# got a slime and alge outbreak!



## Yanfloist (Oct 1, 2007)

i think i added a but too much fertilizer and now i have an alge and slime outbreak. no matter how much i clean the tank, every morning the slime and alge comes back. The slime is a brownish color. my tank is a 225 gallon with 15 sword plants, some micro swords, and ludwigia. I also have 5 little sucker fishes. temp is 80 degrees, lighting is 450watts metal halide. i mixed gravel with flourite substrace and sand on top of everything. filter is a FX5. Ph is 7.4. nitrite is 0ppm, ammonia is 0ppm, nitrate is ??ppm. my tank had just cycled but do to the alge and slime problem, I cleaned the entire filter. I will start all over again. what do you guys think??


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Yanfloist said:


> i think i added a but too much fertilizer and now i have an alge and slime outbreak. no matter how much i clean the tank, every morning the slime and alge comes back. The slime is a brownish color. my tank is a 225 gallon with 15 sword plants, some micro swords, and ludwigia. I also have 5 little sucker fishes. temp is 80 degrees, lighting is 450watts metal halide. i mixed gravel with flourite substrace and sand on top of everything. filter is a FX5. Ph is 7.4. nitrite is 0ppm, ammonia is 0ppm, nitrate is ??ppm. my tank had just cycled but do to the alge and slime problem, I cleaned the entire filter. I will start all over again. what do you guys think??


The brown slime sounds like diatoms? A pic would help if you can get one.
If it is diatoms, it is most likely from excess silicates in the water, (found in most sand) that will eventually go away after continual manual removal, frequent water changes, and frequent mechanical filtration cleaning. (you can leave the bio filtration alone) Kind of a pain..

As for the other algea, another pic would help if you can get one








But seriously, metal halide is some seriously intense lighting. It really does need to be coupled with pressurized CO2, especially @ 2wpg. 
That would bring your pH down, which is good for your plants as well.

I hope this helps you get an idea of what to do to fix your problem


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## Yanfloist (Oct 1, 2007)

diatoms? i have a diatom filter, but i bought it used and i don't think i got the correct filter bags for it - rip off! yeah, my sand is full of silica, i could smell it really well when i first bought it. i washed it many, many time before i put it into my tank but while my filter was building up, i could still smell the silica. yeah, cleaning a fx5 is a real pain! why do i need to use CO2 with my lighting? i thought that if i used CO2 i would also need to raise the watts per gallon to 3 to 4 watts per gallon. is that correct? i don't have the money to spend on a expensive CO2 system right now, what is a cheap but effect pressurized CO2 system that i can get??


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Yanfloist said:


> diatoms? i have a diatom filter, but i bought it used and i don't think i got the correct filter bags for it - rip off! yeah, my sand is full of silica, i could smell it really well when i first bought it. i washed it many, many time before i put it into my tank but while my filter was building up, i could still smell the silica. yeah, cleaning a fx5 is a real pain! why do i need to use CO2 with my lighting? i thought that if i used CO2 i would also need to raise the watts per gallon to 3 to 4 watts per gallon. is that correct? i don't have the money to spend on a expensive CO2 system right now, what is a cheap but effect pressurized CO2 system that i can get??


2wpg of metal halide lighting surely needs to be CO2 enriched. I'm quite sure of it.

3-4wpg is *very* high lighting. Anything over 1.5wpg pretty much needs CO2, or there could be unbalance that leads to algea problems.
You can look around for used CO2 equipment, that is the only thing I can think of to lower the cost.


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## Yanfloist (Oct 1, 2007)

I see, I did not know that before. I thought that 2wpg was only "okay" lighting, and that anything under was too low. Alright, I'll find a CO2 system - pressurized. Thanks very much Dippy Eggs, I really appreciate it!!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Yanfloist said:


> I see, I did not know that before. I thought that 2wpg was only "okay" lighting, and that anything under was too low. Alright, I'll find a CO2 system - pressurized. Thanks very much Dippy Eggs, I really appreciate it!!


2wpg should grow just about any plant, especially if it isn't shaded


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## James Bond (Apr 4, 2009)

I just recently ran into this problem after adding a few bags of ECO-Complete to an established tank. Still trying to get rid of it. anyone got some proven methods?


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

I'm in agreement with Dippy's comments. Sounds like Diatoms which have infested my tank every time I've either setup or changed substrate.

Another thing to note....are you dosing phosphates? I didn't see that mentioned above.....



James Bond said:


> diatoms? i have a diatom filter, but i bought it used and i don't think i got the correct filter bags for it - rip off! yeah, my sand is full of silica, i could smell it really well when i first bought it. i washed it many, many time before i put it into my tank but while my filter was building up, i could still smell the silica. yeah, cleaning a fx5 is a real pain! why do i need to use CO2 with my lighting? i thought that if i used CO2 i would also need to raise the watts per gallon to 3 to 4 watts per gallon. is that correct? i don't have the money to spend on a expensive CO2 system right now, what is a cheap but effect pressurized CO2 system that i can get??


Since you have metal halides, I would recommend CO2. I'm not a pro, but I think there is a significant difference in par levels between halides, compact fl., t5 etc.

I've been running this el cheapo setup for a while with no bad comments thus far. Going on about two years now.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...cfm?pcatid=9935

Figure about 200 after you buy the tank.....Now that I'm thinking about it, you might need to spend a tad bit more because of your tank size. I would highly recommend a larger diffuser and a 10lb tank as opposed to a 5.


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

The slime sounds like cynobacteria. Its not a plant but bacteria something Ive delt witha few times and you can remove what you think is all of it and wake up to it all back if not more than what was there the day before. I found reducing the amount of light helps get rid of it. I run my lights 8 hours a day and thats plenty for plants. Looks like most of your plants are low light plants. I would first try reducing the lights hell even keep them off for a day. Your plants wont die. IF you do that and notice the slime has receeded its more than likely cynobacteria and your plants arent able to consume the nutrients in the water fast enough leaving plenty for the algae growth. I dont run CO2 so thats beyond my knowledge. I would cut back the amount of light. I only run 80 watts over my 125 gallon and have had no problems with low to medium light plants.


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