Red slime bacteria, what to do?

[Shoki]

Hello Reef people! I’m new at reef keeping and my 110g is having a serious algae and bacterial bloom!! I have red slime bacteria ALL over my sand! My water is so cloudy i can barely see through it.

Cyanobacteria or Dinoflagellates?

Tank perimeters:
PH 8.4
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 2.0
Ammonia 0.05
unsure of Alkalinity, Calcium, and other parameters..

Running canister filter. Fluval Fx4. I can’t afford a sump right now, although i am aware sumps are ideal. No skimming, No UV.

Inhabitants: Lionfish, Porcupine Puffer, 5 damsels, Mandarin goby, Medium/Sm powder brown tang.
2 Xoas, 1 Galaxia (?), 1 Duncan frag, 1 leather finger coral, pulsing xenia. Light on for 12HR, off for 12HR.

Not expecting an instant fix in a bottle. Need advice, please !!!

 

[tzabor10]

Canister filters are tough. Can you do water changes easily?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would suggest to consider increasing the flow, it looks a little stagnant in there, and doesn't seem much flow, if any, at the bottom where the cyano is.

Phosphate is very high if thats correct, and zero nitrate... Do you not have any testing equipment?

How old is the tank? It seem under-filtered to me, how are you exporting nutrients from all those fish?

In the end, chemiclean is the easiest and fastest way to get rid of cyano, but if you don't fix the underlying issue's, it will just come right back.

 

[Pistondog]

Looks like cyano.
Can be caused by excess light, near a window, or low flow.
Not uncommon. Try to promote other bacteria and coralline to crowd out the cyano.

 

[Shoki]

I would suggest to consider increasing the flow, it looks a little stagnant in there, and doesn't seem much flow, if any, at the bottom where the cyano is.

Phosphate is very high if thats correct, and zero nitrate... Do you not have any testing equipment?

How old is the tank? It seem under-filtered to me, how are you exporting nutrients from all those fish?

In the end, chemiclean is the easiest and fastest way to get rid of cyano, but if you don't fix the underlying issue's, it will just come right back.

Tank is about 8 months old and I made this post for my sister. She overfed the tank for a few weeks and lost a fish from overstock/over fed combo. In the canister is coarse sponge, filter wool, carbon, clay rocks, and been running Chemiclean for about a week. Any advice on what I should do about the canister? She rinses the contents of the canister, except the clay rocks, with warm tap water every time she does a water change, which is about 50% every 2-3 weeks. She has an API master kit and phosphate test. She has been dosing NeoNitro for a week to try to raise nitrate.. which tests should she have and what to do about the bioload?

 

[thedon986]

Water changes, more flow, get phosphate down keep dosing nitrate until steady around 10ppm, clean canister weekly, reduce light period to 8 hours until improvement.

Dr Tim’s Waste Away and Refresh may help with the bacteria bloom or it will resolve with time.