How to use the new Tropic Marin Cyo-Control

It's the holiday season, and you've decorated your apartments and homes and yards and barns and pretty much everything. Still, you were a little shocked when your aquarium decided to decorate itself with a velvety looking red blanket. This is NOT a festive moment, but most hobbyists and even professional aquarists have run up against this scourge in the past. It's commonly known as Red Slime. It's most common in younger aquariums, displays that are less than a year old. It starts out as a small red fleck somewhere and a couple short days later, the whole tank was covered in a reddish brown rug. It also gets called Red Cyano, Cyanobacteria or just Cyano. It's actually a blue-green algae and is most frequently a problem for marine aquariums, but can also thrive in freshwater.

The problem with Red slime is that it covers everything and chokes out anything underneath it. As it dies off, it rots quickly and this process steals oxygen from the environment, making an even better environment for more Cyano. You need to get rid of it. For years, the most common prescription was a broad spectrum antibiotic, and this was very effective in the short term. Sadly, this would also kill off all of the beneficial bacteria leaving a perfect environment for even more massive rebound of the red stuff.

The best way to fight red slime is to not get it in the first place. Having plenty of flow, the correlated high oxygen levels, and a bacterially healthy display will all help prevent the scourge from starting. That's all well and good for everyone planning a display, but what happens if you already have it?

Do not treat your aquarium with copper or antibiotics. Start instead by removing as much of the slime as possible. During a water change, use your siphon to suck the red stuff off the rocks and sand. You're going to lose some sand, in this process and that's okay, the cyano will grow down into the sand a bit, and this all needs to go. If you use a sand siphon or a sand vacuum (also called a siphon bell), where the end of the siphon tube is larger to help leave the sand in place, remove this. Just use the actual hose, so you get as much direct suction on the red slime as possible. This water change might end up being quite large as you need to keep going until you've removed as much slime as possible. When you've gotten out absolutely as much as possible, refill the tank with pre-mixed saltwater as you usually would.

The next step is treatment, and the best treatment we've found is a product from Tropic Marin called Cyo-Control. It's a natural product, the ingredients are water, probiotic bacteria and zeolite material (clinoptilolite). There are no antibiotics, biocides or toxins. It works by establishing a biological profile that outcompetes the cyanobacteria, and prevents their recolonization of the tank. The zeolite substrate supports the probiotics and binds pollutants, making the tank water extremely clear.

The dose is 50ml per every 26 US gallons. Turn off all skimmers, UV and flow for two hours after dosing the tank. Shake the bottle well and dose the tank. Three days later you need to repeat the water change and the dosing, even if it looks like the problem has resolved. Do it again on the fifth day after the original water change. In the vast majority of instances, this process will eliminate the slime. This product and process is the easiest and most effective way to fix the problem. However, you aren't done. Red slime is a symptom of some things that aren't right in the tank to start with and in order to prevent it from coming back, we need to take some steps.

First is flow. Red slime can't colonize where it doesn't stick and if there is enough flow, it can't stick anywhere. If you have red slime, it's very likely you need to add some circulation to your tank. Look into adding powerheads or wavemakers like the Reef Flow series from TMC.

Next on the list is the bacterial health of your system. In older, more stable aquariums, a robust biological profile is established that steals the nutrients and minerals that red slime needs to proliferate. If your tank has a healthy biological filter, the red slime just can't compete. We suggest using a bio-booster like Dr. Phil's One and Only both in set up and with water changes. Another great practice is to use Nutramar's live algae products in your displays, not just as food for filter feeders but also to add beneficial algae to the system, further tying up nutrients and minerals.

If you have an excess of nutrients in your display, they got there through feeding. Limit overfeeding and use clean foods without filler and limited chaff. Quality pellets like those from Nutramar are perfect as are the frozen products from GAMMA. Never feed more than your fish can eat in a couple minutes and remove anything uneaten after this time. If you aren't overfeeding, then it's possible your system load isn't balanced well with the biological filtration (see above.)

Tropic Marin has been making the highest quality, most reliable marine aquarium products for decades. We use only their salt mixes here at Quality Marine and rely on many of their other products. We have no hesitation in telling you to use their Cyo-Control to deal with your cyanobacteria issues. It only takes a few doses, you can store it without refrigeration, it's all natural and non-toxic. It's the best way to actually deal with this problem without encouraging a rebound in the red slime later. Follow the instructions, the keep the flow high, the water clean and the food high quality to kiss that red blanket goodbye for good!