Feeling Real Discouraged...

[ChitownRomeo]

My 55 gallon tank is looking like crap. My sand bed has diatoms that will not go away at all. I use rodi water, run gfo, chemipur, purigen, skimmer and everything but they wont go away. Went and got this high price fancy led lighting for nothing. I have weird air bubbles coming from my sand bed. My Zoas have so much hair algae growing in between them. My Green Star Polyps have this green slimy leafs growing on it. It's not bubble Algae though. I'm ready to take this tank down and sell everything and go back to freshwater aquariums. Anything I can do to make this problem go away. I have turbo snails, nass snails, emerald crabs and nothing! Took out the live rock since it was covered in bryopsis and switched to BRS reef saver rock. Anything else I can do. Tank is 6 months old now....

 

[immerume2]

U need to turn that light off more often. The leds are probably too much for the tank. Turn the lights down and dont leave them on as long. Bsst i can tell from ur story.

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[ChitownRomeo]

U need to turn that light off more often. The leds are probably too much for the tank. Turn the lights down and dont leave them on as long. Bsst i can tell from ur story.

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OK I turn them on a 8am and off at 8pm. Ill cut that down.

 

[immerume2]

OK I turn them on a 8am and off at 8pm. Ill cut that down.

Do they dim? 12 hours is probably a bit long considering ur probelms. Iwould cut them down to 8 hours if u can for now. Have them come on later in the day. I have my lights come on at 11:30 and off at 8:30. Try that and see if it doesn't help

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[PSU4ME]

If I remember correctly you've gone really fast with everything...... Slow down, keep it clean and do water changes..... Let your tank catch up a bit.

 

[immerume2]

This is also sound advise. Anyone have more advise to help address the urrent situation for hom?

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[Blndbunny]

When I set up my last marine tank the first 6 months I spent battering everything under the sun it seemed. Itstarted with diatoms, they cleaned up as I added more circulation lower in my tank, then came the green hair algae, that took a loyal weekly schedual of water changes. As that started to clear up I got dinos, that took weeks of patience and ph matinece and a nearly dark tank to beat but I did it. Once I got through that now my biggest algae fight is keeping the coralline off the glass. It's all part of a tank maturing, it takes time and patience. There is always something that we are working with/messing with if you keep a reef tank. If its not a true pest (Zola eating nudi) then it's something we wiling brought into our tank (gbta that has cloned 8 times). When you create a world, there will be bumps in the road. However it's totally worth it, in those moments you are watching your tank

 

[ChitownRomeo]

Im going to print this out and take everyone advise. thanks everyone. I just now say 2 aptasia nems growing, so ordering a few peppermint shrimp to handle them.

 

[Doogle]

It sounds like a few issues combined.
Turn your lights down if you can and don't run them for a few days while tackling some issues, then run them 6-7 hours a day.
Bubbles in your sand and in snot like or other forms of algae is dinoflagellates, red slmey but finery algae is Cyanobacteria, diatoms your battling is normal, bubble and other hair algeas is normal too. Well they are all normal if you give them an opportunity to live.

Your rock could be full of phosphates, Muriatic acid bath will help but adding GFO or aluminum oxide, chemipure etc... will help remove phosphates (and lower your ALK) but you need to replenish this media often at first as it will get adsorb quickly and be of no further use. RO/DI and lots of water changes and manual removal will help, take the rock out and scrub/rinse it, acid baths help too.
Also, your magnesium levels are most likely low and raising it will help stop nuisance algae growth.
Hydrogen peroxide can also help, you should look into it if necessary.
Diatoms, cyano, hair algae can a pain, I still am battling it on my glass on the idea and low flow areas but staring and removing what makes it grow is key.

 

[ChitownRomeo]

It sounds like a few issues combined.
Turn your lights down if you can and don't run them for a few days while tackling some issues, then run them 6-7 hours a day.
Bubbles in your sand and in snot like or other forms of algae is dinoflagellates, red slmey but finery algae is Cyanobacteria, diatoms your battling is normal, bubble and other hair algeas is normal too. Well they are all normal if you give them an opportunity to live.

Your rock could be full of phosphates, Muriatic acid bath will help but adding GFO or aluminum oxide, chemipure etc... will help remove phosphates (and lower your ALK) but you need to replenish this media often at first as it will get adsorb quickly and be of no further use. RO/DI and lots of water changes and manual removal will help, take the rock out and scrub/rinse it, acid baths help too.
Also, your magnesium levels are most likely low and raising it will help stop nuisance algae growth.
Hydrogen peroxide can also help, you should look into it if necessary.
Diatoms, cyano, hair algae can a pain, I still am battling it on my glass on the idea and low flow areas but staring and removing what makes it grow is key.

Yea I am just now reading the Brs reef saver rock will leech phosphates. So I bought their gfo and currently running purigen and chemipure elite. I think my main problem maybe lack of flow and the bright lights I have. I have 2 tunze power heads then the dual returns. I only use one of the tunzes cause my poor clownfish get blown all over the tank. I admit I might have run those lights too long a day and lack of flow. I have the Power heads on opposite sides facing each other for disruptive flow. Is that ok?

