Red Slime Algae

[fishnut]

Has anyone tried Red Slime Algae Remover (antibiotic) and with what results? Any other suggestions for tackling this problem ?

[Dale D]

Fishnut.

Red slime treatments only cure the symptoms (red slime) they do not cure the cause (nutrient build up).

Things you can try to do to rid yourself of it include:

1)Making sure you have good waterflow through out your tank (no dead areas).

Red slime likes to grow in areas of low waterflow, which allows debris to build up in these areas.

2)Make sure you have a proper skimmer for the size of your tank. And make sure it is working properly. Keep it cleaned regularly.

3) Use a turkey baster or a powerhead to occasionally blow any debris build up off of your live rock. This will allow the protein skimmer to remove it from your tank and will provide some food for other animals living in your tank.

4)Check your Nitrate and phosphate levels. Make sure you do regular water changes. When you do water changes try to syphon out as much of the red slime as you can.

5) Check the quality of the water you are using for water changes and as make up water. (high in Nitrate or Phosphate)Think about getting an RO or DI or RO/DI unit.

6)Check you Alkalinity.

7) Dose Kalkwasser for your make up water. It raises your Alkalinity, adds calcium and helps precipitate Phosphate.

These are a few of the things you can try to limit your red slime.

Antibiotics will only kill the red slime you have now and who knows what else. If you do not fix the cause, it will just keep coming back.

HTH Dale

[ 12 June 2002, 23:38: Message edited by: Dale D ]

[Achilles]

I absolutely agree with Dave on his explanation of how to treat the cause. To limit the look of the algae in the mean time. Syphon as much as you can off, and cut your photoperiod down while you start to dose the kalkwasser at night. The limited photoperiod will slow it's growth, while you hit it below the belt with the high alkalinity etc.

something to note, if you have this algae in abundance, you have a nutrient imbalance. You must treat the symtoms.

Check to see that the aquarium is not recieving too much sunlight. If so, cover up the tank when it's designated photoperiod is not in progress.

The same methods Dave and I describe can be used to fight dinoflagellates if you ever have them.

Cheers!

Jeff O'Neill

[stephane]

If the Algea is not about to kill the coral in your tank your better try to find where they came
eliminate the source of the problem and then the algae will go by them self

Cylcling and new tank,to much feed,to much additive,low calcium and alkalinity,defective or
no R/O check your top off TDS,copper ting inside the tank are most of the time the cause

Good carbon,poly fylter,water change (assuming your water have very low TDS), heavy skimming,
put a diatom filter will greatly help to if you have one, if you dont, and have a sump buy 2 swiming pool cartrige and put on in the intake pump of your sump and clean (Javel) it every other day rotating whit the other one. are most of the time the good medication

Tell us more about your tank and 99% of the time we will fix the problemm chemical free

Good luck!

[ 13 June 2002, 07:04: Message edited by: stephane ]

[Bob I]

I will answer the question as asked. Yes I have tried (and still use)Chemipure with excellent results.

[CHEAPREEF]

I've had patchs of this stuff for 3 months now, it's finally fadinfg away. There is hardly any left in the tank now, i would wait it out and fallow the advise above. The best thing i did was added a Phosphate remover and stopped feeding 2 times a day. (cut back to every 2 days) Got a bigger pump for my skimmer and within a week it's almost gone. Just my $.02.

Clinton

[DJ88]

Fishnut,

You have gotten great advice here. smile.gif Use it wisely. :D As for anti-biotics. A couple of concerns with using these in a tank is that if the cyano isn't all killed they can develop a resistance to the anti-biotics. Same as what is happening with humans now and anti biotics. a second concern is that it can hurt the bacteria in your tank. The stuff you want to have living.

Treat the cause of cyano not the symptoms, is what it comes down to.

Jeff,

It's Dale. :D

I will answer the question as asked. Yes I have tried (and still use)Chemipure with excellent results. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As a quick FYI.

Bob,

Chemipure isn't a red slime remover. It is a chemical substitute for Carbon.

Fishnut was asking about anti-biotics for cyano-bacteria.

[ 13 June 2002, 10:12: Message edited by: DJ88 ]

[Bob I]

Sorry about that, I meant to say Chemiclean, which is a red slime remover, and works.

[Delphinus]

Can't really add much except to say that with perserverance you can overcome a cyano spike. When I've had cyano, the basic ingredients I've used in dealing with cyano seem to be: 1) increased water current, 2) increased skimming and/or reduced feeding, and 3) um ... dang I don't remember what the 3rd thing is. Siphon the stuff carefully, and with good tank management you will get over this. It will take a bit of patience, but just hang in there.

Sometimes lighting can be a factor, if you have an old bulb or a bulb of lesser quality, sometimes just replacing the lights can be enough to make things better.

[stephane]

Originally posted by Bob Ipema:
Sorry about that, I meant to say Chemiclean, which is a red slime remover, and works.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Chemiclean is a mushroom killer take care about it he will kill toadstool in no time but dont seem to affect anyting els

[Bob I]

I have used Chemiclean quite a bit, and have never experienced any problems with any mushrooms including toadstool leather.