Guest Canter292 December 29, 2003 Share December 29, 2003 I have been battling an algae out break. It was a red/purple looking slimy algae and not it's a brownish color with lots of clear little bubbles. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it and what it could be or possible causes? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Canter292 December 29, 2003 Share December 29, 2003 Sorry, had a typo. I meant NOW it's a brownish color with lots of little clear bubbles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest x2minusblndfold December 29, 2003 Share December 29, 2003 iv been battling the same problem, so im in the same boat u are..iv acualy been told that not keeping the lights on so long could help, but i dont know how long u keep urs on for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sph2sail December 30, 2003 Share December 30, 2003 Sounds like both of you have cyanobacteria outbreaks, also called red slime algae. How old are your tanks? What are you feeding? How are you getting extra waste out of the tank? What lighting and lighting period? s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Canter292 December 30, 2003 Share December 30, 2003 I treated my tank with the Red Slime Remover and it worked for a few says. Now it's not really red anymore it's brown with bubbles - I guess they are the same thing? My tank has been up for 6 or 7 months now. I feed Formula One and I try to scoop most of the algae out with a net and by water changes. I have 2 150 Watt Metal Halides with 4 power compacts. The PC's come on at 9:30 AM and the MH's come on at Noon. The MH's go off at 9:00 PM and the PC's go off at 10:00 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reeffoto December 30, 2003 Share December 30, 2003 The best and easiest fix for algae problems is to use RO water. In the long run buying an RO unit will save you lot's of money in water changes. (ie. salt) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sph2sail December 30, 2003 Share December 30, 2003 cyanobacteria (red slime algae) is a normal part of cycling a tank. You are in the right age range for it to be a nuisance for a while. Skim heavily. cyano does not like high light conditions. If your tank is 24" tall or less, your lighting seems good. Minimize flake food (except for spirulina algae flake). Feed frozen foods only. Reduce feeding a bit and skim heavily and the tank should cycle out of this phase in a month or so. My tank is 1.6 years old and I still have to deal w/cyano occaisonally. It is usually an indicator that I need to clean my skimmer... s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez January 1, 2004 Share January 1, 2004 Steve - cyno is NOT a regular part of a cycle. Diatoms and green algae are a regular part of a cycle. Joe/Patti: The presence of cyno indicates a nutrient rich environment. This is usually caused by high levels of phosphates or nitrates. Lighting is usually an exacerbating factor. A lot of light allows the cyno to reproduce more quickly. The use of chemicals such as red slime remover will not work perminently unless the source of the problem can be found. I won't go into the dangers of using antibiotics such as the red slime remover, but they should be avoided at all costs. Since the cyno generally uses the phosphate before you can test for it, your phosphate tests usually turn up zero. Moreover, phosphate test kits generally only test for inorganic phosphate, which is only half the problem (organic being the other half). Cyno is such a large problem, I have written a small article about it. Please read the following: http://www.cyberreefguru.com/general/cyno.html Finally, a small amount of cyno is inevitable. It will always exist in your tank, the key is to keep it under control. -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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