Cali Kid Corals

Red Slime

Flightdeck

Flightdeck

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Last week I noticed the begining stages of red slime developing on some of the live rock. A day later it was every where. I did a 20% water change and ran down to the LFS and picked up some Red Slime Control by Blue Vet. Followed instructions. Today a week later the red slime is still getting worse. Any ideas on why this is happening and how to get rid of it? All my water perameters seem to test out fine. I am very concerned some of my sps are starting to bleach and have little polyp exstension. Any help? ?? My Phosphate are 0 and Nitrate are 2.5ppm
 
Try raising your flow rate. Cyano in my experience doesn't like water movement. You didn't mention how long you've had your setup. The various stages of algal succession can take months, some say up to a year. What's in the slime control stuff, anyway?
 
I have had this tank up for 3 years. The slime control by blue life does not say what is in it. It is a white powder that is mixed with a cup of tank.
 
Hmm, how bad is the slime? Did you check for missing livestock? Maybe something keeled over in there. I usually don't dose stuff that I can't test for, because you never know if the stuff you tossed in there will cause problems down the line. Maybe someone else can chime in here? Cyano is some nasty stuff, but it goes away in my tanks as long as you limit nutrients. My advice is to keep up on the water changes and maybe tweak your skimmer, make sure its collecting lots of gunk.
 
i've used 1/4 dose of chemi-clean before when I had a huge outbreak. It quickly went away after about 3 days, and has yet to come back after almost a year
 
Its better to siphon out the slime than use chemi clean (erythromycin). Sure cc can kill the red slime (make sure to follow the directions to the letter, including the inclusion of an airstone), but it won't remove the issue that is giving nutrients to the red slime. Removing the red slime is like harvesting your macros. :D

Have no idea why your sps is bleaching. How are you on water changes?
 
Yesturday I did a 25% water change last week when I first noticed I did a 20% change. Left the lights off today thinking it would help? Just got home and 2 of my sps are badly bleaching? These were fully covered in slime for the last week I would use a turkey baster through out the day when the slime would build up but it kept coming back. I tried keeping the lights off to see if it would help. I noticed in my refugium were the lights are not as intense there is no red slime? I run that light when my display tank lights are off? Also added another sieo to the display tank yesturday. So in total I have 4 MJ on a wave maker and 2 sieo 820 on a 55 hex. plus the return pump. After doing the water change yesturday I took 4 samples of the bacteria and tried different senerios to grow it and to kill it . One sample with daylight, one with day light and the medication I bought (red slime control by blue vet) the other two with out lights with and without medication. the first one without the meds and in the light has grown. It looks like spores of mold through out the container? The sample with meds and light has changed from red to brown and stayed in a slime like pattern that floats in the middle of the water colum. Both of the samples without light have done the same dropped to the bottom of the container clumped up and brown as well? I think it is still to soon to see any major results.
 
Just keep doing the water change and siphoning. That will get it down to just a few patches that may come and go.

If you kill it in your tank, it'll just release it's organic material to become reassimilated into new slime. Even with meds and skimming, it won't be properly cured overnight.

Keep siphoning as much out as you can. It's the small loose scraps that keep reforming.

If your rocks have a lot of detritus build up, try cleaning them. Swish them around in a bucket of saltwater. If you can't take them out of your tank, blast them with a powerhead.

What kind of skimmer are you running?
 
Also, if you need to drop the levels of a contaminant in your tank, 20-25% water changes are a bit low. Those are better for maintaining a tank that is doing well.

It'll be better to do a couple 75% changes.

For example:

If you have 4ppm of junk in the water, 25% water change still leaves 3ppm. If you do a second 25%, you still have 2.25ppm left.

If you do 2 75% changes, the numbers are 4ppm, 1ppm, .25ppm.

Just do a lot of siphoning, and let that be your water change.

Also, if you are getting a lot of small pieces breaking loose, run a Magnum HOT or canister for a few hours to clean up the water. Take it out and clean the filter afterwards. Don't leave it on there 24/7 or the slime will just come back.
 
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