NEED HELP.............. brown slime

[xxtechxx]

well................ my tank been thriving since forever and i been doing water changes like once every 2 months. when i decided to do a water change biweekly ...... brown slime algae starting to grow and all my corals look really shitty.... i siphoned most of it away and did a 20% water change and it came back like the next day.

parameters:
cal: 420
mag: 1250
alk: 9
nitrate and phosphates are undetectable. no algae grows on the glass at all. it seems as tho the slime is growing out from my rocks and frag plugs... any ideas???

 

[Factorybacking_05]

Age of light bulbs?

 

[danagui]

what kind of water are u using?

 

[xxtechxx]

im using LEDs, and RODI water zero TDS

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

are you carbon dosing? or dosing bacteria?

 

[xxtechxx]

are you carbon dosing? or dosing bacteria?

yes i have been but i stopped for about a month already. is this a side effect from carbon dosing?

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

it could be. Cyano is a bacteria so it will thrive with carbon dosing. Look in to dosing bacteria so you can have other beneficial strains. They will out thrive the cyano and it will start to die off.

 

[TypicalWhiteAZN]

dang.. sucks for that to happen to such a beautiful tank... does raising the mag help?... I've been told that for certain macro algae.. dunno if it might work on cyano....

My experience in the pass was putting up w/ it and then one day when the tank peaked, it all disappeared... but I know you want a more immediate resolution... :-/ good luck!...

 

[gumbii]

jeez, john... what doesn't happen to your tank..?


you're taking out too much bacteria doing bi weekly water changes... and then you stopped dosing... yeah... too much nutrients in your water and nothing to eat it off other than brown slime...

 

[toromp]

Water changes are over rated.. lol I used to do weekly w.c. every week and I had troubles with my tank, now that I dont do w.c. that often tank seems more stable ....

 

[xxtechxx]

thanks for all the suggestions guys. maybe ill go back to my bimonthly water change hah. i just threw in some mb7. hopefully everything would be good.

 

[james-lee]

Do 24 hour lights out as well.

 

[toromp]

Coincidence that I had the same thing happen to me a week ago.. last week my chiller pump went out and I had to limit the time my mh were on so I didn't heat up my tank too much.. well I got about 2 hours of light a day and the stuff just went away after a couple of days.

 

[gonumber24]

That stuff is absorbing the ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and phosphate in your system, that's why undetectable. I suggest adding a phosphate reactor and get macroalgae added to a refugium on a 24/7 light. Doing this will outcompete the slime and it will go away.

 

[wickedfish]

Dang I swear I would have copy pasted this exact thread. Goo thing I did a search.

I have the identical issue.mine also started by trying to up the WC from once every 21 days to once every 10-14.

I do have macro and gfo. 0 on phosphates. Mine started after a large WC and after I took carbon offline for a week. But now it's getting nasty. It started as cute patch and now I have sweet brown carpet. The palys look like dog pooh.

I'm thinking of adding fresh gfo and maybe a touch more than I usually add 4.5 cups of high capacity every 2-3 weeks.

I also added mb7 but it seems to get worse. I'm patient but as long as it doesn't creep up the rocks.


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[zigginit]

add flow to that spot. maybe your power heads need to be cleaned. brown slim will die in higher flow.

 

[xxtechxx]

add flow to that spot. maybe your power heads need to be cleaned. brown slim will die in higher flow.

i got a MP40 and a koralia on a wavemaker in a 80 gallon. the flow is so strong that i cant put my sps in the flow cuz it will start to peel off. i did realize that
the slime is coming from the same spot as the cyano bacteria that i had. O_O

 

[wickedfish]

I pointed the powerheads and returns to the cyano. We will see if it helps.


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[Confuse]

I'm following along to see what happens...I too have zero PO4 and a bad case of cyano that seems to get worse after big water changes. I tested my RO/DI water and reads 0 PO4, but the salt water I had sitting in a brute container for a little over a week tested .08 and I usually make 20 gallons at one time and change 10 gallons weekly, so 10 gallons of leftover water sit for a week in a brute container. The few SPS I have are doing well, it's just the cyano and some hair algae outbreak that's become apparent as of late.

 

[wickedfish]

I'm following along to see what happens...I too have zero PO4 and a bad case of cyano that seems to get worse after big water changes. I tested my RO/DI water and reads 0 PO4, but the salt water I had sitting in a brute container for a little over a week tested .08 and I usually make 20 gallons at one time and change 10 gallons weekly, so 10 gallons of leftover water sit for a week in a brute container. The few SPS I have are doing well, it's just the cyano and some hair algae outbreak that's become apparent as of late.

Your container might be leeching PO4 into the mixed salt water. What salt are you using?


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