Attack of the Red Slime

[DustinKeating]

So i went away for five days, and my girlfriend was looking after my tank. She did a good job, but when i came back there's SO MUCH RED SLIME ALGAE! I'm not particularly worried about it in the long run, but i do wonder why i have so much and how to get rid of it.

I scraped it off and syphoned most of it, but i know that's just a band aid solution.

I've read it can be the product of poor lighting and too much feeding? I think it might be the lights, right now i only have just standard walmart 15 watts (4 of them). and the lights aren't on a timer, so they've probably been running too long.

Suggestions? or outright statements as to why so much SLIME!?

 

[SALTY WATERS]

Excessive cyanobacteria are usually connected to an increase in dissilved organics. If phosphates and nitrate levels are getting higher, doublecheck whether your system is overstocked.

 

[SALTY WATERS]

Suggestions:

-Pinpoint the cause of the problem and correct it.
-make sure there is good water movement,blast the powerheads at the bad areas.
-frequent water changes and syphoning out the slime.
-paitience, this will go away just take a few week/months of consistent paranting.

 

[DustinKeating]

It's a 10 gallon with 2 oscellaris clowns. One snail, one hermit. I think i'm not overstocked, though correct me if i'm wrong though.

Any suggestions as to what might be the cause, i read somewhere that tap water might be the cause....anyone know anything about that?

i have a single 301 powerhead and an aquaclear filter, i know this is such a sketchy question, but does that sound sufficient....can you have too many powerheads, i was under the impression that you can never really have too much water movement (within reason of course)

 

[dbacksrat]

is the lighting flourescent or incandescant? incandescant is the wrong spectrum for aquariums and nonetheless encourages the growth of nuisance algaes and in your case cb
your tapwater could have phosphates and silicates in it (it most likely does)--i recommend either an RO unit or go buy your water from water stores
i had a horrible red slime algae epidemic when i first upgraded to powercompact flourescents, but then it eventually died away/was overrun by hair algae

 

[DustinKeating]

aha, the lesser of two evils?

I gotta be honest, i'm not exactly sure what kind of light bulbs they are. but i think flourescent. Can someone honestly tell me if it's worth 22 dollars each, for a flourescent 18" strip, compared to what i'm using? if so, can someone point me in the right direction as to where i could find some cheap ones on the internet?

 

[DustinKeating]

Should i try and wait this thing out?