Red algea or slime on zoas..

[dsgray16]

There is a red slimmy algae on one of my zoa colonies. The polyps that it is covering have not been opening up for a few days.

Does anybody know what this might be and how i can treat it?

Is there some sort of dip that i can do?


Thanks

 

[mr_X]

blow it off with a powerhead and then place the coral in a higher flow area. red slimy algae is not really algae but cyanobacteria, which comes from excess nutrients.
no dip will correct it. waterchanges will.

 

[18oreefer]

+1 and you might want to look into getting a phos reactor. if you have one its over time to change the media.

 

[KathyC]

Ideally, blow it off soon, it will kill the zoas....

 

[dsgray16]

I have a Phos reactor, and have new media coming in on Sunday. I have been running the current media for about 1.5 months.. how often should this stuff get changed?

 

[KathyC]

It all depends on how much phosphate you have in the tank. If you have a lot, you want to change the media as soon as the phosphate # starts to increase. Some folks change it weekly (combined with more frequent water changes & not overfeeding the tank) until their numbers come down to acceptable levels.
Downside is measuring phosphates is best done with a Hanna Meter and those cost about $175... You might ask if someone local to you has one and ask them to check your water. The boxed test kits for phosphates are notoriously unreliable.

It can take a long while to get phosphates in check as your rock and sand tend to absorb them and leach them back out into the tank. If you create a storm of dirty crud if you stir up your sandbed you might want to think about stiring a small portion each time you do a water change and focusing on that area to suck the water out.

Regarding the cyano - you can do a 'search' here for it..there are a couple of decent methods (that I don't have the time now to detail for you) that do help. One being the 'lights out' method (for 3 days, but not suggested much if you have SPS), or you can use Red Slime Remover - but if you do -follow the direction on the package to the T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!