Help

[jaylam]

So I have been getting some brown algae on the glass for a while but that didnt really bother me as I would just clean it off with the magnets.

But now I seem to be getting what looks like the Diatoms I got whilst cycling the tank and were as before the algae on the glass would take a week to build up now it seems to build up in a few days. I was getting some hair algae as well but that seems to have stopped growing since introducing the phosphate reactor.

Now in the pics below I can see red spots appearing.

Nitrite: 0
ph: 8.1
Nitrate: 20-40
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0 (with the help of the phosban reactor)

I have reduced the lighting by 2 hours and completely taken apart my skimmer and cleaned it.

I have read people saying to have 3 days of lights off, wont this be bad for the corals though? Also I think my mushroom is dying, could this be the cause as this only seems to have started happening since the mushroom started looking ill and have considered removing it.

I have also reduced feeding.

Advice please, I dont know what else to try.

Jay

 

[seffieuk]

Hope you dont mind but I have copied a reply I made to someone else re: similar problem:

Cyano - curse of the marine tank

Lets get rid of a falsehood here, you dont need to be able to see test results for nitrate to have cyano as cyano can use nitrogen in its gas form - so where I hear you ask does the nitrogen come from, well, where is the cyano growing? Mostly on sand and rock, so, whats going on? The sand bed, if doing its job is denitrifying, this is letting off nitogen gas and our cyano bacteria is just making use of the food source

Is there a cure: well, probably not a 100% - increasing the flow to the area does help, as it robs the cyano of its food source by inceasing oxygen

Removing a light source will also work, but who wants a dark tank, except maybe Sorgan

So there are a few things that will help:

Ensure your photo period is not too long
Ensure there is good gaseous exchange
Ensure there is good flow - oxygen at the source of the problem
Dont overfeed

So, the old question of why do I have cyano when my nitrates are 0 - simple answer is that cyano is using nitrogen gas!!!


What you are experiencing is very common, we all go through it at some point unless we have huge amounts of flow and very low stocking. The diatoms are caused by nitrogen as well but they are far easier to deal with by increasing your cuc and doing regular water changes


Seffie x

 

[woody88]

Hi mate. I wouldnt trust your phosphate test results if your getting an algae outbreak [particulaty green hairy algae] as they will feed off the phosphates in your tank and scramble your test result for phos.

The best thing would be to just give your phosphate remover time to remove all traces of phosphate in your tank and in the mean time give your tank a good scrub and regularly test for amm, trite, trate etc although I wouldnt expect you to get a reading on the first two.

Are you running a nitrate remover?

Regarding the lighting, I wouldnt recommend a 'blackout', instead just half your lighting period and see how it goes.

I had a major problem with algae [especially green hair] and after a good scrub, large water change and adding phosphate and nitrate remover, my nuisance algae has completely gone and there has been no trace of it for the past month or so.

Have you got a decent CUC in there, as since adding to mine, my tank looks and stays alot cleaner.

Also, your Nitrates seem quite high [whether or not this would effect the tank, depends on its size and live stock in comparison]. Trates also contribute to algae.

I too have had what seems like diatoms on my substrate surface [in small patches] which I believe is from newly added LR.

If you have recently added LR, wether cured [depending on die off]or uncured, you might have a very mini, mini cycle but hard to say.

Hope this helps mate!

 

[woody88]

Hi mate. I wouldnt trust your phosphate test results if your getting an algae outbreak [particulaty green hairy algae] as they will feed off the phosphates in your tank and scramble your test result for phos.

The best thing would be to just give your phosphate remover time to remove all traces of phosphate in your tank and in the mean time give your tank a good scrub and regularly test for amm, trite, trate etc although I wouldnt expect you to get a reading on the first two.

Are you running a nitrate remover?

Regarding the lighting, I wouldnt recommend a 'blackout', instead just half your lighting period and see how it goes.

