Ultralife Red SLime Remover Experiences

[Sugar Magnolia]

My 30 cube has been chugging along now since Jan '04 and I've been through several algal cycles, normal stuff. About 4 months ago I incorporated a sump/fuge with a SCWD and a QO 4000 as a return. The resulting flow is less than desirable, which has left me with some low flow areas that cyano seems to just love. I've dosed with Chemi-Clean and not surprisingly, the cyano returned.

Right now I have two softball size clumps of chaeto in the fuge area, trying hard to do it's nutrient export thing, a low flow environment at the sand bed level, that will be difficult to correct due to lack of space for powerhead placement. (darn huge lifereef overflow box) I've syphoned this stuff out numerous times which makes me cringe everytime because my sand bed is loaded with microfauna.

I've bought a bottle of the Ultralife Red Slime remover and would like some comments from anyone who has used this stuff. Good experience or bad.

Thank you!

 

[Anonymous]

My 30 cube has been chugging along now since Jan '04 and I've been through several algal cycles, normal stuff. About 4 months ago I incorporated a sump/fuge with a SCWD and a QO 4000 as a return. The resulting flow is less than desirable, which has left me with some low flow areas that cyano seems to just love. I've dosed with Chemi-Clean and not surprisingly, the cyano returned.

Right now I have two softball size clumps of chaeto in the fuge area, trying hard to do it's nutrient export thing, a low flow environment at the sand bed level, that will be difficult to correct due to lack of space for powerhead placement. (darn huge lifereef overflow box) I've syphoned this stuff out numerous times which makes me cringe everytime because my sand bed is loaded with microfauna.

I've bought a bottle of the Ultralife Red Slime remover and would like some comments from anyone who has used this stuff. Good experience or bad.

Thank you!

I used it a couple of years ago, and it worked great for removing the slime. However, at the time, since the tank was fairly new, I had only hardy fish and inverts in it....damsel, some zebra hermits, snails....the slime never came back after the treatment though.

I couldn't tell you in an established tank with coral and more delicate species of fish and inverts what would happen. Hopefully someone else will chime in with experiences in that respect.

 

[Anonymous]

It's safe. The pH of your tank can alter, so watch that. I've never used it, but I know of a lot of folks that have, with good results. Obviously, red slime will return unless the conditions promoting it are dealt with. Not the fault of the Remover, but of the owner :wink:

Try kicking your skimmer, and blow out your live rock. If you are using filter floss, change it out weekly, or bi-monthly. Chemi-Pure can also help, and I assume you are using distilled water.

Perhaps it's time to vacuum sections of your sand bed. Yes, I know. *horrifed gasp*

:lol:

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Thanks you guys. I've decided to hold off on dosing it until I do a major WC and syphon out as much of the junk as I can. (AGAIN! :twisted: ) I'll need to figure out how to cram another powerhead in there to up the flow and I'm off to the LFS right now to pick up a nitrate test kit. Haven't tested for that stuff in over a year. The skimmer (Remora) seems to be not skimming so hot, so that'll get a complete cleaning as well this Friday. Sponges in the Lifereef and Fluval get cleaned weekly and replaced bi-monthly or monthly depending on how gross they've browned out after flushing with hot water, so I'm expecting to see some sort of nitrate reading. I'll let you know what I find.

 

[Mihai]

It's not only the flow, you know. It's also the nutrients. What do you use for export?

M.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Yeah, I know. Nutrient export is two softball size clumps of chaeto in the fuge, running since I added the sump/fuge - about 3-4 months. I only feed the fish every other day and sparingly. Tank gets a feeding of either cyclop-eeze or golden pearls maybe once a week, sometimes every other week. Every water change, the canister gets emptied and rinsed in hot water, the sump (BB) gets vacuumed out, rocks get blasted about once a month.

According to the crappy Aquarium Pharmecuticals test kit, my nitrate reading is zero.

I guess I need to start doing weekly water changes again and in a larger volume.