allyourfish
New Member
Hello guys / gals, I believe this is my first time posting here but seems like a really cool resource. I need to know from your experiences what I am overlooking for these diatoms constantly spreading on my sand bed, tank is nearing a year old. Here are detailed specs / pictures of my setup please help!! :squigglemouth:
I have gone through everything in my tank with a fine toothed comb and cannot figure out why my sand bed is still covered in brown diatom algae!? Please let me know if I have overlooked anything.
-General-
-1st Chamber - Filter Floss (Changed Bi-Weekly)-2nd Chamber - Divided into 2 sections with Egg Crate -1st Division - 2 tbsp of BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon - in high-flow changed every 2 weeks / MJ1200 to Media Reactor / Return -2nd Division - Refugium JBJ Nano Glo runs opposite of my display lights with Chaetomorpha changed every 2 weeks -3rd Chamber - Return Pump Sponge / Return Pump with Hydor Flo - Rotator and Purigen -Once every 2 weeks I vacuum the back parts of the tank where sand and detritus settle in the sump. Picture - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ff5h2vuq96crmfm/2014-04-15 18.39.39.jpg [4]
-Parameters-
I do religious water changes every week of 5 gallons of 0 TDS RODI water mixed for around a day with an air stone and heater. My problem is I constantly battle algae on the sand bed. I cannot do anything to get rid of it. I have even done 3, 5 gallon water changes in a row but it keeps coming back. I understand how you can never get an accurate reading of P04 due to the algae using it as it forms but I rinse all food going into tank, roughly feed my corals once every 2 weeks and my shrimp likes peas so I give him half of one a week. Back a few weeks ago I was suffering with Cyanobacteria, after weeks of water changes and light dimming I broke down and used Ultra Life Red Slime Remover, and it worked, all my SPS and LPS look fine as well. But now brown diatom has broken out all over the sand bed. What have I not been doing right!?! This tank has been setup for a year now and all my SPS / LPS is doing phenominal, why the heck isn't my sand sparkling clean? Help me!! What am I doing wrong? / Overlooking. Oh here is a bonus pic of my OctoSpawn
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8he3nkadmx8tp5/2014-04-14 09.28.41.jpg [6]
Thanks for the help in advance.
I have gone through everything in my tank with a fine toothed comb and cannot figure out why my sand bed is still covered in brown diatom algae!? Please let me know if I have overlooked anything.
-General-
- Biocube 29 https://www.dropbox.com/s/s8k0ljz3w95qaqf/2014-04-15 18.35.17.jpg [1]
- Plenty of LR
- Shallow Sand Bed
- 2x Ecoxotic Panorama Pro Strips 1x White 1x Blue custom mounted on Plexiglass run for 10 hrs a day.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zvuzsd7z25g7iiy/2014-04-15 18.39.06.jpg [2] - Ecoxotic One touch controller
- BRS 4 Stage RODI with Dual TDS Meter / Backflush Kit (Monitored all the time.
- BRS Media Reactor running BRS GFO (7 tbsp) Changed every 1 1/2 months.https://www.dropbox.com/s/tmrazqpdd0621bf/2014-04-15 18.36.38.jpg [3]
- Salt Mix Reef Crystals
- Test Kit API for Nitrogen Cycle related tests / P04
- Red Sea foundation for Kh Ca Mg
- Jebao wp10 ~ 900GPH with controller on wave most of time
- Hydor Koralia 420GPH
- No heater, temps always around 79-81
-1st Chamber - Filter Floss (Changed Bi-Weekly)-2nd Chamber - Divided into 2 sections with Egg Crate -1st Division - 2 tbsp of BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon - in high-flow changed every 2 weeks / MJ1200 to Media Reactor / Return -2nd Division - Refugium JBJ Nano Glo runs opposite of my display lights with Chaetomorpha changed every 2 weeks -3rd Chamber - Return Pump Sponge / Return Pump with Hydor Flo - Rotator and Purigen -Once every 2 weeks I vacuum the back parts of the tank where sand and detritus settle in the sump. Picture - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ff5h2vuq96crmfm/2014-04-15 18.39.39.jpg [4]
-Parameters-
- PH 7.8/.9
- Salinity 1.025/.6
- Ammonia 0ppm
- Nitrate <5ppm
- dKH 10.6
- MG 1460
- p04 0ppm
- Calcium 400ppm
- Used to use API PH 8.2 to get my 7.0 PH RO water to spec, recently my salt mix has been buffering my NSW to 8.5+ I literally have no clue. So I have been using Sulphuric Acid to drop it
- ~20 hermits
- ~5 Nessarius Snails
- ~5 Ceriths
- 1 Turbo
- 1 Cleaner Shrimp
- No Fish! My Sixline ate them all, Shouldn't have done that.....
I do religious water changes every week of 5 gallons of 0 TDS RODI water mixed for around a day with an air stone and heater. My problem is I constantly battle algae on the sand bed. I cannot do anything to get rid of it. I have even done 3, 5 gallon water changes in a row but it keeps coming back. I understand how you can never get an accurate reading of P04 due to the algae using it as it forms but I rinse all food going into tank, roughly feed my corals once every 2 weeks and my shrimp likes peas so I give him half of one a week. Back a few weeks ago I was suffering with Cyanobacteria, after weeks of water changes and light dimming I broke down and used Ultra Life Red Slime Remover, and it worked, all my SPS and LPS look fine as well. But now brown diatom has broken out all over the sand bed. What have I not been doing right!?! This tank has been setup for a year now and all my SPS / LPS is doing phenominal, why the heck isn't my sand sparkling clean? Help me!! What am I doing wrong? / Overlooking. Oh here is a bonus pic of my OctoSpawn
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8he3nkadmx8tp5/2014-04-14 09.28.41.jpg [6]Thanks for the help in advance.
