Getting rid of this stuff in my saltwater tank?

I have this red coating, or slime covering everything. The guy at the store gave me something to put in the water, this only backed it down for about two weeks and its right back.

I've lost an emerald crab, a cleaner shrimp, and my goby since this stuff come.

I have had the tank for over a year and never seen anything like this, my biggest worry has been this green hair-like moss cropping up on the glass seemingly as fast as you clean it off.

I do a 1/3 tank water change, with RO water every 3 months.

I even went as far....and don閳ユ獩 yell at me....as to pull every piece of live rock out of the tank and scrub it with a brush trying to get this to stop.

ANY HELP?????

Getting rid of this stuff in my saltwater tank?

What you have is called "Red Slime Algae" although it's really a bacteria (cyanobacteria). You can find a product in stores to get rid of it, but don't - the stuff is an antibiotic that will wipe out your biological filter as well.

One thing you need to do is to set up your water changes - you should be doing 1/4 changes on a weekly basis. By letting the tank go longer (at least it seems this way since you mention 1/3 changes with RO every three months) you're letting the nutrients that feed the algae accumulate. If you're doing more frequent changes, but using tap water, the tap water may contain nitrates and phosphates that are acting like a fertilizer for it. You can start the control by either using macroalgae (Chaetomorpha or Caulerpa) to compete with the cyanobacteria for nutrients and adding a phosphate pad to your filter. If you don't use a protein skimmer, getting one may help be removing the nitrogen compounds from the tank that become nutrients.

When you clean your tank, try using a scraper and the siphon at the same time to remove as much of the present cyano as you possibly can.

Cyano also doen't do well in high water movement, so adding a powerhead to increase the water flow in problem areas may keep it from growing back in these same spots.

Getting rid of this stuff in my saltwater tank?

10% weekly water changes with RO. it could be time to change the cartridges in your RO filter, or time to change the bulbs, most need a yearly change working or not. phospahte removers would work her too, just treat them like carbon. as for short term a snail or two for the green stuff and leave the tank lights of for about 2 days and cover with a blanket, although if you have any corals i would caution on the lights.

i would change 15% of the water, cover the tank after adding two more snails and after 2 days uncover. after a week replace the phospahte chemical or pad, then go on with regular weekly water changes. ps the white media (usually aluminium based) works faster in the short term.

and i wont yell, i scrubbed once too and that is punishment enough...lol