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Thanks, Jimbhoy13Welcome to R2R and the salty world Bill. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.
Thank you for letting me know about not stirring the sand up. Smart. That will help. I'd totally have gotten into the sand hard tomorrow during my next water change. I'll be more delicate with the sand as you mention.Welcome to R2R! Nice tank. It can be difficult at times to tell dinoflagellates from diatoms but yours look like diatoms to me. Reducing your white light can help as can increasing water flow. That said, diatoms are are pretty much normal part of a cycle and they will die off. You can siphon them during a water change but I would not siphon more that about 25% of the sand at a time. Stirring the sand brings fresh sand to the surface and diatoms utilize the silica, so more fresh silica, more fuel for diatoms... Mainly just try to not let it take over the tank by cleaning as needed. Adding PNS, Microbacter 7, XLM or Clean or several other bacteria products can also help.
I've started with a 5 gallon bucket of Instant Ocean Reef Salt. I've been advised that this may be the cause of my high Alk readings. Dr. Mac at Pacific East Aquaculture suggested I switch to regular Instant Ocean Salt.... Do you have any suggestions on salt? Thanks, Rmckoyhi bill and welcome to r2r
first things …. That’s typical for a new tank ( new uglies , diatoms
They will disappear after it’s consumed the available silicate which is necessary as the system matures .
Next : api test kits . Are notorious for being inaccurate . But will imo work for general idea results
salinity : If you want to successfully keep corals I would increase the salinity to 1.026 and use something you trust to measure the salinity
Alkalinity : Depends on what salt you’re using as each salt mix has different parameters find one that works for you and stick with it
What Salt are you using ?
I can’t honestly remember the actual Alk levels for each io or reef crystals . I know there are both a lot higher than I prefer to maintain my levels at .I've started with a 5 gallon bucket of Instant Ocean Reef Salt. I've been advised that this may be the cause of my high Alk readings. Dr. Mac at Pacific East Aquaculture suggested I switch to regular Instant Ocean Salt.... Do you have any suggestions on salt? Thanks, Rmckoy