I had a major problem with algae [especially green hair] and after a good scrub, large water change and adding phosphate and nitrate remover, my nuisance algae has completely gone and there has been no trace of it for the past month or so.

Have you got a decent CUC in there, as since adding to mine, my tank looks and stays alot cleaner.


Also, your Nitrates seem quite high [whether or not this would effect the tank, depends on its size and live stock in comparison]. Trates also contribute to algae.

I too have had what seems like diatoms on my substrate surface [in small patches] which I believe is from newly added LR.

If you have recently added LR, wether cured [depending on die off]or uncured, you might have a very mini, mini cycle but hard to say.

Hope this helps mate!

Just seen seffies post!..................er!...dis-regard mine then! lol!

 

[jaylam]

Hope you dont mind but I have copied a reply I made to someone else re: similar problem:

Cyano - curse of the marine tank

Lets get rid of a falsehood here, you dont need to be able to see test results for nitrate to have cyano as cyano can use nitrogen in its gas form - so where I hear you ask does the nitrogen come from, well, where is the cyano growing? Mostly on sand and rock, so, whats going on? The sand bed, if doing its job is denitrifying, this is letting off nitogen gas and our cyano bacteria is just making use of the food source

Is there a cure: well, probably not a 100% - increasing the flow to the area does help, as it robs the cyano of its food source by inceasing oxygen

Removing a light source will also work, but who wants a dark tank, except maybe Sorgan

So there are a few things that will help:

Ensure your photo period is not too long
Ensure there is good gaseous exchange
Ensure there is good flow - oxygen at the source of the problem
Dont overfeed

So, the old question of why do I have cyano when my nitrates are 0 - simple answer is that cyano is using nitrogen gas!!!


What you are experiencing is very common, we all go through it at some point unless we have huge amounts of flow and very low stocking. The diatoms are caused by nitrogen as well but they are far easier to deal with by increasing your cuc


Seffie x

Thanks, so I have reduced the lighting times by 2 hours.

I have a spare powerhead I can chuck in to add more flow, it only seems to be on the left hand side of the tank.

Anything else I could/should do?

Hi mate. I wouldnt trust your phosphate test results if your getting an algae outbreak [particulaty green hairy algae] as they will feed off the phosphates in your tank and scramble your test result for phos.

The best thing would be to just give your phosphate remover time to remove all traces of phosphate in your tank and in the mean time give your tank a good scrub and regularly test for amm, trite, trate etc although I wouldnt expect you to get a reading on the first two.

Are you running a nitrate remover?

Regarding the lighting, I wouldnt recommend a 'blackout', instead just half your lighting period and see how it goes.

I had a major problem with algae [especially green hair] and after a good scrub, large water change and adding phosphate and nitrate remover, my nuisance algae has completely gone and there has been no trace of it for the past month or so.

Have you got a decent CUC in there, as since adding to mine, my tank looks and stays alot cleaner.

Also, your Nitrates seem quite high [whether or not this would effect the tank, depends on its size and live stock in comparison]. Trates also contribute to algae.

I too have had what seems like diatoms on my substrate surface [in small patches] which I believe is from newly added LR.

If you have recently added LR, wether cured [depending on die off]or uncured, you might have a very mini, mini cycle but hard to say.

Hope this helps mate!

Thanks for the reply, I have a reactor which I run denitrate and carbon in and its working well.

My nitrates have always been above this level and never had this problem before.

With regards to the lighting will halfing the time be ok for the corals?

 

[woody88]

Can only speak from personal experience (which isn't alot lol) but there have been days where I haven't had the lights on at all and my photosynthetic softies have been fine.

Best to ask the queen of marine this one.

Oh for the record, I have brown patches like yours on the substrate and I'm getting good flow (36x TO) with a 3000lph ph aimed at the surface. Which sometimes disturbs it.

Increase the flow on the left hand side of your tank down that side between the LR and glass.

