very fast growing algae.....

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Skeptic9962

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Jul 7, 2007
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University Place, WA
just recently ive seen a problem with a bit of algae its not alot but its very stringy and is upsetting quite a few of my sps ill blow it off with my baster and its back in about 30 mins...would this be red slime? or just a diatom? its brown like a normal diatom algae...ill get a pic soon
 
Is it stringy and snotty looking? That would narrow it down to two types, Cyanobacteria and Dinoflaggelets. To narrow it down even further, does it appear to be gone in the mornings, when lights first come on, and then seems to grow fast, throughout the day. In the afternoon it's totally back? If this is the case, it's Dinos. If it doesn't appear to change throughout the day, and is stringy looking, it's probably Cyanobacteria (red slime.)

Proper ID is important because each takes a separate type of treatment.
 
There are a few articles I've read about raising pH to combat dinos successfully. It's actually a bit hard to find any consistent information about it on the web.

When I had it, not long ago, I turned all my lights off for 3 days and filtered through a large amount of carbon. This was in an SPS frag tank and I was a bit nervous, about leaving the lights out. All corals did just fine. Lights were completely out for 3 days. On day 4, lights were on for 3 hours, day 5, 5 hours and by day 6 I was back up to my full light period.

Don't blow it around with a turkey baster, that just spreads it. Manually remove as much as you can, several times per day. It'll come back in full force within a few hours of removing it. It sucks!!! It's also very toxic and you'll soon notice your snails dying. It can also kill herbivorous fish, such as Tangs.
 
decided to go ahead and do the lights out for 3 days today was the first day that lights came back on man not sure if its due to the fact that the algae isnt iritating my sps or what but to be honest everything looks much better after having lights out....much more polyp extension on almost everything...was beginning to wonder if lights out for one day or so a month would be beneficial to everything...but thanks for the input Sid definatly worked at getting rid of that nasty stuff hope it stays away
 
I just got rid of this stuff. The only thing that helped was raising my PH. It's tough on the corals but it worked. Good Luc,
 
I am going through this now. Since I am color blind I thought it was red slime so I treated for such. What a pain in the behind! It has been almost a week and I still cannot run my skimmer. I just keep doing water changes, when I do water changes I suck out as much as I can to get it off the rocks and corals.

It has been an expensive lesson for me because I lost 6 fish. One of them I wanted to get rid of but I could never catch that bugger.

I now know I have diatom algae but how do I raise the pH level safely without killing what I have left. I am scared to leave the lights off for too long because I have my clams growing so well at this point.
 
Dinos and Cyano can look almost identical, color blind or not...lol. The only true way to tell which it is, from what I've read, is to pay attention to how it looks first thing in the morning. At night, Dinos all die off and appear to be gone in the morning. But then, after a few hours of lights, they're back in force. Cyano won't recede at night. It's some nasty stuff and toxic to inverts, snails or fish that eat it. If the 3 days of lights out don't kill it, the next step is to try raising your pH. Those are the only two successful remedies I've read about. Blowing it off the rocks, with a turkey baster, actually makes it spread faster and worse. Some even say that something about doing water changes can make it worse.
 
Dinos and Cyano can look almost identical, color blind or not...lol. The only true way to tell which it is, from what I've read, is to pay attention to how it looks first thing in the morning. At night, Dinos all die off and appear to be gone in the morning. But then, after a few hours of lights, they're back in force. Cyano won't recede at night. It's some nasty stuff and toxic to inverts, snails or fish that eat it. If the 3 days of lights out don't kill it, the next step is to try raising your pH. Those are the only two successful remedies I've read about. Blowing it off the rocks, with a turkey baster, actually makes it spread faster and worse. Some even say that something about doing water changes can make it worse.

ya the 3 days no light definatly works and really i have clams,lps,sps and everything is just fine
 
I had good luck with it last time in my 55 gallon when I did water changes. of course then I did not know what it was.

I hate to leave the light off for three days, I love looking at my tank. I need to do a water change tomorrow, I hope it will be my last one so I can use my skimmer again. That Chemiclean really makes it foam up and it has been a week already since I last used it as the box said. All well I hope tomorrows water change will solve the issue and then I will leave the lights off for a few days.

Any recommendation on the flow? Keep it the same, slow it down?
 
I had good luck with it last time in my 55 gallon when I did water changes. of course then I did not know what it was.

I hate to leave the light off for three days, I love looking at my tank. I need to do a water change tomorrow, I hope it will be my last one so I can use my skimmer again. That Chemiclean really makes it foam up and it has been a week already since I last used it as the box said. All well I hope tomorrows water change will solve the issue and then I will leave the lights off for a few days.

Any recommendation on the flow? Keep it the same, slow it down?

i kept everything the same just turned the lights off....seemed to work good
 
I shut down one of my K4's and turned the lights off for the next three days.

I will do a water change tomorrow. it should help get that chemiclean out of the tank so I can use my skimmer again.

Sometimes I hate waiting!
 
I shut down one of my K4's and turned the lights off for the next three days.

I will do a water change tomorrow. it should help get that chemiclean out of the tank so I can use my skimmer again.

Sometimes I hate waiting!

Dont slow down any of your flow or circulation. If any thing add more, that stuff limits oxygen.

Don
 
Saw don's post and turned on the other K4

I cant run my skimmer with the collection cup on yet. The chemiclean is still causing it to over flow even with the output wide open. I just took off the cup so the foam goes into the top of the sump. I just wonder how many more water changes I have to do until I can use my skimmer.

Right now I am doing 25 gallons (25%) every other day. I think I am going to buy stock in a salt company soon.
 
I thought I had Red Slime so Kevin sold it to me after I explained what I was seeing.

I dosed it a week ago and my skimmer has never worked right since. It just foams up. Not as much as before but it still foams up enough that my skimmer is worthless.
 
Hmmm, that could be a problem. Going to have to find a way to skim and top off the tank with saltwater, to replace what the skimmer takes out. I don't think you're going to get rid of the chemiclean without skimming. Carbon might remove it. Try a canister filter with lots of carbon in it.
 

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