# red slime



## roafamily (Jul 30, 2012)

good afternoon to all,
i have a 30 gallon tank and twice already i am getting red slime on my sand. what causes this? i bought some red slime medicine (looked like yellow powder) scooped it into my tank the first time and it went away but the water turned yellowish. i did a water change. 
this time the slime is back, any ideas on what i am doing wrong


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## GreenyFunkyMonkey (Nov 27, 2012)

Hi there,

Sorry about the red slime stuff. It can be unsightly. How often do you do partial water changes, and what are your nitrate levels?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

sounds like cyano bacteria. Often mistaken for algea it is bacterial in nature.It also is diffacult to remove.The yellow stuff you speak of"red slime remover" does work in removing existing, but keeping it from comming back is long battle.There are many threads on site about cyano and more on web.Probably no real cure listed though,it truely seems to be a battle for many.


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## roafamily (Jul 30, 2012)

last time i did a water change was about 3 weeks ago, 30 gallons so i did 6 gallons. my nitrates level i dont have hte number here but per my bud at the fish place they were very good, him and i were monitoring it for about 2 months and he helped me bring them to a good level


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

But what does your LFS consider very good numbers?
Cyanobacteria can be had by a few things. How much flow do you have in your 30g tank? Whats your lighting conditions? Are you running a skimmer? Whats your substrate consist of? What type of foods are you feeding?
Aquarium Blog
Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

nice link to blog. good info.I haven't had cyano for quite the time now and the only thing that changed in my tank and habbits is my nitrAtes.As they tend to be non existent I have not seen any cyano either.VERY INTERESTING?


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Welp I'd say Nitrates are a very small part in it, I have Nitrates between 20-30 on a consistent basis, and do not have cyano, and do not plan on getting those Trates to 0 ever. I have fish with jus a few easy to care for Softies, that's all I'm planning on, so Nitrates as an issue would have to be higher than 40 on a regular basis.


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## GreenyFunkyMonkey (Nov 27, 2012)

roafamily said:


> last time i did a water change was about 3 weeks ago, 30 gallons so i did 6 gallons. my nitrates level i dont have hte number here but per my bud at the fish place they were very good, him and i were monitoring it for about 2 months and he helped me bring them to a good level



Hmm, 3 weeks is a very long time to go without a partial water change. Try changing 20% of your water per week with a gravel siphon. I bet your phosphates and nitrates are probably pretty high too if you have not changed your water in so long. Water quality checks should be done once per week. Doing the above will prevent your red slime problem.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

GreenyFunkyMonkey said:


> Hmm, 3 weeks is a very long time to go without a partial water change. Try changing 20% of your water per week with a gravel siphon. I bet your phosphates and nitrates are probably pretty high too if you have not changed your water in so long. Water quality checks should be done once per week. Doing the above will prevent your red slime problem.
> 
> I hope this helps. Best of luck!


I haven't done a water change in 4 months.


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