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- Jun 5, 2019
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Well, the Reefer 250 (54 gallon display, 11 gallon sump, 3 gallon refugium with sea lettuce that grows like a weed and requires harvesting every two weeks which seems to be keeping phosphate at 0 and hoping to be a safe haven for pods) tank is only 3 months old, and it never really had a cyano or diatom bloom during the cycle (which took 4 weeks). Over the past week or so, I've noticed the amount of brown substance on the sand increasing at a quick enough rate for me to post here on the forums before it takes over. I have noticed what I believe to be red slime algae and green slime algae (first thought it was bubble, but upon manual removal last night it was just air bubbles trapped in green slime) on the rock work, but my concern is really the brown substance in the sandbed. I vacuumed out as much as I could with a siphon into a filter sock in the sump last night but upon waking this morning it's already coming back pretty strong. Hoping it's just a diatom bloom from a new tank, but given the bubbles in the brown stuff, am worried a bit it could be dinos. I saw in at least one forum that dinos typically get worse over the day with light and then die off at night, so hoping that the fact that it came back overnight points towards diatoms or cyano instead... Parameters have been very stable for 2 months and are as follows:
Salinity 1.024-1.025
pH 8.3-8.4
Temp 77-78 F
Alk 7-8 (usually hangs right around 8, but went on vacation for a few days and wasn't able to check/dose as normal, so dropped to 7.1, slowly dosing back up to 8)
Calcium 445-455
Ammonia undetectable
Nitrite undetectable
Nitrate 1-2.5
Phosphate undetectable
Magnesium 1305
Lighting is two AI Hydra 26 lights with the AB+ Radion Mimic from BRS. Startup is 0800 with a 4h ramp up and a 5 hour peak intensity (last night turned it to 4 hour peak intensity) with a 4 hour ramp down. Flow is two MP10 powerheads at the rear of the tank, but seems to provide ample flow for the corals in the tank, including the couple of SPS as everything is growing. I do run ROX carbon in a reactor in the sump and a Nyos 120 skimmer (running fairly dry, but 24h/day). Refugium is lit 8h at night by Kessil H80. No GFO or other phosphate remover has ever been used in the system.
Feeding is usually a total of 1-1.5 cubes of total frozen (a mix of brine and/or mysis from Hikari) per day with a small amount of flake substituted for half a cube of the frozen every couple of days. Given nitrates have been consistently 1-2.5 and phosphates have never been detectable, it seems it's not too much nutrient load for my livestock which include a regular firefish, a Helfrichi firefish, a yellow watchman goby, royal gramma, two mocha vinci clowns, female lyretail anthia, juvenile coris wrasse, ruby red dragonnette (seeding 15,000 pods every three weeks or so for the past couple of months, and he is always on the hunt and is growing), Bangaii cardinal, cleaner shrimp, two pom pom crabs, and a cleanup crew consisting of a about ten total snails including 2 cerith, 3 neerite, 2 turbo, 2 astraea, and a turbo conch. Corals are a mix of softies and mostly LPS with two tiny acro frags, two birdsnest, and a couple of monti SPS corals towards the top where the PAR is higher. Also have a red BTA which seems super happy and decided it liked a spot towards the top of the tank as well. Recently added a small maxima clam as well, but everyone says they look great until they don't, so can't comment on its overall health. I have been dosing phytoplankton for the pods and now the clam (15mL of phyto from Algaebarn) almost everyday for the past month and a half or so. Thanks to all who made it to the end of this long post. I was trying to think of questions that would arise as people were diagnosing the issue. After doing a ton of reading on these topics, it seems like it could be as simple as a new tank going through expected changes or I might be providing too much in the way of nutrients to the tank. Sincere thanks to any who have ideas about what this is and how to treat the brown stuff, or to keep the green and pink slime from progressing!
Salinity 1.024-1.025
pH 8.3-8.4
Temp 77-78 F
Alk 7-8 (usually hangs right around 8, but went on vacation for a few days and wasn't able to check/dose as normal, so dropped to 7.1, slowly dosing back up to 8)
Calcium 445-455
Ammonia undetectable
Nitrite undetectable
Nitrate 1-2.5
Phosphate undetectable
Magnesium 1305
Lighting is two AI Hydra 26 lights with the AB+ Radion Mimic from BRS. Startup is 0800 with a 4h ramp up and a 5 hour peak intensity (last night turned it to 4 hour peak intensity) with a 4 hour ramp down. Flow is two MP10 powerheads at the rear of the tank, but seems to provide ample flow for the corals in the tank, including the couple of SPS as everything is growing. I do run ROX carbon in a reactor in the sump and a Nyos 120 skimmer (running fairly dry, but 24h/day). Refugium is lit 8h at night by Kessil H80. No GFO or other phosphate remover has ever been used in the system.
Feeding is usually a total of 1-1.5 cubes of total frozen (a mix of brine and/or mysis from Hikari) per day with a small amount of flake substituted for half a cube of the frozen every couple of days. Given nitrates have been consistently 1-2.5 and phosphates have never been detectable, it seems it's not too much nutrient load for my livestock which include a regular firefish, a Helfrichi firefish, a yellow watchman goby, royal gramma, two mocha vinci clowns, female lyretail anthia, juvenile coris wrasse, ruby red dragonnette (seeding 15,000 pods every three weeks or so for the past couple of months, and he is always on the hunt and is growing), Bangaii cardinal, cleaner shrimp, two pom pom crabs, and a cleanup crew consisting of a about ten total snails including 2 cerith, 3 neerite, 2 turbo, 2 astraea, and a turbo conch. Corals are a mix of softies and mostly LPS with two tiny acro frags, two birdsnest, and a couple of monti SPS corals towards the top where the PAR is higher. Also have a red BTA which seems super happy and decided it liked a spot towards the top of the tank as well. Recently added a small maxima clam as well, but everyone says they look great until they don't, so can't comment on its overall health. I have been dosing phytoplankton for the pods and now the clam (15mL of phyto from Algaebarn) almost everyday for the past month and a half or so. Thanks to all who made it to the end of this long post. I was trying to think of questions that would arise as people were diagnosing the issue. After doing a ton of reading on these topics, it seems like it could be as simple as a new tank going through expected changes or I might be providing too much in the way of nutrients to the tank. Sincere thanks to any who have ideas about what this is and how to treat the brown stuff, or to keep the green and pink slime from progressing!