Hey everyone, glad to finally join the community as a longtime lurker! I'm about 3 months into keeping saltwater, and have not skimped out on effort or discipline. I feel like I'm following everything to a T, but this problem has just been growing over the last month. I am getting very little green algae, the glass needs scraping maybe once a week. But this black stuff covers my sand and rocks, and even closes up all my corals! I go in with the baster almost daily, and it comes back just as bad. It is very likely I am not getting 100 percent of the algae with the baster since a lot of it is in the sand as a result of hermit crabs and pistol shrimp tossing the sand around.
What will ultimately solve this problem? Am I being impatient since this build is basically three months old? Am I overstocked?
I haven't seen anything that matches this exact algae/bacteria in my research and I don't want to start throwing random solutions and make things worse. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it! I really want to be able to look at my tank and not get a headache!
SPECS:
Fluval Evo 13.5 Gallon
4 hours (blue) + 6-8 hours (white) light per day
Salinity 1.25, daily top off/test (100% Pacific Ocean water plus RODI for top offs)
Nitrates 10, nitrites 0, ammonia 0, PH 7.5-8
Media— two foam blocks. Chamber one floss, carbon, phosphate pads, and bio media. Chamber two is more bio and polishing pad.
Pump is upgraded to Sicce 1.0
STOCK:
2 Oscellaris Clowns
1 Goby
1 Pistol Shrimp
1 Cleaner shrimp
2 Red Leg Hermit Crabs
What will ultimately solve this problem? Am I being impatient since this build is basically three months old? Am I overstocked?
I haven't seen anything that matches this exact algae/bacteria in my research and I don't want to start throwing random solutions and make things worse. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it! I really want to be able to look at my tank and not get a headache!
SPECS:
Fluval Evo 13.5 Gallon
4 hours (blue) + 6-8 hours (white) light per day
Salinity 1.25, daily top off/test (100% Pacific Ocean water plus RODI for top offs)
Nitrates 10, nitrites 0, ammonia 0, PH 7.5-8
Media— two foam blocks. Chamber one floss, carbon, phosphate pads, and bio media. Chamber two is more bio and polishing pad.
Pump is upgraded to Sicce 1.0
STOCK:
2 Oscellaris Clowns
1 Goby
1 Pistol Shrimp
1 Cleaner shrimp
2 Red Leg Hermit Crabs