I started my saltwater tank- 55 gallon 4 weeks ago. Added live rock 1 week later (20 lbs.) An additional week later added 2 damsels to help cycle...the following morning my son dumped the entire container of flake food in the tank...cleaned out immediately, water cloudy for 2 days and both fish died. Since then all my chemicals are perfect-near perfect, but I now have this maroon slimy stuff covering everything. What do I do?? Cleaned it off all rock and live sand yesterday and it's already coming back!!
Help!! Maroon slime algae all over!!
- Thread starter lostatsea
- Start date
What do you mean by perfect? Or near perfect - I would suggest they're not as you have killed your fish (that shouldn't have been in there till the tank stabilised, shame), and you now have a blue green algae bloom.
Given the tank is no new I would suggest you break it down, clean the rock in a bucket of sea water, clean the substrate and so on. The process for clearing out bluegreen algae is so long that it's just not worth it in this case i.m.h.o. Normally you go for increased water flow and skimming the hell out of the system, combined with 'vacuuming' the stuff out every day or two.
This time build the tank up, put the rock and ad nothing for a couple of weeks, especially if the rocks not well cured. Give it time to stabilise. I recently built a tank and didn't add anything for 2 months and it made it very, very easy. I know people who don't add fish for 6 months, and they are very successful.
Given the tank is no new I would suggest you break it down, clean the rock in a bucket of sea water, clean the substrate and so on. The process for clearing out bluegreen algae is so long that it's just not worth it in this case i.m.h.o. Normally you go for increased water flow and skimming the hell out of the system, combined with 'vacuuming' the stuff out every day or two.
This time build the tank up, put the rock and ad nothing for a couple of weeks, especially if the rocks not well cured. Give it time to stabilise. I recently built a tank and didn't add anything for 2 months and it made it very, very easy. I know people who don't add fish for 6 months, and they are very successful.
What I meant in the two weeks since, my levels are now at
high PH 8.2
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
But yesterday I read that either the nitrate or nitrite (sorry forgot which one) will not register on tests if the slime algae is present. Anyway, I cleaned all my rock and live rock in saltwater 3/29 and again today. The slime seems to be cutting back slowly. My substrate is live sand, can that even be cleaned??? Sorry new at this saltwater thing and it seems every dealer I talk to around my area (only 3 local and all over 1/2 hour away) gives me different advice or just doesn't have a clue...thanks for the input...should I keep doing this long process thing of cleaning since it's slowly helping??? What about a partial water change???
high PH 8.2
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
But yesterday I read that either the nitrate or nitrite (sorry forgot which one) will not register on tests if the slime algae is present. Anyway, I cleaned all my rock and live rock in saltwater 3/29 and again today. The slime seems to be cutting back slowly. My substrate is live sand, can that even be cleaned??? Sorry new at this saltwater thing and it seems every dealer I talk to around my area (only 3 local and all over 1/2 hour away) gives me different advice or just doesn't have a clue...thanks for the input...should I keep doing this long process thing of cleaning since it's slowly helping??? What about a partial water change???
This Blue Green Algae/Cyanobacteria. However it can come in different color, an example is red. I believe the source of the problem is the large amount of fish food dumped in the water. The water wasnt cloudy because of a algae bloom, but a phosphate bloom. When you first added water to the tank, did you use RO water? If you did not there is a strong possibility there is phosphates in the water. I would invest in a test kit. If the phosphate level is over 0.5 ppm you have a problem.
If you don't use R.O. water, start. You can buy a unit from a catelog or home improvement store. Or you could purchase R.O. water from the LFS.
Keep the Salinity up at around 1.024, this is close to natural seawater levels and will keep your PH, Alkalinity, and Calcium at an acceptable level. You might want to do a partial water change with R.O. water so it dilutes the phospahtes.
What kind of lighting do you have? If you have inadequate light levels or the wrong spectrum lamps it could be feeding to the problem. Stick with at least 1-2 watts per gallon.
You didnt mention it, so I assume you do not have a skimmer. Get One! This is a vital piece of equiptment.
Sam Reef
If you don't use R.O. water, start. You can buy a unit from a catelog or home improvement store. Or you could purchase R.O. water from the LFS.
Keep the Salinity up at around 1.024, this is close to natural seawater levels and will keep your PH, Alkalinity, and Calcium at an acceptable level. You might want to do a partial water change with R.O. water so it dilutes the phospahtes.
What kind of lighting do you have? If you have inadequate light levels or the wrong spectrum lamps it could be feeding to the problem. Stick with at least 1-2 watts per gallon.
You didnt mention it, so I assume you do not have a skimmer. Get One! This is a vital piece of equiptment.
Sam Reef
I do have a prizm skimmer- up and running since day 1.
Silly question...what is RO water???? When I filled my tank I used regular tap water with the BIO-Safe detoxifier chemical stuff.
My lighting is 1 Coralife 10,000K and 1 50/50 bulb, both of which are 40 Watt, 48" length...
In addition to cleaning the tank and algae out every day or every other day, I have also been cleaning my filter on the same schedule...every time it washes out green, is this normal since the maintenance is only supposed to be done every 4 weeks?? It's a Rena Filstar XP canister filter...
