Brown Slime

[jball]

For the past couple weeks my tank is been in pretty bad shape. Everything in it is covered in brown slime. Oddly enough my water parameters are exactly where they should be. I wasnt using RO water until the problem started but have been using it for a couple weeks. I've done one water change with the RO water and Ive tested the TDS's in the water before using it which tested 0. For two days I have only ran my lights for 6 hours a day. I also have been running some carbon phosphate remover called seagel for about a week. Nothing seems to be helping. Just when I think I'm about to see it start dying off the lights come on and its just as bad as before. I need some advice to get this cleared up its driving me crazy. My tank was starting to look decent and this happened. Should I do more than a weekly water change to get the built up TDS in my tank down? Any suggestions?

[ADMIN]

Try 10% twice a week to get the levels down you don't want to accidentally start a cycle. How many pounds of rock do you have it there and how deep is the substrate?

[jball]

I'm guessing my pounds of rock is pushin the 100+ pound mark. Pretty much all I can get in there. The substrate is anywhere from bare to 3in. Depending on what kind of mood my clown is in. I doubt thats the problem I have five narsosomething snails one sea cuccmber and a small two dotted sand siftin goby. On top of my clowns constant tail swiping. The majority of it is about one inch. Theres only one small corner that has it stacked up kind of high and I knock it down quite frequently just to annoy the clown.

So is that 10% twice a week on top of the current 20% I do on Sundays ?

[ADMIN2]

Do you have a skimmer? I think skimming the tank quite heavily would help. It will take some time to get things straightened out. I would not try to rush things too much by adding chemicals you do not understand. I would also recommend 10% change twice a week. You do not need to do the 20% on Sunday if you do the two 10%. Cutting light will not make the problem go away it will only help cover the real problem by limiting algae growth by decreasing the photoperiod. If you have a place for a refugium, macro-algaes will help to uptake the nutrient excess you have in your tank.

[jball]

Yea I do have a skimmer in place running all the time. My regular one did go out on me a last week and I replaced it with a day. As for the fuge no I dont have room for one at this time. I wish I did.

[ADMIN]

I agree with Phil on this.

[ADMIN2]

Here is something I wrote I while back about nutrients and problems with algae, it should help you out some.

FIRST-If your tank is less than a year old it is common to go through algal blooms so please post the age of the tank. Adding more chemicals would only cover the real problem.

Lighting itself does not cause algae. If the bulbs are old they may have had a spectrum shift which certain nuisance algaes may prefer. If you eliminate light you can get rid of algae but you also kill everything else. So therefore you need to get to what the root of the problem is which, is probably high nutrients. The nutrients in water cause algae to grow. What are the levels of phosphate and nitrate in the tank? Now that you know what the problem is, lets look at how to get rid of nutrients and problematic algae.

Here are few ways to do it, I tried to put the most practical toward the top. If you do not know what they are let me know:
1. A Good skimmer
2. Low TDS top off water
3. adequate feeding
4. Water changes with low TDS water
5. Macro algae growth in a refugium
5. Run high pH (dose kalk)
6. Binding of phosphate
7. Elevate magnesium ( this did not work for me but others say it does)
8. Carbon dosing (not for the beginning aquarist)
9. Use of ozone reactor or a UV sterilizer
10. Zeoliths
11. denitrators (hope you have some $)

I am sure there are others I have missed but that is a good list to start with.

[jball]

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. From what I can tell patients and water changes is about all I'm not doing at this point. The tank is 5 months old so maybe its still maturing. I did put the seagel in there about a week ago. Any advice as to when I should remove it ? From the sound of things immediately. One more thing If it was a build up of TDS's in my water that caused this and I started using zero TDS water wouldn't the algae eventually eat up all the extra TDS's and starve?

[ADMIN]

It will take some time for the TDS to come down IMO. As you do more water changes with RO you will bring the levels down gradually. Your tank is still balancing out at this point so just help it along slowly.

[ADMIN2]

Sources of nutrients:
The food you add to the system adds nutrients.
Salt mixes usually have trace amounts of ammonia, nitrates, etc that add some.
Your rock and subtrate is probably leaching out nutirents that are in them.
If you used tap to set up your tank it will take quite a while for all the nutrients to leave the system.

It is impossible to completely rid a tank of all nutirents but you should limit them by not adding excessive foods or poor water.

[ADMIN2]

One more thing If it was a build up of TDS's in my water that caused this and I started using zero TDS water wouldn't the algae eventually eat up all the extra TDS's and starve?

That is the idea, but nearly impossible to completely remove all undesired nutrients. That is why nutrient exports are helpful.

[naclh20nut]

How is the Brown Algae doing? Gone? I still get some small spots on the bottom. I just move a PH a little and within a few days its gone.

[jball]

BIO balls!!!!
I guess there was a build up of nutrient's in my bio balls that was causing the bloom. I removed them about a week ago and its almost all cleared up. Not sure how I was not seeing a build up of anything when I tested the water. Maybe the algae was keeping it out of the water column?

[ADMIN]

I would almost bet this was coincidental, I have seen only a small amount of cases where bio balls were the real problem. Sounds more like a balance issue but either way that's great news. Now you can focus on more important things.

[naclh20nut]

Apr 25, 2009 9:41:20 GMT -5 ADMIN said:

I would almost bet this was coincidental, I have seen only a small amount of cases where bio balls were the real problem. Sounds more like a balance issue but either way that's great news. Now you can focus on more important things.

I agree Bio balls get a bad wrap and they are no worse then LR/ pads or any other filter material.