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meoklmrk91
06-24-2009, 05:59 PM
A few days ago I noticed that there were a lot of clear bubbles on the rock and sand, I didn't really think much of it until they started to turn into this sort of red goo. It is covering my sand and on most of my rocks now it is up near my feather dusters and I am worried that it is going to smother them or something. The tank is in it's 19th day of cycling.

lance
06-24-2009, 06:07 PM
red slime

lance

Skurvey Dog
06-24-2009, 10:04 PM
That looks like cynobateria to me. Is it easily blown off and looks sort of like thin sheets? If it is cyno, placing water in that area should help to clear it and keep it off. If you have a turkey baster or type of syphon hose, you can suck it out with that.

spanko
06-24-2009, 10:08 PM
Here is my take on getting rid of Cyano.

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.



--------------------

Henry

Iron E
06-24-2009, 11:29 PM
Hi ME, I don't remember what type of skimmer you've got but, if you can adjust it to skim a little more vigorously, it may help keep the excess nutrients removed more efficiently.

Tom

meoklmrk91
06-24-2009, 11:35 PM
I don't think that I can Tom, as far as I know anyway. I have had a tough time with the skimmer I'm not sure how to place it or even how it works. It came with the tank when I bought it, from what I can find out online it is submersible ans when I leave it above water level it does pretty much nothing.

meoklmrk91
06-24-2009, 11:45 PM
I don't think that I can Tom, as far as I know anyway. I have had a tough time with the skimmer I'm not sure how to place it or even how it works. It came with the tank when I bought it, from what I can find out online it is submersible ans when I leave it above water level it does pretty much nothing.

Okay scratch that I don't have the skimmer installed properly, I just did some searches on some UK forums because these skimmers are actually pretty popular replacements for stock skimmers and I have it done completely wrong. I will fix it and try and remove the cyano tomorrow, I just reached equilibrium is it a good or bad idea to do a water change at this stage?.

lReef lKeeper
06-25-2009, 12:00 AM
in my honest opinion ... a water change NEVER hurts.

CarmieJo
06-25-2009, 01:16 AM
Especially since you have cyano I would do a water change. What are your parameters now?

meoklmrk91
06-25-2009, 01:19 AM
Especially since you have cyano I would do a water change. What are your parameters now?
As of the tests I did today.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite:0
pH: 8.4

CarmieJo
06-25-2009, 10:49 AM
Your parameters are looking good! The advice you have gotten about flow, dead spots, and detritus build up is spot on. I would do a water change trying to siphon as much of the cyano up as possible. Before you start the water change use a turkey baster (don't know if you call them the same so here is a pix http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed/campingart/jettatech/bleeder/ist2_1078991_turkey_baster.jpg) to blow off the rocks and that way as you siphon you will be taking that detritus out as well. Turn your pumps off before you start the water change.

meoklmrk91
06-25-2009, 02:54 PM
I am in the middle of doing the water change at the moment, I think I got rid of a good bit of the cyano. i am fairly sure that the outbreak was due to my not installing the skimmer properly so basically all the bad stuff ended up staying the water. How ever even though I am pretty sure that there is good flow in the tank I may invest in a power head from ebay just in case I continue having problems.

CarmieJo
06-25-2009, 03:49 PM
Getting your skimmer in proper working order is a good first step. I think Koralia powerheads are a good choice. They are not too expensive and with their low voltage don't add heat to the tank and are easy on the electric bill.

meoklmrk91
06-25-2009, 06:20 PM
i am finally finished after almost 5 hours. I think that I can chalk this one down to a stupid beginner mistake. I cleaned the skimmer last Friday and put the bubble control at the lowest setting which pretty much made the skimmer useless. It was only after that the cyano appeared. I have pretty much obliterated the cyano, and I did a water change of about 30% and skimmer is working properly now so I am hoping that I won't see it again. I just hope that I haven't messed up my tank in the process.

CarmieJo
06-25-2009, 08:03 PM
Sounds good!