SloppyJ
Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I'm finally at my wits end here so I decided to turn to yall for help. I set up my tank in June of 2014. This is not my first tank, but this was my first bigger tank. It's a 93g cube with a 30g sump. Before, I ran a few nanos. I sucessfully kept nanos for over 4yrs so I've been around the block a little and learned how to care for a tank. Get a bigger tank they said, it will be easier to maintain they said! Anyway, ever since the cycle, I cannot get rid of this weird type of algae. To me it looks like diatoms, but I'm no biologist, just an environmental scientist :tongue:
A little bit about my setup:
93g Cube
30g Sump
RLSS R6i Skimmer
500ml Vertex Biopellets in a NextReef SMR1 (introduced 250ml at a time per the instructions)
GFO in a NextReef MR1 (1.75 cups of regular granular BRS)
Waveline 6000 Return on high
2 MP40s in the tank for flow (both around 50%)
The only new thing for me here is the GFO and the pellets. Never ran them before. I let the tank run for almost 4 months before I hooked up the GFO and pellets. I consistently have nitrate readings under 5ppm (Salifert) and I have no nitrate issues. Everything in the tank is thriving, this algae is just extremely unattractive and really getting under my skin now. Water changes help but it just comes right back. I've been doing 30g every two weeks.
I used caribsea pink fiji dry sand. I washed all of it really well. I used brand new caribsea rock that I put through multiple rinsing and drying cycles. However, I did not "cook" it in muratic acid. I've double and triple checked all of my RO/DI water and it's all coming out of my storage container at 0TDS.
The algae kind of acts like cyano but when I blow it off the rocks, it just blows apart and doesn't come up in sheets. It first appeared at the end of my cycle. Looked like a severe diatom bloom so I shrugged it off and added my CUC. The Nassarius snails and my crabs keep the sand bed pretty good looking but I cannot keep it off the rocks. I've added a few extra turbos and they seem to not even look at it.
My only two thoughts on the culprit were the rock leaching phosphates or something going haywire with the pellets, but I really don't know. Since I've never ran pellets before, they're a variable that I have no experience with and they're making me second guess myself. If it turns out to be the rock, how can I test to verify it and what can I do about it? I don't have any more of that rock lying around to run tests on.
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any help!!
A little bit about my setup:
93g Cube
30g Sump
RLSS R6i Skimmer
500ml Vertex Biopellets in a NextReef SMR1 (introduced 250ml at a time per the instructions)
GFO in a NextReef MR1 (1.75 cups of regular granular BRS)
Waveline 6000 Return on high
2 MP40s in the tank for flow (both around 50%)
The only new thing for me here is the GFO and the pellets. Never ran them before. I let the tank run for almost 4 months before I hooked up the GFO and pellets. I consistently have nitrate readings under 5ppm (Salifert) and I have no nitrate issues. Everything in the tank is thriving, this algae is just extremely unattractive and really getting under my skin now. Water changes help but it just comes right back. I've been doing 30g every two weeks.
I used caribsea pink fiji dry sand. I washed all of it really well. I used brand new caribsea rock that I put through multiple rinsing and drying cycles. However, I did not "cook" it in muratic acid. I've double and triple checked all of my RO/DI water and it's all coming out of my storage container at 0TDS.
The algae kind of acts like cyano but when I blow it off the rocks, it just blows apart and doesn't come up in sheets. It first appeared at the end of my cycle. Looked like a severe diatom bloom so I shrugged it off and added my CUC. The Nassarius snails and my crabs keep the sand bed pretty good looking but I cannot keep it off the rocks. I've added a few extra turbos and they seem to not even look at it.
My only two thoughts on the culprit were the rock leaching phosphates or something going haywire with the pellets, but I really don't know. Since I've never ran pellets before, they're a variable that I have no experience with and they're making me second guess myself. If it turns out to be the rock, how can I test to verify it and what can I do about it? I don't have any more of that rock lying around to run tests on.
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any help!!
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