Red cyano algae question....

[ReeferChick85]

So I've noticed I've been having some red cyano on some parts of my rocks and I've tried siphoning it but always comes back. The weird thing is that it completely goes away after my lights are off and comes back when my lights are on. Do you think it's my bulbs causing it? I don't believe it's phosphates since I don't feed that heavy, I run gfo (RowaPhos) in a reactor,skimmer and bi-weekly water changes.

Anyone ever have this happen to them before?

 

[reef girl]

Yup I had something like that happen to me. When I got my tank for Christmas it came completely setup from a former member who wanted out. It came with the red algae but everyone said to do super frequent water changes. in the beginning it would just appear when I had my lights on (which are 500w metal halide OVERKILL) Over the course of a month it just got worse and worse no matter how much water changing and siphoning I did. I eventually bought the medicine added oxygen to the tank and it took care of the problem.

Here is my advice: Watch it like you have been and don't let it get out of hand. By the time I got rid of it I had already lost some dope stuff.

I wish you the very best and hope it clears up with water changes.

Good luck!

 

[halvc909]

Make sure after the treatment to do a major water change.

 

[ReeferChick85]

Yup I had something like that happen to me. When I got my tank for Christmas it came completely setup from a former member who wanted out. It came with the red algae but everyone said to do super frequent water changes. in the beginning it would just appear when I had my lights on (which are 500w metal halide OVERKILL) Over the course of a month it just got worse and worse no matter how much water changing and siphoning I did. I eventually bought the medicine added oxygen to the tank and it took care of the problem.

Here is my advice: Watch it like you have been and don't let it get out of hand. By the time I got rid of it I had already lost some dope stuff.

I wish you the very best and hope it clears up with water changes.

Good luck!

Thank you for the reply! What medicine did you use btw? Did it ever come back?

I'm hoping it's my bulbs since it's waaay past due to change them. If the bulb change doesn't work then I may just try the medicine stuff.I really don't like to use any type of medication in my tank.

 

[james-lee]

I did a 48 hour black out period and it took care of it. I also changed my feeding routine and cut back on my halides photo period. It still grows (bubbles) but goes away after lights out.

 

[reef girl]

Adding anything to your tank is nerve racking.

I went to a seminar for reefers and I asked the pro what I should do since the 2x's a week 20% water changes were not working. He said, "Red slime is a bacterial infection that must be treated if the water changes are not working." I was skeptical, but they sold me this little bottle of stuff called RED SLIME REMOVER. I followed the directions and mine had gotten so bad I had to does twice to get rid of it. I ran oxygen the entire time. My ph never went up; however, I have had some calcium/alk issues that the LFS says were not caused by the medicine.

I agree, i don't like using chemicals, but this is a natural organism that I believe eats the red and thus causes a drop in oxygen levels (sudden increase in organic life matter can deplete oxygen quickly think of what happened to all those sardines in the bay earlier this year)

Anyhow, it hasn't come back, but I think there might be some growing in my hubby's tank.

In the end, I wish I had just bought this product instead of losing all those nice corals... better late than never

 

[halvc909]

+1 on the red slime remover

 

[uxdesigner]

I had a really bad outbreak so I did a 50% water change + Chemi-Pure Elite and 3 days no lights. The red cyano is gone but I still see an occasional "neon green" algea with bubbles if my lights run too long.

 

[BigDaddyStar]

yeah I had a small problem in my nano I cured....sound like you shouldnt have a problem with what you are running to control phosphates but in my case I was battling sunlight in my nano

I cut the lights down to 3 hours a day(blocked out the sun too)...did major weeklt water changes...added de nitrate(not sure if it helped) siphoned and kept churning my sand....then when it was already pretty much gone I added red slime remover and have not seen it since....I think it was already gone though but I had already order it and used it anyway

 

[wickedfish]

Lights out will help. Have you changed salts? Do you run more carbon or more gfo? More than say, a month ago?

I did the blue vet stuff. Didn't kill anything but it sort of worked. I started using Nsw instead of DD. No slime in 7 months.

 

[ReeferChick85]

I've never had a red cyano issue til about a month ago when I started seeing it on a couple areas of my rocks so I've looked through all my "reef logs" that I write on my tank and have not done anything different nor added any type of new foods,salt, additives etc.. to my tank.

Does anyone think that my T5 bulbs can be causing this? I know older bulbs can cause a change in spectrum after time and can cause some algae outbreaks so maybe this is the reason? I'm going to get some new bulbs this week so we'll see if it helps. If not then, I'll do what you guys recommend as far as in lights out. I will only do the medicine way as a last resort.

 

[lowbudget]

old bulbs can cause it. but a cheap way to make it go way for a little while just tell ramzy to blow at it.
even if you use red slime stuff if you dont fix it, it will still come back. how old are the bulbs

 

[ReeferChick85]

old bulbs can cause it. but a cheap way to make it go way for a little while just tell ramzy to blow at it.
even if you use red slime stuff if you dont fix it, it will still come back. how old are the bulbs

LOL! I already made Ramzy do that and it didn't work . Yea that's what I was thinking about the Red Slime Remover medicine. I need to find the source first and I really think it may just be my bulbs. My bulbs are over a year old. I actually got my fixture from Vinh and these are still his bulbs when I got them from him so maybe longer than a year lol!! Yes I know I should have changed them sooner but never really wanted to since I didn't have all my corals transferred over to the tank and I only had fish at the beginning but now I think I REALLY NEED TO lol!!!

I'm going to buy some bulbs this week but in the mean time I'm just going to run my lights for less hours than normal.

 

[ReeferChick85]

Lights out will help. Have you changed salts? Do you run more carbon or more gfo? More than say, a month ago?

I did the blue vet stuff. Didn't kill anything but it sort of worked. I started using Nsw instead of DD. No slime in 7 months.

I'm going to run my lights a shorter time and then do lights out for a day or two.

As for salt, I was using Tropic Marin Pro but switched to Red Sea Coral Pro earlier this year. I;ve done several water changes with the new salt and didn't have any issues with red cyano til recently so I'm pretty sure it's not the salt mix.

I run carbon in a mesh bag that sits in my filter sock which I change out every 2-3 weeks as well. I've been running both for a while now and I haven't changed the brands I use either.

I run gfo in a reactor and change out the stuff every 2-3 weeks(sometimes a little longer since I forget lol). Although I think the gfo I currently have in the reactor is waay older than 3 weeks now that I think about it. Well I just turned it off right now. You think that may have caused the red cyano??

 

[ReeferChick85]

Update on my cyano issue...I did lights out for 2 days and it went away significantly and I also bought new bulbs yesterday so I'm hoping it will go away for good without having to use any meds.

 

[zigginit]

more flow will make it go away

 

[james-lee]

Yeah check nitrates too. Good flow and skimming with new bulbs should help. I still have to do lights out for a day or two every two weeks but thats becuase my skimmer cannot handle my bioload atm.

 

[JOSE CASAS]

The lights out is a bandaid. You need to find the source or it will just keep coming back. I think you have many minute variables contributing to the cyan growth. First the salt, old lights, exhausted gfo, I told you to try some Microbacter7 that will clean your tank a bit and eventually out compete the cyan and bbooooya cyano gone. Lets us know what works and GOOD LUCK.