Red slime / Dino help

[CptHowdy]

Hello, I have a recurring issue and a few questions. I have an IM Nuvo Fusion 30l. I use a media basket on both overflows. Each media basket is filter floss (changed 1-2 times a week), then carbon & GFO (IM’s “Purity Pack”, a packet of each in both sides 2x carbon and 2x GFO total) and 2 small media bags of Seachem Matrix at the bottom of each media basket. The tank has the stock pump (476gph Mighty Jet). I was using a RFG nozzle on each return but changed back to stock for more flow. I am running an IM Midsize Nuvoskim skimmer, running it really wet. I also added a Hygger 1600gph to one side blowing across back wall of tank. This power head is programmable for 5 times of day. For 3 of the 5 time periods I am running it constant and wide open. At night and early morning I have it reduce to 60%. For lighting I have 2 AI Prime 16HD Reefs about 9-10” off the water. I have reduced them quite a bit to try and deal with this red slime / dinos.

I do a 6gal water change with a RODI unit I bought a few months ago, weekly. I top off with this same RODI water daily, about .5 gallon.

Issue: red slime on sand, rocks and glass. The slime on the rocks develop air bubbles. On the sand, it’s like a mat. I blow off the rocks and whip my fish net around to try and remove as much from the water column. I use my hand to remove the mats off the sand. Then I do a water change. My last change was last Wednesday, a week ago. Tank looked fantastic for a few days then slowly starts turning red again. Here it is today:

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[CptHowdy]

Sorry, to add more info: lights are using only 7% white, no red, no green, and then 50% or less blue, violet, UV and Royal Blue.

Inhabitants: 2 clowns, 1 six line wrasse and 1 Banggai Cardinal

Cleanup: one blue legged hermit, one bumblebee snail and a tiger or fighting conch

I have problems with snails dying fairly quickly, so I haven’t bought any more. Hermit, conch and bumblebee snail have been in there a long time.

Corals: 1 rock flower nem, 7 head Frogspawn, 2 head Candy cane and a small frog plug with 7-10 zoas. All of these are doing well and growing except the zoas. The slime covers them quickly. I moved them to a higher current area and they aren’t getting blasted but never really open.

I feed once a day, about 3-4 pellets each fish. I use Omega One Garlic Marine Mini Pellets. Once a week I use a small amount of Elite Reef’s frozen seafood mix. I mix with Reef Roids (1/8th teaspoon) and target feed the corals and the fish come get leftovers. I do this with all pumps off for 10 min.


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[CptHowdy]

To add more, the tank is facing north near a west facing window. There is ambient light all day but never direct light. This is the coolest part of my house so it makes it easier to maintain temp year round but we do get tons of light toward the end of the day, but not directly hitting tank.

I will add these drawbacks and ignorant choices I made:

I used dry rock, been in water for 1.5 years now between my BioCube and this tank. Bought this rock at Elite Reef in Denver.

I used Distilled water (bought at King Soopers) for this tank for over a year with no issues. Halfway through 2020 this water became difficult to find and it seemed like the water quality reduced as I made no changes but started to get red slime. There was a 2-3 week period about 4 months ago I started using tap water with Seachem Prime for top off water changes and of course the red slime got worse. Went back to distilled after that but use RODI now.

I did re-use the sand from Biocube 16 and added new sand when I moved everything to the new tank.

Not sure if it’s bad or not, but I vacuum the sand bed during water changes, about 50-60% of it. I have read good and bad about this on various boards.

Any suggestions or ideas? Pretty desperate here, thanks!


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[TheRealChrisBrown]

How long has the Nuvo been up and running? Do you test Nitrates and Phosphates? How often are you changing the GFO and Carbon? Do you measure the TDS coming out of the RODI unit?

It sounds like you have a good handle on a lot of ideas, you've increased flow, I don't think you are over feeding, I might stop the reef roids for a few weeks and see if that helps.

Maybe try increasing your water changes. Instead of once a week, do twice. Or split the 6g single change into 2x 3 gal changes (or 3 x 3gal even). Each time you do a smaller one focus on an area of the tank. Like that branch rock for example, have your water change hose in there siphoning water while you try to scrub the rock with a toothbrush. Then wait a few days and do the same thing to the right side of the tank? Just a thought. If your rocks aren't glued together, I've done a water change and pulled a rock out and scrubbed it in the removed water. Swish it around and put it back in the tank. That way you are removing the crap outside of the display. Just some thoughts! I like the Chemi-Clean product, but you have to figure out where your nutrient problem is starting....solve it....then use chemi-clean, or else it is a temporary fix and the stuff will come right back.

 

[CptHowdy]

Awesome, thanks! This tank has been running since Oct 2020. Half the same and all the rocks came out of my Biocube. When I changed over to the new tank, I had buckets that I used to house the rock, inhabitants and tried to keep as much old water as possible. Of course the sand bed was disturbed as I scooped it out and put it back into the 30. The rocks were never left out int the air.

I need to test my params. I just switched from Chemipure Blue Nano to basic carbon / GFO in Dec’20. I slowly phased out the Chemipure Blue one packet at a time.

I don’t have a TDS meter so maybe I need to get one. Just started using this to make my water a few months ago:

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[CptHowdy]

Also, the rocks aren’t glued together so I have taken a couple out, placed in my old water after a change and scrubbed them. Stuff comes back in like 3-4 days.

Also, my back chambers are clean, nothing hiding back there. Maybe I will try 2 changes per week, 2-3 gals each.


