Red Slime algae.

[plecko]

I found the strangest thing the other day. I had set up a small tank to frag into. It developed red slime quickly. I had put some good Flotida rubble in the bottom of it. It too got slime all over it.
Well, I moved to another house. In the process I broke the tank down and put the rubble in plastic bags and put them in the cooler, just rubble and no water. After getting all moved in, I put the rubble back in the small tank. It looks better than the day it was taken from the ocean! The slime is all gone and all of the coraline algae colors are back. Am a happy camper!

[plecko]

The total time the rubble was in the bags was 3 days.

[icereefer]

:coolbeans:

[BoldAsBrass]

That's a good tip, thank you

[MikeS]

the lack of light is likely what killed the cyano...

many substrates like aragonite and raw rock like dry rubble rock, contain phosphates, which is why you often see a cyano bloom with new dry rock/sand...

Mike

[BoldAsBrass]

You are absolutely right Mike. Thanks for triggering the thought. It's a good practice to cover the tank completely when infected highly with the red algae, and anyone who worries about lack of food or the darkness, don't forget when there are hurricanes, some corals don't get "light" for days, and food is lacking for fish. Thanks again Mike

[MikeS]

Yes, light deprivation can kill off cyano, but the problem is it doesn't do much to solve the underlying problem that caused the bloom in the first place...actually, it can worsen the conditions a bit, as the algae/cyano dies off it simply re-releases the stored nutrients back into the water...

"Starvation" is the best way to combat these types of problems...manual removal of the cyano will help export nutrients from the system, and removing as much of the cyano "fuel" as possible will go a long way towards a long term solution to the problem... :-D

Mike

[BoldAsBrass]

You the man Mike. Rock on! karen

[MikeS]

You the man Mike. Rock on! karen

:lol: naw....just done my share of battle with cyano back in my old FO days... :lol:

Mike

[mojoreef]

Its actually best to use the cyano to your advantage when iit comes up from time to time. Phosphates play are very small role (helps the algae form a bit). The main culprit is nitrogen, In your case problibly just some die off the cyano was burning off for ya. Cyano will uptake nitrogen (fixes its own niitrate) 500 times faster then the best macro algae you can get. From time to time I get a patch, I just let it go until i see it reducing a bit and then I syphon it out.


Mike

[MikeS]

agreed, cyano is a good (if unsightly) exporter of nutrients...

Would you then say that nitrogen is essential for cyano growth? I have always been under the impression that phosphates were a wonderful fuel for cyano...

Mike

[mojoreef]

Well you have to look at it as two different components. Algae and a bacterial components. The bacterial components fix nitrogen, the algae component will uptake P. But the Bacterial end always happens first.

that make sence??


Mike

[MikeS]

yeah...

Mike