Have you experienced this?

[RSD]

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing this too.

I have had my 85 gallon reef tank up for 5 years. I have not seen red slime since back when i used tap water... 5 years ago.

Now I have it again. Water tests returned this:
ph 8.0 in morning, 8.3 by mid day, 8.3 in evening
Gh: 12
nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, : 0, 10, 0
Calcium: 400
Phospate, and silicate: 0

Here is what has changed and what I think may cause the problem.

1: we have had an increase in air temp the past couple weeks... really nice weather. However my tank has not increased in temp.
2: I have begun using Joes Juice to fight the aptaisia beasts since I nolonger have peppermint shrimp.
3: I upgraded my lights from 240 watts NO to 520 compact.

has anyone personally experienced a red slime outbreak after changing lights or using joes juice?

Just wondering.

Thanks for your info.

 

[Stang69]

Just a guess but maybe its from the excess stuff that didnt get skimmed out from the Juice



Jeff

 

[jasontatro]

I've also read some posts here about negative impacts from using Joe's Juice.

 

[wooddood]

hmmm i'll tag along.

 

[RSD]

I have only dosed with JJ in 4 bouts. each time I went after about 30 or so aptaisia.

My skimmer hardly ever produces anything unless I feed a liquid food or powder food to the tank. It does not react with JJ.

Just a thought. I will see how it holds over the next month.

Although, I am still open to input.

 

[NaH2O]

RSD, just a few questions. When you started the aiptasia removal - did you try and get the dead ones out? I'm not sure what happens to their bodies after they die, just wondering if they are providing excess nutrients to fuel the algae....not the juice (when they die they release their now inorganic phosphates in the water to be picked up by algae). Do you have a substrate? Is the slime growing in any one particular area of the tank? What is the bioload like in the tank - and how is your feeding and husbandry (do you blow off the rock with a turkey baster occasionally)? Could be a combination of excess nutrients and new lights. Phosphates won't show a positive on the test if they are being utilized by things in the tank (i.e. algae, bacteria, etc). I'm thinking outloud, so these are the questions I'm trying to go thru in my head.

 

[Scooterman]

I'm starting to have second thoughts on JJ, seems like they keep coming back regardless of how many times I use it on them. As thorough as I am, they should of been eradicated by now but this isn't the case, they even pop up in the exact location, like it just stuns them a few weeks.

 

[Katchupoy]

My guess is its the light changes. I did change mine from 80 watt NO to 175 watt MH. I had the same thing. Then I added additional 225 watts of VHO. It happened again. But they are all minimal because of the snails keeps them at bay.

 

[RSD]

NaH20

I have not removed the dead aptaisia. They just melt and if I remove the Jj and dead appy it has a better chance of returning.

I have a substrate... .5 - 1.5 inches CC and LS.

Slime grows on rocks, substrate, and blue ridge coral (all areas of good water flow... but lower than the rest of the tank.)

Bioload is medium to light. 125 total lbs of LR, 25 pounds total LS, 1 sm and 1 lg bubble coral, 1 very large frogspawn, 1 brain, colony yellow polyps, 1 colony star polyps, 6 colonies zoo's, 2 pocillapora, 1 pavona, 1 BTA small, 1 blastomussa, 1 candy cane coral, 1 large Blue Ridge, 1 red alveopora, lots of shrooms, 1 cup coral, and some other corals i'm sure I forgot. 1 bicolor blenny, 1 perc clown, 1 damsel, 1 manderin goby, 2 clown gobies, 1 six line, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 brittle star, 1 cuke, tons of pods and more feather dusters than I can count.

1 20 gallon fuge with lots of algea, pods, worms, etc.

Main tank fed by a fluval 204, 4 PH's in rock work, and a little giant main pump.

I feed flakes 2-3 times per week, Black Poweder and spectra vital 1 a week or every 2 weeks, marine snow when I think about it, same with frozen mysis and silver sides,

I supplement with calmax ever day or two.

I do not blow off the rocks... very little build up occurs so I quit a long time ago.

Sorry for the ramble... but I figured I would give you the whole low down.

 

[DonW]

I start to get traces red slime every time my orp hits 280, just like clock-work. A water change or two and its gone and orp is back up.

Don

 

[RSD]

orp? unfamiliar with this abbrev.

 

[NaH2O]

Here is a recent thread on ORP

 

[dnjan]

You may have nutrients coming out of your cc-ls bed. Sounds like you run a fairly nutrient-rich tank (since feather dusters are filter feeders, they only thrive if there are nutrients in the water). The slight increase in nutrients (from the sand) could have put you over the top.

Do you ever vaccuum parts of the sandbed? If not, I would suggest vaccuuming about 1/4 of the sand about 1x per week for a month. You will be surprised at how "gunky" the water that you vaccuum out looks.

 

[RSD]

I never vaccume my bed. There is far too many cop's and stuff in my sand bed. When I was fairly new at this I vac'd the bed and always had a cycle run through my tank. I have a really big detrivot kit. I can go through my rocks and sand and there is very little detritus... some but not alot. The feather dusters are awesome and I spot feed them with the powdered food 1 or 2 a month.