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[SynDen]

At first glance, I think it looks like a flow issue mostly. You just have the one pump and the return?
I had a similar challenge on my nano a while back. I think it may help to use 1-2 more pumps even if they have lower flow, so that you can place them around the tank and get rid of any dead spot. A couple maxijets in the back and sides might help quite a bit

And certainly consider buying a tds meter. Pretty critical piece imo. its the first thing to indicate if you need new ro filters or not, and if you do need new filters and dont notice right away it can lead to a host of other issues, including but not limited to, algae blooms, and dino growth

 

[CptHowdy]

Here is my skim after a week to week and a half. I can go wetter:

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[CptHowdy]

Thanks SynDen, I have the return pump and one 1600gph Hygger in there. I like them because they are small. I may add another. Currently ordering a TDS.


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[TheRealChrisBrown]

I like the Salifert test kits for Alk, Cal, Mag (the big 3) and Phosphates and Nitrates. You can obviously take a sample of water to any local shop and get it tested for a few bucks, but the test kits are pretty easy to use. I think without knowing a baseline of parameters it is hard to really diagnose what is wrong. The Hanna checkers are pretty popular as well, but probably a little more pricey upfront.

Since you mentioned snails dying, I thought high nitrates. And the Phosphates might be causing issues with the algae if it's on the high end. Just thoughts, keep looking into everything...you'll find the culprit!

 

[CptHowdy]

Thanks, I have an API test kit but I have heard those may be pretty useless. I had a 75 gal reef about 7-8 years ago and I must have had a unique experience because that tank never had issues and I spent less time messing with it. Drawbacks of a nano maybe. Craigar hooked me up back then with tons of frags. He is a good dude.

I had to sell the tank because we moved to Bailey and I didn’t want to deal with driving super far for supplies or trusting shipping to 9000ft up.

Got to get a TDS and better test kit.


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[neil82]

I do think the quality of your source water played a factor. Good idea getting RODI. I am currently battling what I believe are dinos in my reefer 170. Looked like cyano at first, but didn't react to chemiclean treatment. The red slime increases while lights are on (I'm also using AI prime) and dissipates when lights go out. Cutting the white spectrum seemed to help. I've been trying to stay ahead of it with water changes and vacuuming the sand. Now I'm trying hydrogen peroxide dosing with lights off for a few days. I'm two days in. Also doing manual removal using toothbrush on the rocks.

My TDS meter took a dump a while back and I kind of suspect that my water quality might be a factor as well. I have an MP40 for flow and cranking it up doesn't seem to phase this stuff.

You could consider an aggressive round of manual removal and vacuuming the sand bed and then a few days of black out. Might need to cut some cardboard or something to block out light from the window.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[CptHowdy]

Got a TDS on order. Changed 5 gallons of water today, used a small hose to siphon and it sucked the red slime off the sand with ease. Way better than tying to pull it out by hand. I also pulled out every rock and scrubbed. Gotta order a better test kit too. Pics are hard to see but sand is white, rocks look way better.

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[CptHowdy]

So, got a TDS meter in.

RODI: 115ppm
Tap: 265ppm
Filtered water from fridge: 216ppm

My RODI unit is fairly new. Filters good for 500 gallons. Probably made < 50 gallons from it. Any ideas?


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[Craigar]

What’s your pressure to your rodi? Your di is probably spent. You may need to have your water tested to see what all is in it. That’s most likely where your algae issues are coming from.

 

[CptHowdy]

Thanks, I’m about done with this whole thing. I’ll see if I can test the pressure. Is there a certain pressure that’s best, high or low? I followed the rinsing / break in procedure to a T so as to not rinse the membrane coating into the other filters and so on. Seems crazy that anything would be spent already.


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[Craigar]

Thanks, I’m about done with this whole thing. I’ll see if I can test the pressure. Is there a certain pressure that’s best, high or low? I followed the rinsing / break in procedure to a T so as to not rinse the membrane coating into the other filters and so on. Seems crazy that anything would be spent already.


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I make sure mines at 80psi do you have a link to the rodi system you got?

 

[CptHowdy]

Yeah, here it is: https://aquaticlife.com/collections...ro-buddie-reverse-osmosis-deionization-system

The setup involved flushing the carbon filter for 15-20 min, then installing the RO membrane and running it for 20-30 min, then finally installing the DI filter and running it for 15-30 min. I did all that to prevent ruining the DI quickly. I can see the DI resin and it’s barely turning color at the bottom of the filter. I am also using this hooked up to my laundry room sink. I can check the pressure later. Been making my water with the cold all the way on.

Thanks Craigar...btw, we used to live just south of you and you hooked us up in the past with frags. You let my kids and I come in and look at all your stuff. You’re a really good dude! We moved away for a bit but now live in North east Brighton.


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[Craigar]

Well welcome back If I saw you I’m sure I would remember lol I’m horrible with names. If I have something you need let me know I’m always here to help. I lost my system after being in the hospital for 4 months so I don’t have corals at the moment.
As for the rodi I’ve never used one like you have. Did it come pre plumbed or did you have to hook up all the lines to the different stages. The pressure is the key for an rodi to work. If you low the ro membrane won’t expel the right amount of waste if it’s to high it will blow the membrane apart. Are you on city water or well?

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I was going to say, there was an incorrect way of running the lines that caused people to blow through the DI in very short time. But it doesn't sound like that is the case, because you followed the setup really well. If it were me, I'd look into that pressure, and maybe consider buying that booster pump thing @Craigar is selling. That thing is awesome!

How has the tank looked since your water change and rock scrub?