the old rocks, did you have heavy waterflow throughtout the bucket? Did you do water changes for the rocks? If not, then it may very well be that the LR inhabitant has suffocated/died, and now showing up as cyano-bacteria (red/ green slime algae).

What about your sand? Was it the old batch, or did you replaced the sand? Could very well be die-offs in the LS as well that's contributing to the out-break.

So lots of water changes, lots of water flow, and if you have it, hook up/borrow a reactor and load it with GFO to help combat the high Phosphate load.

If the sand is the old batch, you may want to discard it all and start with new. Happened to me when we moved, too, lessons learned the hard way.
Good luck.

[ensquire]

Sand is all new because tank originally was bare bottom, was not a fan of that look.
The rock was stored in buckets , they were only supposed to be there for a few hours but plumbing needed an overhaul. was there for 3 weeks as I waited for plumbing fittings Etc, so probably killed anything good. Have to tear it all apart again and install a overflow box, is it worth dealing with first or just wait and deal with it later? I will clean up rock and store it properly this time. Would hooking a Fluval up full of carbon be a good idea ?

[reefwars]

if your doing a overhaul of the tank then either way your probably going to see some whether you deal with it now or you set your tank up again....if theres dieoff cyano can appear.so if you left your rocks to just soak for weeks whatever died in that process is feuling your outbreak.to stop the outbreak you need to get your system stabiled sooo what you want to do is remove all your rock and in extra ro water dont be afraid to give it a thrashing or a scrubbing then place it in the storage bin your going to use with a decent powerhead and a small heater. your gonna have to empty your tank to drill as far as i know so its your call on sand if its to be left in i dont know if you can or cant while drilling.

after you get your plumbing all fixed and filled with new water then you can add your rock back in now your gonna see a cycle no ways around it where you created dieoff. its gonna be a good one by the sounds of it as well so i hope you dont have any fish if so you may want to give thenm to someone to babysit.

if your going to store your rock for a good time then do water changes on it.

once in the tank and your cycle is running your gonna have to keep up with maintanace for water changes lots of flow manual removal and blowing off ditrius.start with a low light cycle of a few hours slowly building up to what you want to do.

keep your nitrates and phosphates at zero its alot easier to do then when they get high, so think about using some of the nitrate and phosphate reducing reactors on the market theres lots to choose from.

get to planning a refugium it will do your system wonders with beneficial life.

run carbon as much as you can i ran carbon in tanks with sumps or without its very usefull in clearing out your water of harmful contaminants.

dont rush it or your gonna get stuck with something youll have to fix in order to work get everything you need together then start your cycle youll find it that much easier:):)



but yes run carbon!!!!!:):)

[ensquire]

That is the lesson isn't it!!! Patience. Not one of my better qualities, but at this stage I'm not in to bad of shape. I haven't purchased any livestock or really anything for this tank yet. Just feeling my way through it a stage at a time. Amazing how much good material there is here to use for reference/ inspiration.
Rock will get cleaned and stored in large rubbermaid bin with heater and powerhead. Would it be a good idea to store sand in a similar fashion??
Also, for gobies and wrasses, what is the best type of substrate??
As far as reactors refugiums etc, My stand is pretty much out of room.