help, red slim alge.

Hey everyone I have a 150 gallon salt water tank has been up and running about 5 months I currently have multipule corals and 3 fish. I use RO water in my tank only, but it seems i cant get rid of the red slim alge. I know that you are all gonna mention that there are other fourms on this, and yes I have read them. Yet the advice seems to have brought me back to the same place. I have cut back on my lights, I have done a water change reduced my feedings and even bought the suggested micro-lift special blend a complete eco-system in a bottle and yet I still have red slim Alge, I just don't know where to go from here to get rid of it. It seems to have just come back even worse.

Does anyone have any good advice on where to go from here?

 

In order for us to help, it may be good to answer the questions below. I know it can be very frustrating to have algae problems- I had a very bad outbreak of green hair algae and I couldn't find the cause.

What type of bulbs are you using and are they 5 months old like your tank?
How long are you running them now that you have cut them back?
How often and how much are you feeding your fish?
How often and how much water do you change?
Have you taken phosphate and nitrate readings recently?
Is your tank near any windows?

 

Thank you for your response and to answer your questions

:The light bulb are no more then 5 month old and they are T5 i got 4 light bulb currently total of 426 watt and the light are running for 8 hours a day

:I only got 2 tangs i feed them sea weed once a day and meaty food every 2 days.

: i do my water change depending on the water chemistry with that being said my water chemistry is great everything is 0 calcium is betweeen 400-450 i do about 40 gallon of water change at time

:I had phosphate cheched it was .02

:The tank is located next to window but the window is all covered and there is no light coming throw i will try to post some pic later on today

its very deprising the red slim alege just takes over everything
O
nce again thank you everyone in advance

 

Is the slime in the same area everytime? When you say ro, do you just mean ro or are you using a ro/di unit? Where are you getting your ro from? If the slime algae is in the same area then you might have to adjust your powerheads thats if you have any inside your tank.

 

That's a good point. It is typically good to have one powerhead grazing just over the surface of the sand and if you have a "dead zone" red slime could easily collect there.

 

I'm guessing a DI is in order, maybe a biopellet reactor, and some increased flow!

How'd ya like that smell of that microbe lift?lol

 

Red slim algae is not a real algae. It's actually a cynobacteria: Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria) - Description, causes and cures for Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria)

Have you ever tried using Chemiclean? It works wonderfully IMO.

 

Man i thought i was going to throw up lol dude not cool

 

sorry everyone i took so long to get back. I do have lack of water flow in the tank. Does anyone know where to buy good power head or a wavemaker with out having to worry about my wife divorceing me lol

 

raise flow, red slime hates flow

koralias are pretty cheap...you can usually find them for under $30 used if you look around