Cynobacteria/Red Slime Algae: A Success Story (Long)

Well, I spent years fighting what seems like a loosing battle with
consistent Cynobacteria battles (I always seemed to have perfect levels of
nitrite, ammonia, phosphate etc.). It used to get everywhere in my tank
spreading like wildfire. After 3 years its seems to have finally gone. Heres
how I done it, hopefully it may help some of you out!

The following seems to have made no difference:
- Cleaning; Removing the rocks and scrapping the crap off. Helped but always
returned within hours
- Frequent water changes; Even though I used RO and a gravel cleaner, it
never seemed to help
- Silica/Phosphate remover; complete waste of money
- Good water chemistry and quality

What I believe had no affect to significantly reduce the problem (but helped
a little):
- Different lighting; every combination of T8 lighting tubes
- Live sand bed; added at an expensive cost. Had to remove more then three
quarters of the sand.
- Increased water circulation; added 2 power heads
- Aggressive cleaning to remove all traces of it in the tank.
- Using a poly filter and high retention carbon

So what I believed helped most:
- A powerful skimmer; I bought a Deltec MC500 ... absolutely awesome. The
crap it took out of the tank absolutely stank! (its been in there for 2
months prior to the tank being cured)
- Better water circulation and increased water drain/return through sump;
Add a second drain pipe to my overflow box and adjusted the powerheads.
- Washed the food (after defrosting in tank water) with clean fresh water
i.e. not putting in the tank the water that had defrosted with the food (the
fish dont seem to mind)
- purchased a sand shifting goby

the above seemed to help alot, but it still came back in small patches.

So ... What finally got rid of the stuff?
Using different salt!

I had read about this and finally tired it. I always used TMC salt and
pretty much swore by it. What really changed my mind to try something
different was when I went to my LFS one day and saw that their tanks had
outbreaks of Cynobacteria (and had never had before) . They used to sell a
couple different salts but had recently changed to TMC only (so you have to
assume that's what they used in their system). I managed to source some Reef
Crystals salt. First water changed made no difference and I could see my
sand taking on that familiar tint of pink. I made a second water change
after a week or so and the stuff hasn't returned since (and every day I
could see it reduce). I also read that changing the salt mixture every 6
months should help it as well (something about the bacteria not liking
change!)

So in summary, if your having problem with Cynobacteria try ...
1. Get yourself a better skimmer
2. Wash your frozen food
3. Use different salt (and change brands every 6 months)
4. Significantly increase water circulation and flow
5. Do frequent water changes with RO

Trust me with a little patience it will go!

HTH

Bob