Help! etting upset

[bminich]

It seems the more time i work at this the more i seem to be doing wrong this is depressing.
i have a few questins hopefully someone can help. we have been pulling our filters every time we do a water change rinsing the off or changing the carbon in the filters leaving aprroximately 10% and adding to the new carbon.
I went to a local fish stor whom trully seemed to care a little. He told me that i should never had pulled the black sponge filters (my wisper jet 60 has 2 black sponge filters and 2 bio bags ) he told me were killing all good bacteria in the tank.
we also had a serious outbreak of red slime algae in the past 2 weeks i think it may have killed one of my snails and by dragon gobbie. any thought on this?
we took our water to be tested to finntastic a local fish store and they told us it was perfect. they told me my lights may be shot that i need to replace them after 4 months.
i bought a coralife with 4 t-5(65 watt bulbs). this would be costly to replace these already.
they said that the lights were probably not putting off all the correct rays which was promoting algae growth. when i went to the other local store he told me they were crazy and said the problem was phosphates. but the tests we have done all showed prophate reading were minimal to none

[emccullough1]

I cant swear to it but I was told when I had red slime it was a flow problem. I changed some things around and sucked it out with a Turkey baster and it has not came back.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

I would doubt seriously that t5 bulbs are shot after 4 months.In a standard fixture the generally last 2 years.It is sad but true that most phosphate tests can read 0 and there be plenty of them in the tank for some types of algea.Increase the flow and cut back on the feeding.Most of the time it will go away on its own.

[bminich]

thanks for the help i will cut down on the feedings and look into another powerhead asap

[rlcline76]

And get yourself your own test kits to keep up with your water. An LFS will not be able to profit from you if your water parameters are off, but he will profit big if you order your equipment through him. I would do as NATIVEVAMAN suggested.

[SweeTang22]

i have been having a red slime problem for a while and it finally went away. good flow, cut back on lighting time and feeding. all these will help correct the problem without the use of chemicals. keep at it and clean it as you see it.