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shonna

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Hello reefer community, i am new to the reef world have had many fish tanks in all sizes for prob going on 15 years in fresh water thought i would try saltwater in a 30 gallon failed miserably as i missed a key in r/o water this time coming back in i went with a 60 gallon tank measures 48Lx18Wx24T with a canister and a nicrew hyper reef 150w light with a cross flow eddie and a mini hygger and a small hang on the back skimmer everything is set up and basically runs its self slowly ramped up the light check all my basics with the saltwater and reef test kits from API, fish are doing fantastic i just cant add any corals or anemones i tryed twice over the past 6 months all my rocks are staying a brown/rust color and i keep getting a brown hair like algea everywhere been dosing to try and get rid of algae and manually removing as much as i can i have a 10 gallon sump set up with a refugium and at this point im just wondering if from the first tank cycle on my 30 gallon if the rocks would leach heavy metals and cause this prob. plz any advice would be apreciated. (at this point im not afraid to start over!) this is me and my husband
 

SurfTrack

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Hey I have a few questions:

1. What water source are you using now (tap, distilled, RODI, etc) and do you know the TDS?
2. What are your most recent water test results?
3. How often do you do water changes and what salt brand do you use?
4. What exactly are you dosing to fight the algae and do you have a clean up crew (snails, crabs, etc)?
 

MC Blowfish

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I'm just going to echo SurfTrack.

What are your test results?
How often do you do water changes?
Do you have a clean-up crew?
 

RabidDragon

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yes, the test values are going to be needed.
also, how old is the tank?
Started with live rock or dry rock? A lot of dry rock starts as off-white and with the bio-film growth *that you want* it will eventually turn brown.. and other colors.
sounds like the "ugly phase" of a newer tank.
 

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