I am planing on buying a powder brown tang soon will he/she eat red slime algae. I have a 29gal. tank I know thats a little small for a tang but planing on a 150gal.in about a year or so.
Red slime algae
- Thread starter 20062008
- Start date
Tangs eat green algae not red slime which is not algae but a type of bacteria - Cyanobacteria to be specific. Don't buy the tang til the 150 is cycled thru and stable. The Tang won't survive in that small amount of space or water for 1 year, he'll be dead of ick within' a month.
I have a similar problem, I have a 28 nano and I'm gonna get a 100+ reef this summer. If a get a golden sleeper goby I think it will help. And how close to June can I buy my convict tang? January? May? April? Mind you it would be one of those 1 inches? Btw, sorry if I'm hijacking your thread. I think we are somewhat related in the problems department.
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Their are no fish that i know of that graze on Red slime. Goby's are sandsifters eating reef bugs not slimey bacteria. Red Slime algae is usually fueled by detritus - undissolved + undigested carbon skeletons that slowly dissolve phosphates into the water column. Cyanobacteria is Nitrogenous, it can produce it's own Nitrogen however it does need Sunlight to photosynthisize, (converts light energy to usable stored energy) aids in the process of producing sugars. Nitrogen + PO4 is the ingested fuel and sugars are the life blood of this type of bacteria.
Thanks for the info I will hold off on the tang, dont need more problums. PO4 is at 0.25 and nitrates at 10. The lights are on for 9 hours a day and there LED's. I'll try cleaning the bioballs and sponges this weekend when I do my water change. Do you think I should leave my lights off for 2 or 3 days or would that cause more harm then good.
Forgot to say my PH is a little low 7.8 been trying to got it up to 8.2. Was told to try bakeing soda but dont now how much to use. Think that may help with that red slime crap a little also.
Nope PH doesn't really effect Cyano - if your PH is low then your Alk is probably low. Try switching salt mixes to Red Sea Reef Pro rather than dose.
As for the Cyano - if your .02 + 10ppm simple remove the cyano with a tooth brush it probably won't comeback in force. When it does just wipe it off - eventually with no PO4 it'll stop.
As for the Cyano - if your .02 + 10ppm simple remove the cyano with a tooth brush it probably won't comeback in force. When it does just wipe it off - eventually with no PO4 it'll stop.
+1 agreed.
I covered my reef tank entirely with a towel. Cut the lights off and left it covered for 2-3 days, then brushed the remaining cyano off. Never came back.