Help is needed

So I have been fighting red slime for a while. I have tried everything, 80 % water change, three treatments of chemi-clean and 3 gallon water change 48 hours later. It is a 14 gallon Biocube with the nanocustoms light upgrade. The problem has now become red slime, green hair algae and brown algae. I cone to you in hopes that you guys will have more knowledge then my LFS. I went in today to have a water test an my nitrates are still "high" they didn't give me any numbers. I was told to do a 30% water change and everything would be okay. My problem is I have done everything try have said all I do is end up buying more crap from them. So someone who isn't in for a profit could help me pin point or narrow treatment would be awesome!!

Gavin

 

how long has the tank been running? are you using rodi water? what is your light schedule? how often and how much do you feed? what are your tank inhabitants?
I'm no expert on algae , but these questions can help someone better find the problem

 

The brown algae suggests a cycle is occurring. Are you allowing the water to age before the water changes? If not, this may be killing some little guys off, promoting the problem.

 

The lights are on for 7.5 hours per day. The tanks is just about 2 years old and for the last 4-5 months I have been fighting with this. Keep in mind inept doing normal water changes ontop of the other ones. Te tanks has a clown fish..an MIA as of this morning firefish. 6 hermits and 6 snails. I also have a green star polyp and a bubble tip anemone. And yes I am using RO/DI water.

 

Also two feather dusters

 

I usually copy/paste this below post I made a while back, maybe it'll help you beat your cyano as I'm not a fan of chemicals to beat it.

These suggestions/tips may help you figure it out. I also feel diatoms and cyano are somewhat of a rite of passage in new tanks that is unavoidable, but your tank isn't "new".

I had also bought chemi-clean to dose, but the more I read, the more I believed that dosing chemicals to rid the cyano was like many have said, using a "band aid". You will get much better piece of mind when you find out what is the cause of the cyano and along the way you will gain better tank husbandry IMO.

Here are a few things I did to rid myself of the evil red slime:

- use RO/DI water only, that tests at 0 TDS
- cut back on your feeding, I went from once a day to every three days
- rinse any frozen foods prior to feeding (in RO water if you can)
- ramp up circulation in any dead areas of the tank
- pick out any clumps of red slime you can, use baster/siphon/tongs
- double your water changes to keep Nitrate down
- clean out all powerheads/skimmer/filters etc.
- make sure your bulbs are still good
- cut back your light cycle by maybe 40%
- make sure your tank isn't overstocked
- running a protein skimmer is a def + if not must
- run a phosphate remover media (I use a reactor with Chemi Pure Elite)

It seems like a lot of work, but it's much better getting rid of it naturally then wondering when it may come back if you dose with chemicals.

Best of luck & it will go away even though it seems like you're fighting uphill

 

What do you mean by age? I mix it an allow it to sit over night..

 

Well I have added a maxijet power head and replaced the stock return pump and I'm doing like 200gph...I feed every three days. any ideas help because all my LFS wants to do is sell me chemicals instead of giving long term advice. When I went to get my water tested I had to tell the girl behind the counter what to test for and how to do the test..and this isn't a petsmart it's a family owned place..

 

regardless you have large amounts of nitrates and phosphates..bad algae wont grow unless you have it, no questions about it..

use gfo, carbon, filter floss,,and change it out often but you dont wanna strip the water to clean to fast..you can also set up a fuge and run cheato and remove them naturally...if this doesnt fix it then maybe you need to rearrange your scape to allow for better flow with less dead spots..cyano start to grow in low flow areas where shi% builds up..and whenever you do water changes siphon it out..and if all this doesnt work, maybe your live rock you go was previously in terrible water and is now releasing phates and trates back into your water column..

and cut lighting a few hours a day will choke it out some..+1 to previous advice mojoe knows his stuff..but its simple get rid of your phate and trates with either media or cheato

 

never use chemicals for algae, its gonna come back when you stop using them, and half the time they dont work..get your water cleaner..and read up on how to get your water cleaner