 

[Doogle]

Ya inhabitants usually adjust to high flow.

 

[theplantman]

Can you give us a complete list of how the tank is stocked? Corals, Fish, Number of snails/types, etc and your feeding schedule and amounts fed.

 

[BigAl07]

Are your LED "Dimmable"? I've seen it asked a couple of times but I can't find whether or not you have said yes or no.

Anytime you make a lighting "upgrade" it's possible (maybe should be said probably) you'll see an algae bloom of some sort. Remember that when our tanks look great it's only because we have reached a happy balance with water chemistry, bioload, and lighting. If the tank looks amazing and you upgrade the lights then you've taken one of the items that was balanced and added to it. Anytime you change the level of balance there will be some kind of reaction. Odds are your tank was heavy on nutrients but "Balanced" and your new lights are allowing the algae to get a stronger hold and thrive.

Here's what I suggest you do:

• 1) cut down on light intensity and timing (12hrs seems a bit much but that's without me knowing your tank intimately). LED are FAR more intense than other standard lighting so you need to go slow with LED
• 2) Get aggressive with manual algae removal (daily or more)
• 3) Get aggressive with water changes (don't be afraid to do larger water changes so long as they are SAFE changes...see http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...7-how-make-safe-water-change-marine-fish.html )
• 4) Don't be afraid to "Black Out" your tank for a few days. I've had to do this on 2 different occasions (not the same tank). Your coral can go several days with no light so don't sweat it. When I say Black Out I mean all light.. moonlights, room light, ambient light... ALL of it. I made cardboard enclosures to completely block all light and my tanks came through SPLENDIDLY both times. Just get ready to do some hefty cleaning as you sslllooowwwwlly introduce the light to your tank.
• 5) Evaluate your bioload and your feeding regimen (what are you feeding, how much and how often).
• 6) Evaluate your filtration system and your maintenance as this could almost always be improved at least to some degree (change media more often, increase flow, change flow to hit dead/slow flow spots...)

Hopefully attacking this from several angles at once will go a LONG way to getting ahead of it and keeping you in this WONDERFUL hobby long-term Don't give up... almost every one of us have been exactly where you are.. some of us (ME) a couple of times...

 

[Bearjohnson]

Have you tested for phosphates at all and if so what's the reading? You can have little or no N04 reading and still have the issues that you are experiencing. Water changes will help and also cut way back on the feeding for a while. Although it sucks, it will pass over time. It sounds like you are doing a LOT of correcting in all different directions.

I also wouldn't introduce anything else to the tank until you have it under control.

 

[ddelozier]

Dim the LED's or Shorten light period, Do frequent 20% water changes, ie every other day, and increase flow in tank to get rid of the cyano and slime. We've all been there bud. Dont give up. Water changes are your friend. Nearly anytime i even suspect anything is going pear shaped in my tank, first thing i do is a 20-30% water change and observe.

Its been stated more than once but just for the sake of form " the solution to polution is dilution"

 

[ChitownRomeo]

I love this forum!! Thanks for all the input guys. Right now my only bio load is 3 green chromis, A few Zoa colony's, 20 Nass snails, 15 cerith snails, 1 emerald crab, and some green star polyps oh and a toadstool Leather & Duncan Coral. I have a Rena xp 3 rated for 175 gallons and my tank is only 55 gallons with a surface skimmer attached since I don't have a sump or overflow. I change the micro pads once a week and just have chemi Pur, Gfo, Purigen and carbon. I think I was leaving my led's on too long and not enough flow. I

 

[Choff]

I know you are trying to knock out some algae and once things stabilize you can stop using some of the products you have running. Chemipure is pretty much charcoal + gfo. Just a thought to save your wallet some.

One other note, it's not a bad idea to pull those chemical bags and give em a rinse every couple of weeks. They can clog and this will extnd their life and increase their efficiency.

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[PSU4ME]

If that's the only coral you have then i would drop the lights considerably.......4 hours a day. You can also do a 3 day "black out" and then slowly bring the lights back up.

 

[ChitownRomeo]

If that's the only coral you have then i would drop the lights considerably.......4 hours a day. You can also do a 3 day "black out" and then slowly bring the lights back up.

OK will do. Do I need to be feeding Zoas Phytoplankton or do they feed off light?

 

[wnppmy]

Mine are smaller tanks but similar issues beginning months. Lowering amount of light time is sound advice, if your feeding cut down amounts to what example fish eat in two minutes. My small systems was over feeds, now skip couple days a week, feed small frequent amounts feed days. 14G now using blue lights but on extended time. My tank is more than crowded but 11 months things smoothed out well.

Good Luck on yours
14G Bio
Clowns, Dotty, Dwarf Angel
Dwarf Octopus 5 live Hermit fed weekly, yikes