Brown slime problem

[antoine]

I have had a brown slime problem for a little while now, I tried to cut down on the lights and use PhosGuard to control the phosphate and silicates. It seemed to work for a little bit, but now its coming back. I stopped adding my usual supplements and I bought a phosphate test kit and the phosphate level was about 0.20 ppm. I now have a green like furry algae growing with the brown slime, it doesnt quite look like hair algae. The tank is a 5 year old tank that has been reef for about 3 years of that. I have about 55 pounds of live rock with about 55 pounds of crushed coral/sand mix. I have run out of ideas, any help would be greatly appreciated!

[reefmaximus]

it could be the water you are using.
are you using a reverse osmosis filter?

[naldopr]

that could be blue and green algee and diatom. there is alot of factor that produce that bad spectrum. poor water flow and poor water quality.are you using wet/dry? if so clean all the bioballs or replace it with live rock and also replace the foam. do a good cleaning and then do a 50% water change with r/o water. and make sure your skimmer is clean so it work better. get a good cleaning crew nassarius snails,sand snifter star fish.

my 2 cents

[antoine]

Im gonna try the RO water change and takin the bio balls out completely, the tank should be well enough established and have plenty of biological filtration with all the liverock that i have, right? Were you suggesting that i put liverock in the wet/dry? I can get more rock from a friend if thats what you were suggesting. My protein skimmer seems to be working quite well at the time. Thanks for your replies.

[naldopr]

no problem

[naldopr]

well it works better for me to have live rock as filtration! just keep in mind that you should use small rocks.

[hotwriter]

As far as the brown slime is concerned is it bad for your tank? and what type of water shouldn't you use to avoid the slim?

[Aqua-holic]

yes brown slime is bad it is a form of cyanobactria. Tap water should never be used for aquarium water Ro/di is the only way to go. phosphates build up over a period of time and the leach out of the substrate and rock so removal takes time. contiunue to use a phosphate remover , change any carbon often (1-2 months ) some times in very bad cases the rocks will have to be taken out and scrubed to get a handle on it. adding a fish like a rabbit fish or foxface works well and seahares also do a good job on hair algae mexican red leg crabs are good for cyanobacteria.

[hotwriter]

Good to know. Thanks.