 

[jaylam]

Can only speak from personal experience (which isn't alot lol) but there have been days where I haven't had the lights on at all and my photosynthetic softies have been fine.

Best to ask the queen of marine this one.

Oh for the record, I have brown patches like yours on the substrate and I'm getting good flow (36x TO) with a 3000lph ph aimed at the surface. Which sometimes disturbs it.

Thanks, so do you think I would be better aiming the spare powerhead at the surface or at the problem area?

sorry for all the questions I just dont want to lose my corals

 

[woody88]

In that general area I'd say, so long as some of the flow is getting around the side too.

I have to scrub my glass daily too if it's any consolation and I have a good CUC.

 

[jaylam]

In that general area I'd say, so long as some of the flow is getting around the side too.

I have to scrub my glass daily too if it's any consolation and I have a good CUC.

ok added my spare powerhead to create flow in the problem area also will go and pickup some more CUC at the weekend. I have 5 crabs and 3 snails.....might just get a few more snails.

I will also reduce the lighting hours a bit more for the time being.

 

[seffieuk]

I would agree Woody, on an ideal note the nitrates would be lower, but Jay's are not that bad - however it is not a long established tank so will suffer these things from time to time.

Usually if I see diatoms I know its time to do a big water change, I no longer test for the nitrates that are causing it!

You do have really good gas exchange going on havent you, the surface of my tank looks like a fast river flowing?

The cuc crew: what have you currently got?

Woody is right re: the phosphates as well your can test 0 when in fact the algae is using it to grow

Seffie x

ps I wouldnt want to do a total black out in a tank which has corals that require light as food - also this doesnt really cure the problem!

pps ah just seen your post - what sort of snails and consider getting an orange lipped conch

 

[jaylam]

I would agree Woody, on an ideal note the nitrates would be lower, but Jay's are not that bad - however it is not a long established tank so will suffer these things from time to time.

Usually if I see diatoms I know its time to do a big water change, I no longer test for the nitrates that are causing it!

You have good really good gas exchange going on havent you, the surface of my tank looks like a fast river flowing?

The cuc crew: what have you currently got?

Woody is right re: the phosphates as well your test can test 0 when in fact the alae is using it to grow

Seffie x

ps I wouldnt want to do a total black out in a tank which has corals that require light as food - also this doesnt really cure the problem!

pps ah just seen your post - what sort of snails and consider getting an orange lipped conch

I have loads of surface area movement.

I dont seem to have much luck with turbo's they only last a few months, any other cuc recommendations?

 

[seffieuk]

Ceriths and a conch is the way to go, I also like the big mexican turbos

Seffie x

ps the flow through your denitrate is not too fast is it?

 

[jaylam]

Ceriths and a conch is the way to go, I also like the big mexican turbos

Seffie x

ps the flow through your denitrate is not too fast is it?

Thanks a lot will pop to the lfs at the weekend and see what they have in

 

[Donya]

Ditto on the Ceriths; doesn't take too many either. 4 of 'em in my 55 are keeping the sandbed in near-spotless shape. I would say wait on conches and get the nitrates down first, since that's probably a sign that the tank isn't particularly stable right now if the reading is accurate. The last thing you want is a big snail crawling off somewhere and croaking on you when the nitrates are already high. Wouldn't be a bad idea to get the nitrates under 10 before adding any snails at all actually, but Ceriths would probably handle elevated nitrates for a while until they're gotten under control.

 

[jaylam]

Ok just got back from lfs with 2 more hermits and 6 snails (not sure what ones they are so will post a pic later).

Now I buy my water ready mixed from the lfs, when I got there today they have the same brown algae on their sand....could their water be bad? I decided to do a large water change today instead of the normal 20%, im doing a 100lt (40%) water change but given the state of the sand in the tanks at the lfs I bought some salt and decided to mix my own up for this water change.

Water is mixing as we speak so will leave it a few hours, test, add more salt or water depending on salinity leave for a few more hours then do the change.