[Chiefmcfuz]

Please post your water parameters including cal, mag and alk. They would tell a lot about the reasons you have that cyano.

Are you using RO/DI? What is your TDS reading?

Are you dosing anything?

Before you add any chemicals like red slime remover you should find out why it is occurring in your tank.

[cowfish]

Sea hares eat cyano. The following is an excerpt from a thread on reef central. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1354733

"...there is at least one anti-cancer agent, dolastatin, which was originally isolated from our common sea hare. They collected tons of them to get dolastatin, until someone figured out that the dolastatin was not made by the sea hare, but was made by the cyanobacteria that the sea hare ate.

(plus they have eaten cyano in my tank)
papers:

where they find the anti-cancer agent in sea hares:
Biochem Pharmacol. 1992 Jun 23;43(12):2637-45.
Dolastatin 15, a potent antimitotic depsipeptide derived from Dolabella auricularia. Interaction with tubulin and effects of cellular microtubules.

Much later after they figured out it was from the cyanobacterial diet (note quoted section I pulled from the article below the reference)
ASAP J. Nat. Prod., ASAP Article, 10.1021/np070346o
Web Release Date: March 25, 2008"

[fritz]

You know they think that all the O2 on earth came from cyanobacteria, one of the earliest "algaes", interesting...

[e.muehlbauer]

Red slime remover is erythromycin, the antibiotic. I have found that hermits will eat cyano, at least Long island hermits will eat blue-green cyano, but not enough for practical benefit. Do lots of water changes, siphoning up as much slime as possible. Many people say high water flow, but the last time I had red slime (years ago) it was worst in the area with the most flow. Also check your lights- are the bulbs aging? Any natural sunlight getting in? I have a smaller tank that is very low, near the floor,and gets some direct late day sun during winter....that has sometimes stimulated some red slime.

[fritz]

Bah this is all wives tales.
Flow
Cyano does not spontaneously form in areas of low flow. If you add a powerhead to an area with cyano you will just move the cyano. It will find a new spot in your tank with low flow and grow there.

Lights
Lighting also has little to do with cyano. Cyano can live and grow under most lighting conditions, it's not that your bulbs are turning a little more red and thus the cyano is outcompeting your corals.

Nutrients
This is the cause of ALL algae outbreaks. Cyano, hair, etc etc etc are caused by an abundance of nutrients. Cyano exists in the air you breath so you will NEVER have a tank without cyano. It's impossible. You can however have a reef environment under which cyano cannot live, that is easy. If you can get your PO4 levels down low and I mean low cyano will have no food. If cyano has no food it can't live.

PO4 will come into your tank via tap water, overfeeding, waste from fish, cleanup crew, corals etc. Frozen food, most "Kent" brand products. Using RO/DI water is a must and using GFOs is also good practice but not totally necessary. If you're good with water changes and feeding/stocking you can get away with not using GFOs. Using GFOs of course gives you some leeway in terms of feeding,stocking and so on.

It's worth mentioning though that PO4 is abosrbed by rocks sand etc so if you have a PO4 problem it will likely takes months (6 or so) for you to get those levels down.

[fritz]

Also, supposing you found an animal that ate red slime it wouldn't help you. As the animal digested the red slime it would "poop" the nutrients that the red slime fed off back into the tank. It would merely recycle the red slime not remove it.

[Killerdrgn]

Quote: Originally Posted by fritz Also, supposing you found an animal that ate red slime it wouldn't help you. As the animal digested the red slime it would "poop" the nutrients that the red slime fed off back into the tank. It would merely recycle the red slime not remove it.

It would reduce it slightly as it would use some of the nutrients to grow. It's not a 100% what goes in is what goes out. Though it isn't enough to really dent the nutrient levels when you continue to feed the tank.

[camanuch]

can someone spell out wat GFO is?? i am a little confused with the short hand..

[NYPDFrogman]

granular ferrous oxide