New To Reefing

Annabellam

Member
Jan 17, 2017
16
5
Red Slime In A Reef Tank
So just going through my past mistakes i remembered a constant problem that i had - Red slime. I know i could have been missing a few step on tank maintanence but since now am here, wanted to know whether any of you ever experienced this and how you dealt with it?
 

RobbieMVFC

Member
Feb 25, 2013
1,232
610
Hi Annabell , I think you are talking about cyanobacteria. It's a common problem typically in new tanks/new sand beds. There are plenty of snake oils you can buy to counter act it however I believe that once your biological filtration matures it will become less prominent. It will still pop up from time to time but the more mature your tank is the less you will see it.
For the record I have it in my tank ATM . I am not doing anything dramatic/different to my normal maintenance.
It also said that a lot of flow will prevent it but this will throw your sandbed about.
People will also talk about doing lights out for a few days but this is BS IMO and will just upset your corals.
On a side note it's also the oldest living thing on earth. So if it has outlived dinosaurs what hope do we have....Lol.
 
Last edited:

Annabellam

Member
Jan 17, 2017
16
5
Thank you. Good to know that am not the only one who has experienced it and that it isn't totally out of this world.Looking forward to a more mature tank then hopefully it can go down. Will also look for the oils and see what i find.
 
Thank you. Good to know that am not the only one who has experienced it and that it isn't totally out of this world.Looking forward to a more mature tank then hopefully it can go down. Will also look for the oils and see what i find.
Chemiclean works really well for cyno. One dose and three days later it will be gone. Run your skimmer flat out and let it overflow. You do this because the skimmer will go nuts anyway for the next week or so. The idea is to get oxygen into your system. Some run an air stone during the time of treatment but I only ever let my skimmer cup run back into the sump. Chemiclean strips the oxygen from the water. I have done this in three of my tanks and generally once you have done it once it will not come back. Given you do not change too many things like add heaps of new sand or dodgy rocks.
 

Annabellam

Member
Jan 17, 2017
16
5
Thank you guys for all the solutions. Looking forward to getting rid of it and developing a more mature tank.
 

Annabellam

Member
Jan 17, 2017
16
5
Thank you for all the help, solutions offered. I look forward to getting rid of it and developing a more mature tank.
 

Annabellam

Member
Jan 17, 2017
16
5
Just so you know, I recently moved a three year tank over to a larger tank, new sand already showing signs of some slight cyno. If it gets worse I will chemiclean it. Its totally normal when adding new sand.

Okay. I recently added new sand so that could be a reason. I'll continue working on it.
 

mcclown

Member
Mar 12, 2017
55
23
Starting into cycling my first marine tank in the next two weeks....this is all ahead of me I suppose. I'm not going for a DSB, will this still be an issue?
 
Starting into cycling my first marine tank in the next two weeks....this is all ahead of me I suppose. I'm not going for a DSB, will this still be an issue?
You will as everyone does, see an Diatom bloom... browning of the sand for a while. This is normal and as I am seeing with the new sand I started my latest tank up with, it is now almost all gone. Red slime or Cyno, is different. It starts due to an excess amount of carbon in the water and it feeds on it. But it is easily treated and one treated it should stay away. Have had a few instances myself all during different tanks I have had in the past. Easily treated and then you can move on.