Red Slime Issue

T

twmcguire

my tanks has been running for about two months and i have been having issues with red slime. i talked to a few people and they said it is normal for a new tank and just to let it run its course. i wanted to check with a few other people to see if they had any advice. here are the tank details.

28g nano with pc lights - lights and tank were new/never used when i set it up
im not running a skimmer right now. i just have the media that came with the tank. 3 sponges, carbon bag, and a bag with ceramic media
30lbs of rock. the rock was dead when i got it but i cycled it for three weeks before i setup the tank
two pumps that came with the tank and one K1 so about 932 gph?
saltwater and r/o water is purchased from mid-cities aquatics

salinity = 1.024
ammonia/nitrites = 0
ph = 8.3
alk = normal (1.7 - 2.8 according to the test card)
phosphates = .25
nitrates = 5
temp = 80.1

I have been doing weekly 5g water changes for the last three weeks to get the nitrtates/phosphates down. I did a 10g water change on tuesday and used the vacuum on the sand.

I also cut the light time down to 6 hours per day.

cuc = 30 dwarf cerith, 10 nassarius, 10 nerite, 3 astrea, 2 fighting conch

fish = 1 damsel and 1 blenny (I feed flakes every other day - no more than they eat in about a min)

so my question is do i just need to let the red slim run its course or is there another issue that i need to check?

i tried to get all the important information in, but let me know if there are details i left out

thanks for the help
 
You didn't mention any corals in the tank. If you don't have SPS in there, you can simply leave the lights off for three days and it will die back significantly. I would definitely run a skimmer though, because as the cyano dies, it needs to be exported.

A big water change will work as well.
 
i do not have a lot of corals in there right now. im thinking about taking them out and placing in a friends tank until the issue blows over.

i have candy cane, zoa, acan, duncan, frogspawn, and ricordia.

i am going to try and order a skimmer within the next few days and get it running. at that point i will increase the flow with another K1 and leave the lights out for a few days.

when i turn the lights back on do i need to start off slow - like 5/6 hours or so - then build up to the 8/9 hours per day?

thanks for the help guys.
 
PO3 will cause you various problems with algae at that level. It might be a significant contributor to your current problem.
 
Those corals will be fine with no direct lighting for three days.

And once it is over, you can just go back to normal lighting again.
 
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