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Ryan you beat me in asking that question! My green brute container that I use on my porch for the summer has been algae free now for 2 weeks, but the container in the bathroom (with what's left of my RC) is growing the same thing as your container. I'm wondering if it's something air born. With my new test kits, I'm getting nearly the same reading as Eric on the RC, My old kits were expired. I looked at the expiration date, kind a hard to read them.
Buuuurrritttoooooo!
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Ryan, I'm probably not going to be able to make it back to this thread for awhile and Chuck will be minding the board. Where is your container?
Puddles, yes, I think there is a lot of airborne material, but also, all we have to do is put our hands in the tank, walk around, let them air dry or even paper towel dry, and there will still be viable marine bacteria and algae on them. Then, you grab the scoop and dip into the salt, pour it in the mixing container, and swirl it with your hand. That or any number of scenarios would effectively seed a container. As for airbornes, think backyard ponds. Fill a container - or a pool - with water and you get algae. You could fill with distilled water and you'd still wind up having to clean the pool or pond. Same with aquariums. Think old marine aquariums before live rock, corals, etc. You add salt, water, and then come home with a fish. Algae. I'm quite sure you could get algae and cyanobacteria in a tank by using salt, distilled water and lighting it. I did this years ago and got bountiful diatoms in tanks with nothing but saltwater, but I also had other tanks in the house. Was it airborne, airborne as a result of having other tanks, accidental by my hands or equipment? I don't know.
As for the reactions of each of your tanks to the brand, and the bloom or bust of one type of algae/cyanobacteria over another, there are too many variables to address, not the least of which could be the obvious batch inconsistency of, it seems, all salts available. If it was consistent and everyone had similar findings/reports, then it would be easier to start to look at teasing out variables and forming hypotheses and testing. Anyway, food for thought. Be back on the thread as soon as I can.
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| Thanks Eric, all of that makes sense. I think what you said about the container becoming seeded with algae is my problem, I just can't seem to kill it or the container is continuously becoming reseeded? My container is in the same room as my tank, along with a lot of other containers that have never had this algae in them....this is what's confusing me. I also have a litter box for our cat in that room and I've thought more than once that could be the cause of the problems but it's always been in the same room. This problem started with the "bad" salt I had, it had really low calcium and alk. and was basically the same as Puddles. You can see how we came up with the salt as the problem? It just made the most sense. I'm going to do a test similar to yours with water in jars or containers of some sort, one sealed tightly, the other open and leave them in my "fish room". Interestingly since I stopped using the "bad" salt, all the snot has gone away in my reef tank. I am still getting a ton of diatom like algae growth but the chrysophytes seem to be gone, hopefully? I also just finished sterilizing the container again, I used a gallon of bleach, followed by a rinse, then I left the container filled with fresh water and dechlorinator. I'm going to try putting the container in another room to see if the container stays clean.
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A good sterilizer is 91% isopropyl (from drugstores, etc.) or 190 proof ethanol (liquor stores). It evaporates fast and will dehydrate, fix or kill just about anything. Bleach is not a good choice because it has a high surface tension and is hard to rinse off. But, it does sterilize well - just make sure there is no smell and the sides literally squeak when you rub a damp paper towel against the sides
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Just stumbled upon this thread, same problem I have been having and just used up the last of my RC mix.
I read all the info on salt mix until my head hurt, I am now using a mix of Seachem regular, Corallife and Kent
trying to get the best of each. It has only been a couple of weeks, so the Stinky Film Algae has not subsided yet.
Nothing Good ever happens fast in this hobby
But bad things happen overnight
Or so it appears.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Guy
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
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| Thanks for posting! It is a real pain in the butt and I still have quite a bit of it in one of my tanks, the other two are starting to clear up. I still think it must have been something in my bad batch of RC, or maybe it just allowed this algae to thive? Maybe too much of a certain element. Mine has gotten much better since changing salts and I'm not so sure I'll ever dare to use RC again? With that said, Eric's test did not grow any algae........maybe we'll never know the cause? Good luck with your battle.
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Since changing from RC to Coralife, my algae has taking longer to grow back. It's going to take a while for it to totally dissappear. I've been keeping the alk up in my tank and I got my ph up to 8.4.
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| I have two things I would like to add. 1. I have been using RC for 3 years now and for the last 4 months have been having a "thing" in my mixing vate as well. There were a couple of times where I stuck my arm in and pulled out an arm covered with brown dots. I ALWAYS sterilize my arm with soap and vinegar before I get it anywhere near a mixing container. If anything, I MIGHT think the iron (or other mineral deposists) were acting as a whatever it's called, catalyst (?) to help the dino grow. Wasn't there some sort of study done my "slag" or heavy metal and mineral deposits being dumped in to the water? The elevated PH might be precipitating that out. 2. If ANYONE decides to mess with their PH, I know Hannah and Pinpoint both have monitors that are accurate to within a hundredth. The only reason I say this is because it DEFINETELY helps having one that is .01+/- accurate if you are trying to stabalize your PH at 8.4 or 8.5 rather then a test that is accurate to .2+/- accurate. I used calcium hydroxide the first time my tank came down with a case of the dinos and that seemed to work rather well. That an HUGE amounts of carbon changed regularly.
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Thanks for your post! According to Eric that should not cause any issue, but I see where your coming from. I've read a lot of posts on other sites about RC and cyanobacteria or something similar to discount this to "chance". My personal feeling based on Eric's results (correct me if I'm wrong Eric, please) is that RC seems to have either switched suppliers or changed production for their salt mix. There are too many things that don't "match" up with the old RC to say this is something that just happened? I think they made a decision that cost them a lot of money and likely fixed the problem, I mean, who has customers that leave due to batch "call it what you like" and then don't fix the issue? I'm currently about to mix another batch of RC that tested fine per Eric's results, and with no doubt in his results I assume it's fine. I'll never doubt his tests, personally I believe it was the batch that tested like "puddles" that messed up my tank. I have used an entire bucket of Red Sea coral pro and had no issue, the only thing bad about this salt IMO is the magnesium is too low, the calcium and alk are great. Reef Crystals when the batch is "correct" seems to have highish numbers of all three of the goodies when it comes to SPS, but I am very skeptical of using their product again. I will certainly keep you posted of my results.........if only the ocean was closer.
Welcome back Eric!!! Thanks again for all your help with this issue.
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I'm back, and give me a few days to get the other final tanks finished up and report on it. I'm way behind. In answer to your pm, Ryan, sure you can send me some of the algae. You still have the address and all? Any shipping questions?
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