One more thing, is there anything else I need to be doing such as monitoring calcium and such???
Now you guys can at least understand why I called myself lost at sea!!!
Silly question...what is RO water???? When I filled my tank I used regular tap water with the BIO-Safe detoxifier chemical stuff.
My lighting is 1 Coralife 10,000K and 1 50/50 bulb, both of which are 40 Watt, 48" length...
In addition to cleaning the tank and algae out every day or every other day, I have also been cleaning my filter on the same schedule...every time it washes out green, is this normal since the maintenance is only supposed to be done every 4 weeks?? It's a Rena Filstar XP canister filter...
One more thing, is there anything else I need to be doing such as monitoring calcium and such???
Now you guys can at least understand why I called myself lost at sea!!!
IS the prizm pulling out much gunk? Even with no fish you should still be gettign something out.
Welcome to the world of algae control. Typically what algae blooms need to thrive is light and nutrient, and by nutrient that means nitrate and phosphate. Limiting light is typically a nohoper for controlling algae, nutrient control is more effective and permenant. My opinion is that dumping the fishfood in caused an ammonia spike that in your comparatively new tank couldn't be handled by any bacteria in there. Thus blue green saw it's chance, and as you now know once it's there it's a pain.
Blue Green Algae (BGA) is typically very tough to deal with as it can 'fix ' it's own nitrogen - it doesn't need to rely on nitrate. However if there is any nitrate in there you can be sure it will be sucked up superquick and thus never tests. Still test for it though, and for phosphate. The treatment is lots of effective skimming and high water movement (at least 10 * tank volume per hour). Low salinities are typically a cause of problems so watch for that.
RO water is Reverse Osmosis - this is very pure water. Tap water can have high amounts of both nitrate and phosphate in it and still be 'legally potable'. If you want to use your tapwater you should test it and see what's in it or you're fighting an uphill battle. Any nitrate or phosphate geater than trace is likely to be problematic.
Live sand should help deal with nitrites and eventually nitrate if it's deep enough for anaerobic processes to occur. Typically marine keepers with cannisters clean them every couple of days despite what the manufacturer says as the accumumlated decomposition of organics in such an extreme, fast way as cannister and wet drys do causes nitrates to build up if the organics aren't physically removed. This is why these devices are commonly called 'nitrate traps'.
Good luck - look on the algae pages of wetwebmedia.com for more info in fighting algae. This likely won't be quick I'm afraid
Welcome to the world of algae control. Typically what algae blooms need to thrive is light and nutrient, and by nutrient that means nitrate and phosphate. Limiting light is typically a nohoper for controlling algae, nutrient control is more effective and permenant. My opinion is that dumping the fishfood in caused an ammonia spike that in your comparatively new tank couldn't be handled by any bacteria in there. Thus blue green saw it's chance, and as you now know once it's there it's a pain.
Blue Green Algae (BGA) is typically very tough to deal with as it can 'fix ' it's own nitrogen - it doesn't need to rely on nitrate. However if there is any nitrate in there you can be sure it will be sucked up superquick and thus never tests. Still test for it though, and for phosphate. The treatment is lots of effective skimming and high water movement (at least 10 * tank volume per hour). Low salinities are typically a cause of problems so watch for that.
RO water is Reverse Osmosis - this is very pure water. Tap water can have high amounts of both nitrate and phosphate in it and still be 'legally potable'. If you want to use your tapwater you should test it and see what's in it or you're fighting an uphill battle. Any nitrate or phosphate geater than trace is likely to be problematic.
Live sand should help deal with nitrites and eventually nitrate if it's deep enough for anaerobic processes to occur. Typically marine keepers with cannisters clean them every couple of days despite what the manufacturer says as the accumumlated decomposition of organics in such an extreme, fast way as cannister and wet drys do causes nitrates to build up if the organics aren't physically removed. This is why these devices are commonly called 'nitrate traps'.
Good luck - look on the algae pages of wetwebmedia.com for more info in fighting algae. This likely won't be quick I'm afraid
Skimmer is working great- I clean green smelly suff out of it every day...I have cut my light time down to 4 hours a day since there are no fish, etc in the tank...Eventually I'd like to have corals in the tank, do I need to have my salinity higher, right now it's at 1.022..temp on tank is 79...any other adjustments that I need to make?? Oh, since i cleaned the tank yesterday the BGA has just barely spread, so little you can barely tell...(I know my fight isn't over but at least I'm making progress!!! :^) ) Thank you so much for helping me out!!!!!!!!
Agree - drop it to 75, and raise the SG to 1.025. I have no idea where you live so I have no idea on your local water - however if it's anywhere metropolitan you are likely to benefit from RO. I will admit I don't use one though.
It sounds like you're making progress. I would be tempted to wait till you fill you're in control , add another load of live rock, maybe 40 pounds good quality in a nice airy structure, wait for the minicycle to complete (dieoff from transporting the rock) , then think about adding a clean up crew. Good luck!
It sounds like you're making progress. I would be tempted to wait till you fill you're in control , add another load of live rock, maybe 40 pounds good quality in a nice airy structure, wait for the minicycle to complete (dieoff from transporting the rock) , then think about adding a clean up crew. Good luck!