The sand bed and my feeding habits have not changed in 2 years. The slime came in extremely quickly... any sort of change from the sand bed should have progressed over the course of a couple weeks... not days.

So again I go back to 2 big changes in my tank:
1. Begin using Joes Juice
2. Change in my lights
...and the weather change in the area.

I have changed out all my fresh water filters, I will see if maybe they were malfunctioning...even though the fresh water was testing 0 ph, and 0 cilicate, 0 nitrate,trite, and great PH.

Will keep everyone informed.

Keep coming with ideas... I really do appreciate it and hope it helps others as well.

 

[NaH2O]

I agree with Don....sounds like the excess nutrients in the tank combined with new lighting was enough fuel for the algae to grow. Have you added more detrivores since your tank has been set up? IMO, one of the keys in keeping a sand bed functioning for a longer period of time is continually adding detrivore kits in order to maintain a healthy population. I also am a big "remove the detritus" promoter. If you can get it out, then it won't cause problems. The sand bed can only sink it so far before the bed becomes saturated. I just want to again state that phosphate tests are for inorganic phosphates....if they are getting consumed (by nuisance algae as an example), then you will show a "0".

Let us know how things go!

 

[Scooterman]

And if you build a tank like Nikki's with 20 thousand water jets, it will be easy as pie
I bet it will look like a Jacuzzi! Not to steal the topic!

 

[dnjan]

Don't vaccuum all of the sandbed at once. Only about 1/4 at a time.

Try it. If you vaccuum an area of sandbed and get only clean water - no buildup. If, however, the water you vaccuum out is tan-to-brown, that is nutrient buildup which can be gradually released into your tank. Just waiting for something (new lights, etc) to push it over the edge.

 

[NaH2O]

- Scott!

Just a side note, if you try to vacuum and are concerned about your pods, just stick a filter sock on the other end, and when you're done, scoop the pods off the sock and stick them back in the tank.

 

[Curtswearing]

I just finished siphoning my sandbed-----yuck!!!

I wanted to point out that there are numerous strains of cyanobacteria's and some of them don't need any light whatsoever. Cyano's are a royal pain because determining where they came from can be so varied. Increase your photoperiod and leave everything else the same....they can grow. Don't change your photoperiod but allow the bulbs to color-shift....they can grow. Don't do either of the above but allow organics to accumulate....they can grow. Change your food to one that is higher in phosphates....they can grow. Allow phosphates to accumulate.....they can grow. Are you seeing a pattern here LOL??? This is only a small list and the full list of permutations would be downright scary. In a cyanbacteria's life, adding temperature or photoperiod or organics is completely cool.

Cyano's are heterotrophic bacteria which basically means they get their food from dissolved organic compounds and/or light. They don't fit in either the Bacterium column nor do they fit in the Algae column just to tick scientists and reefers off. We can remove some DOC's with Granular Activated Carbon and water changes but we can remove even more with a properly sized protein skimmer.

There are some critters that will eat cyano's. However, this is like giving your kid cold medicine to cure a cold instead of making your kid wash his hands often to prevent a cold.

You can use E.M. to help rid yourself of cyano but it really is a band-aid approach and that's why I don't recommend it EVER unless someone is so frustrated they want to leave the hobby. Not only that, there are unintended consequences such as bacteria dieing that we want to live. E.M. doesn't only kill cyano's....it's an equal opportunity killer.

Because cyano's are a blend between an algae and a bacteria, you should also do the normal things you do to prevent algaes. Such as......
Do not overfeed----ever. Normally, this revolves around uneaten food but in this case, the major problem IMO is excess fish waste (which will degrade into DOC's) and/or an accumulation of phosphates.
Always use RO/DI water if your municipal water supply adds phosphates to their water (as most do). You can request a water report from them.
Never overstock your tank.
Use a quality protein skimmer to remove detritus and/or DOC's.
Check on the photoperiod you are using and make sure your bulbs aren't so old that they have experienced a color shift.
Increase circulation to get the waste suspended in the water column for your skimmer to pick up.

We can't really trust your nitrate nor phosphate test results at the moment as the cyano's will just grab both out of the water column (which is where we test for them) quicker than we can test for them. As NaH2O previously mentioned, the zero reading doesn't really mean anything other than something is eating them faster than we can test for them. As a result, we need to do a little detective work here to see if it is temperature related, lighting related, DOC related, or phosphate related.

To start off the detective work, what is the phosphate level in your top-off water?

 

[Scooterman]

That was awesome!
It is like the BIG fight, you are out numbered, out matched, out witted(at times) but in the end, sheer determination will prevail! Also if you do as curts just mentioned lol
It isn't easy keeping a closed box in balance, I don't care how big or how fancy your equipment is, at times you will encounter problems like this, just maybe less but it will happen, what curts is doing is getting you ready for that time, preparing you to fight the Big fight & win.