Frag tank changes-need advice please

[ahiggins]

Hello everyone!
I need some advice for my frag tank.
As it stands, I have white egg crate (from lowes) with a bunch of palys/zoas and a few LPS. Its a relatively new 40 gallon breeder but everything in it came from an established 20 gal. I have zero nitrates/phosphates yet Im still seeing diatoms EVERYWHERE. on the egg crate, on polyps, on disks...it grows back faster than I can clean it and its starting to kill off a polyp here and there.
Ive recently read that the white egg crate can leach phosphates into the system...is that true?

I want to buy a 12x24" black acrylic sheet, .25" thick and use that instead of the egg crate. I would drill my own holes in it as well. Would black or clear work better?
Has anyone ever noticed an issue with egg crate?

Any input would be appreciated!
Also, Im thinking about switching from a flasher wrasse to a melanarus wrasse sometime within the next few months. Can anyone tell me more about using the malanarus as a frag tank fish? Ive read that I will need to put a container of sand in there for him-correct? (my tank is bare bottom).

 

[reef lover]

New system means there's silicone to eat. Once depleted the diatoms will die off.

 

[ahiggins]

where does the silicone come from?
The seams?

 

[ahiggins]

@twilliard
I know new tanks have to go through the diatom bloom-its 2 months old at the moment but do you think the white crate has something to do with how intense it is?

 

[reef lover]

Could b the crate...would seem.it would leach out eventually. Can't say for certain have never used that product. I have black crate from BRS that has never given me any issues.

 

[ahiggins]

I went with the "cheap" option and so far Ive lost maybe 8 polyps over all the frags I have in there because it gets built up on the head.
Im thinking about ordering the black or clear acrylic sheet and just drilling my own holes.

 

[twilliard]

@twilliard
I know new tanks have to go through the diatom bloom-its 2 months old at the moment but do you think the white crate has something to do with how intense it is?

I have found that the egg crate is an excellent anchor for most all algaes. The white does show in contrast more than lets say being on the glass.
I have never had an issue with egg crate leaching compounds.
At 2 months old there is still room for diatoms to grow.
Ask santa for a microscope ;)

 

[ahiggins]

lol I have an electron microscope at work but I doubt that would be very helpful lol
Do you think it would be a good decision to get rid of the crate in favor of acrylic?

 

[twilliard]

lol I have an electron microscope at work but I doubt that would be very helpful lol
Do you think it would be a good decision to get rid of the crate in favor of acrylic?

I think that will be more of a personal choice as I never had issues with it.
The good think about the white crate is that it showed me readily that there was an issue growing ;)

 

[ahiggins]

LOL I guess thats a good thing....
I hate them though >.< the darn algae is taking ova!

 

[twilliard]

Oh no.. algae issues?
Well lets see what you are dealing with.
How full is this frag tank?
Also here is the thing. Acrylic is just as porous and when algae grows on that, takes a foothold then you are left removing it and cleaning it the best you can.
With crate the good thing is that it is disposable :) I would just replace it as it is cheap.
Then treat the source of the algae. Frag plugs I presume

 

[ahiggins]

I dont have any pics at the moment but heres what it looks like-focus on egg crate-(mind you, not my tank)

Its a 40 gallon breeder with about 40-50 zoa/paly frag plugs, 5 acans, one 2" flasher wrasse.
Its very light and fluffy, blows in the flow but theres no air trapped between it and the crate. sometimes its a covering, sometimes its stringy. The longer it stays there, the more stringy and longer it grows.
Its definitely more brown than green.
I can brush it off with my fingers/toothbrush. The problem is that it comes right back 2 days later. I am seeing hair algae on one frag so I need to get that out asap.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

how high is your flow? what are you feeding. and did you take out the live rock?

 

[ahiggins]

admittedly, the flow can be higher, I have 4x 420g/hr powerheads. I have the maxspect 230 on order.
Only feeding small cyclopeeze for the wrasse every other day-maybe 10 pieces he chases around.
Live rock is still under the crate. I blow it out once a week until I find a better way to arrange it with no dead spots.
*that pic isnt mine, it was just to show what the brown algae looks like on the crate, Ill have my picture tonight*

 

[twilliard]

H2O2 dosing might be a consideration in that setup ;)
To me that looks perfect but I am weird in that way cause I love algaes :)

 

[twilliard]

I suffer th3 lack of anything fun in my tank.
Wish I had before pictures but they are gone. here is what H2O2 does.
Used to be a algae nightmare everything from GHA bryopsis cyanobacteria (including spirulina ) dinoflagellates and flatworm .

 

[ahiggins]

H2O2 dosing might be a consideration in that setup ;)
To me that looks perfect but I am weird in that way cause I love algaes :)

I shy away from peroxide because I did a dip and almost killed a frag once lol (bryopsis)

 

[twilliard]

I shy away from peroxide because I did a dip and almost killed a frag once lol (bryopsis)

Ya dipping with H2O2 is risky based on the ratio of the dip.
I am with you on this one!

 

[ahiggins]

but I dripped 3% for a minute or so. No bubbling and it definitely did not get rid of my algae lol but it killed 3 of the 8 polyps on that frag.

 

[ahiggins]

how would you go about a peroxide treatment for the whole tank?
If I could do it the safe way....I may not be as worried. All of my coral are in there-I dont put anything into the DT until I have a copy of it to grow out and sell