[ECFENCING]

Just wanted to see if anyone has used UltraLife Red Slime Remover.

Just dosed my tank last night. I have an outbreak on my sandbed. So far it looks like some of it has gone away after 24 hours but there is still a substantial amount of cyano bacteria on the sanbed.

I've decreased feeding to 1xday and have upped my water changes from once a month to 2 x a month to now once a week.

My system is a 70g with ASMG2 skimmer, and have a large YT, small hippo, two false perc clowns, some leathers, a cleaner shrimp, sandsifting star, and nassarius snails.

For flow there are two seio 620's and an eheim 1260 for the return at half throttle.

20g sump with phoszorb.

Dosing pickling lime on auto top off for the last few weeks but recently stopped.

Nitrates still at 5ppm, salinity=1.025, temp=77-79. no noticeable ammonia, or nitrites.Should test for phosphates though.

I think the cause was deadspots and overfeeding.

Also lights are just normal output fluorescents. Not investing in any lights ,although I have a PFO HQI 250W pendant that is sitting around, until my 120 gets set up. Bulb is six months old as long as the tank has been running.

I'll post pics in a few minutes.

Question is: How long should I wait until I turn the skimmer back on? I'm due for a water change today and just planned to siphon out the red slime on the sand bed and turn the skimmer back on.

[Chiefmcfuz]

Get some more circulation in the area of the outbreak after you do your w/c. I have used the R/S remover it works ok as a quick fix. Do you use RO water for your w/c's?

[ECFENCING]

Yep. Although when I first started out I didn't.

[Tim]

Try and remove the sand with the cyno when you do your water changes.The more you get out the better off you are. Also I did two treatments back to back it seemed to work better than one...Tim

I like Chemi Clean ,that stuff works wonders

[ECFENCING]

Deep/Tim/Chief:

Thanks. I think Chemi clean is better. Forgot about it. Thanks Deep for the suggestion.

Quote: Originally Posted by DEEPWATER I like Chemi Clean ,that stuff works wonders

So far Red Slime Remover has taken out most of the cyano on the sand bed at least the darker red slime had turned into a faint brown slime.

I'm doing a W/C tonight and will siphon out the remaining slime.

BTW Deep: With IO I'm noticing more Coralline Algae Growth. I've switched from Oceanic to IO.

[herman]

All Chemicals SUCK!!!!! Dilligence and patience is the way to go. Cyano generally tends to develop where there is a low flow area. This happens to be where detritus settles also. When you lift the blanket of cyano you will fiund also a pocket of crap right underneath.

Dont be too quick to remove the cyno. The ones on the rocks can be removed immediately but the ones on the sand you can leave. Cyano is also a photosynthetic organism. You will notice air bubbles forming. Once the matt on the sand gets big enough it will slowly lift off which makes it easy to lift with out and residue - which is what you want.

All of these damn chemicals are just a quick fix but you have to get to the underlying issue. Cyano tends to manifest itself when too many nutrients are available.

! - So manual removal
2 - redo the positioning of rocks and powerheads to avoid deadspots.
3 - frequent waterchanges
4 - bigger skimmer to remove the organics from the water
5 - disolved organics can be removed by carbon and ozone/skimmer combo

HTH,
Herman

[ECFENCING]

Herman

Thanks. Yeah a waste of money. I broke down yesterday and went to Petland Discount. Should run carbon and definitely need better flow. Cyano developed on the sand bed and loc lines.

Skimmer=asmg2. Have to rethink rock layout and need better circulation.