[boba40]

i have had an outbreak of a deep red colored algae on my sand bed.it starterd out as red hairs then became more like a carpet.it develops air pockets between the sand bed and itself and tears away floating to the surface.does any one know if a lawnmower blenny would get rid of this stuff or does anyone have any other ideas on how to get rid of this stuff.
90 gallon tank
30 gallon sump
agm skimmer
three 850 hydor power heads
120 lbs. live rock
various softies
two clowns
one yellow tang
one yellow watchman gobie
one longnose hawkfish
eight blue legged hermits
12 snails-8 mexican turbos and 4 margaritas
one sand sifting starfish
one banded serpent starfish
ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrates-o
phosphates-0
calcium-500
ph-8.4

[ianizaguirre]

o thats not a big deal it happened to me and i got a diamond spot goby to sift my sand but it your case just get a cerith snail or Nassarius Snails whatever you get make your it sifts sand So besides that try more flow its a quick fix get a sand sifter

[NOSAJ214]

Buy some red slime remover.

[boba40]

i will try the slime remover.thanks for the input>

[spanko]

before trying the red slime remover

Red Slime (Cyano Bacteria)
Cyano grows on top of nutrient rich areas of low flow. There are a number of things that need to be correct or possibly corrected to combat this without the use of chemical additives. The biggest thing is to get rid of the extra nutrients.
1. Evaluate your feeding. If you are feeding more than can be eaten in about 1-2 minutes it is too much and the remainder of it is falling to the rock and sand and becoming nutrient.
2. Evaluate your flow. If you have areas in the tank where there is little to no flow this can be corrected by adding power heads or repositioning the ones you already have. You don’t need to create sand storms just have water moving over the area to keep detritus suspended in the water column for removal by your filter – skimmer.
3. Evaluate your water changes. The solution to pollution is dilution! You want to continually remove unneeded nutrients as well as replace those things that are used by the system. 10% weekly is a good change schedule. Some do 20% every other week and some vary the schedule from there, but a good start is 10% per week.
4. Evaluate your lighting schedule. About 10 hours of daylight is all that is needed.
5. If you have a cyano outbreak do the above 4 items andh:
a. At water change time siphon off the cyano first. It will come up easily almost like a blanker.
b. After siphoning stir the affected areas a little to suspend any detritus for the water change and filtering - skimming removal.
c. Use a turkey baster now and at every water change in the future to again suspend the detritus for removal by the water change and your filtering – skimming.

Keeping nutrient levels low to non-existent will help to avoid cyano outbreaks and any algae outbreaks as well as keep your tank and you happy happy.

Hope that helps.

[jimw369]

Yea Chemi-Clean works GREAT!

[ianizaguirre]

Originally Posted by ianizaguirre

o thats not a big deal it happened to me and i got a diamond spot goby to sift my sand but it your case just get a cerith snail or Nassarius Snails whatever you get make your it sifts sand So besides that try more flow its a quick fix get a sand sifter

40 gallon Reef- 1 Flame Angel, One Yellow Wrasse, 3 Chromis, One Diamond Spot Goby, Hermits, Snails, and Corals.

[Jason L]

snails and red slime remover kill your skiimmer then then in 3 days do a 25% water change if that doesnt work repeat

[boba40]

the red slime remover did the job.treated the tank saturday,sunday the slime is gone.now i will address some of the things that spanko had mentioned starting with cutting back on the feeding schedule.thanks guys.