I need help.. I have no idea what’s causing all this mess!

[Emi2852]

Hey! So I’ve run so many tests and I really am struggling to pin point and understand why my tank looks the way it does. There’s an algae/diatom infestation that disappears at night and comes full force in the morning once the lights are on.

it’s a 20g, no sump, no skimmer, only has a hob filter with some carbon, filter floss, and Phosoguard. Lights are on for 12 hours, and are some cheap brand from amazon (don’t judge it’s my first tank)

inhabitants are one six line Wrasse, tuxedo urchin, 8 snails. I have a bunch of corals mostly all frags, thou a few are starting to grow out quite nicely. There's Ricordea Yumas, gsp, Zoas, torch, rainbow polys, Duncan, candy cane, monticap, birds of paradise and green birds nest.

Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 26
KH: 6.7 (I have been trying to slowly raise it but haven’t figured out how much to dose yet)
Cal: 400
Mag: 1395
Ph: 7.6
Nitrate: undecteable on API & Salifert
Phosphate: undetectable on API & Salifert
TD: 0
Silicates: undetectable with Seachem

 

[Chrisfish]

Bump

 

[r20crazy]

if your only flow is from a HOB you really need an additional powerhead in tank for more circulation. do you use tap water or ro/di for topoffs? how often do you water change and how much? if its a relatively new tank you are just going thru the ugly phase and is normal

 

[Emi2852]

if your only flow is from a HOB you really need an additional powerhead in tank for more circulation. do you use tap water or ro/di for topoffs? how often do you water change and how much? if its a relatively new tank you are just going thru the ugly phase and is normal

i have korilla 240 in my tank as well, I use rodi water fortop off and mixing new salt mix.And probably only do water changes monthly at 10% the tank is About 1.5 years old.

 

[Super Fly]

from those 2 pix, it looks like Dino... sorry, ur tank is too clean

Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

I don't know what percentage of folks had luck battling dinos with any of the methods in the old Dino thread but it's obviously a very low percentage, so I'd like refresh folks on the natural alternatives and lay out three areas of info: some of the factors that contribute to a dino outbreak...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Christoball]

Hey! If you have zero No3 snd Po4, take a look at my build thread. I hade same issues. I had not dinos, but some other bacteria looking similar to your pictures. Best of luck!

 

[brandon429]

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

that's just like your tank, but fixed up. that is one thread, one reef, totally cleaned out in one pass and we have 200 others as well just like it.

 

[Emi2852]

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

that's just like your tank, but fixed up. that is one thread, one reef, totally cleaned out in one pass and we have 200 others as well just like it.

Thanks for the thread! Looked through it and it seems so similar to my case! Glad I have vacations this week so I’ll have time to start a deep clean. Already did to smaller rocks today once they’re easy to get off and have nothing attached nor are attached to anything else! Though I don’t have peroxide so I will have to pick some up to soak the rocks to break down the residual algae my tooth brush couldn’t scrub off!

 

[brandon429]

Manual control is just awesome in tanks small enough that access is easy

Even the toothbrush w no peroxide helps but when peroxide goes on after that type of physical removal it really helps cut the growback phase

 

[Emi2852]

It is! I was so satisfied after seeing the comparison of the rocks! I can’t wait to clean the rest!

 

[brandon429]

The truth about algae control is that animals aren’t always the best way and neither are dosers that kill the algae in tank and rot it into the crevices of rocks and sand

animals help in reducing grow back, and a typical reef cleaning + filter set handles their waste conversion

animals simply recycle the plant mass into waste pellets, galore, and pack that into the crevices it’s why our sand rinse/ tank cleanup thread runs forty pages

every poster in our deep clean thread assumed they’d arranged the balances for that waste to go away, or turn into minerals, but they hadn’t. So we just rip cleaned the whole tank exactly like wvs rip clean above.


large tank procedure wrote the rules for every reef:

cant deep clean that’s bad.

killing algae directly isn’t addressing the cause.

all algae means your water is bad, adjust nitrate and phosphate to starve it


there’s simply another way, that’s one option set among a few.

deep cleaning as needed won’t harm, it’s regenerative

once your rocks are all coralline you won’t have to work as much, price of bringing up white rocks into purple.

 

[Emi2852]

it’s nice to hear that, because I was under the impression that having to do major clean up from all the mess in my tank meant I was doing something majorly wrong. (I know I’m not perfect at this and stuff have to fix things) but seeing that doing a thorough clean of everything is a sound solution makes me feel more relaxed and happy, because then it’s more so my laziness that’s the issue and not that I’ve created a terrible atmosphere for my babies.

I have noticed that the one rock of mine that’s almost completely purple never had the same algae issues as the other rocks. But I also wonder if it’s because it was a live rock when I bought it, where as all the other rocks in my tank are man made dry rock.