Help me get rid of my algae!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Johnnybravo60025

Johnnybravo60025

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 31, 2008
417
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48
IL
Here's a video of my tank. Read the description for my parameters. The Red Slime has been coming back lately. I have been seeing a TON of coralline algae growing lately.

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I want to do a refugium or an algae scrubber, but I want to see what else I can do to get rid of it.

I have tried cutting down the lights, dosing API Algaefix, doing water changes twice a week, cut down on feeding the fish, and stopped dosing everything all to no avail.
 
red slime is not an algae...its a cyno bacteria. I dont know what it is called but there is a med that will kill cyno and not harm your system, works like a champ. The coraline is good stuff.
 
The coraline is desired in most cases
The cyanobacteria can be fought with higher currents
as it likes to settle in dead spots
move your rocks away from the glass
and make that water spin
 
Yea, areas of rock up against the glass are good areas for ditritus to settle and decompose since flow cant really get back there.

And you can either use the commercially available treatments to get rid of the cyano, or increase/redirect your flow.

Also, cyano will/can haunt a new system well past the 6 month marker, it is a true nuissance.
 
Start with a big water change. You need to remove as much as you can, as soon as you can. Then increase flow, flow, and more flow. This takes care of it most of the time.

If not, we need to start looking at a few different things: what are you dosing and why? What are your water parameters, (including what ever you are dosing for)? The tank doesn't look established enough to be needing any dosing yet. You don't seem to have a large bio load, so what are you using for filtration?

red slime can't take high redox. This is one of the reasons increasing flow helps, the other is eliminating dead spots.

If you try a commercial treatment, be careful which one you use, as some of them are antibiotics which will take care of it for now, but will also effect your bio filter.

If you are using carbon, replace it after your next water change, and use a high quality replacement, (eg chemipure, purigen, matrix carbon etc) Don't budget out on this, low grade carbons will help for a few days, then will start to leach impurities.
 
Red slime generally comes from high phosphates... there are a number of solutions for that that do not include meds (which I always think of as a very last resort). Like everyone else said, increase your water flow and think about getting a phosphate reactor, or simply add phosban media to your existing filter.
 
I am using bio pellets in a vertex reactor with great success (0 nitrates and 0 phosphates).

Might be somethign for you to consider trying to remove the phosphates in addition to all the good advice already posted here
 
How old are your lights?
I fought extremely aggressive cyanobacteria for over 8 months and nothing save for a week-long vacation when the lights were left off did a thing to help (the difference from the vacation was unnoticable within 2 days).
Finally I found a single article that said older lights can change spectrum and encourage nuisance algae and bacteria.
I changed my bulbs and within days I had sheets literally peeling away from every surface they covered and it's never been a problem again.
Those lights were given to me with the hood though, no idea how old they were.
 
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