White Stuff and Alage Problem

[Dr.Abag]

Hi all, I have a waterbox 25 and have been running it for 3 months now. It was a second hand tank with rock in it already. After a month of cycling I have added two clowns which seem to be doing fine and have adjusted well. I added 3 snails and they all died, after a month I added another 2 and they died as well. I want to make sure nothing is wrong before I add more fish and kill them or cause pain to my clowns. The bottom of my rocks have this weird white stuff all around. I am not sure what it might be and my glass and sand is covered with brown algae. I have been dosing AF bio S, AF NP pro and AF bio S pro.

Temp 25
Salinity 36 PPT
ammonia-0
Nitrate 10 PPM ( using API kit)
Phos 0.2 ( was 0.6 before and have been trying to lower it )
Alk-5
PH 7.4

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Hi all, I have a waterbox 25 and have been running it for 3 months now. It was a second hand tank with rock in it already. After a month of cycling I have added two clowns which seem to be doing fine and have adjusted well. I added 3 snails and they all died, after a month I added another 2 and they died as well. I want to make sure nothing is wrong before I add more fish and kill them or cause pain to my clowns. The bottom of my rocks have this weird white stuff all around. I am not sure what it might be and my glass and sand is covered with brown algae. I have been dosing AF bio S, AF NP pro and AF bio S pro.

Temp 25
Salinity 36 PPT
ammonia-0
Nitrate 10 PPM ( using API kit)
Phos 0.2 ( was 0.6 before and have been trying to lower it )
Alk-5
PH 7.4

For one your alk is to low. I believe the ocean is 6.5 .Salinity shoot for 35 not 36 and the phosphate is to high. As for the white stuff it maybe calcium that fell out a solution or it was from whatever type of substrate was used before. The brown algae if from the phosphate. Ideally you want .08 and better yet around .03 IMHO.

your snails are quite sensitive to low and high numbers.

pH open a window and see if it raises. Your on the low side there.
pH 7.8-8.4 if your lucky but try and raise it with an open window for the day and watch it rise.
try SG at 1.026
Dkh 7-8
Nitrate 5 or lower
Phosphate between .04-.08

if you can get those numbers steady then try adding a couple snails and they should be fine. As for fish they can be quite adaptable ( clowns and damsel fish) when things are out of balance.

 

[Dr.Abag]

For one your alk is to low. I believe the ocean is 6.5 .Salinity shoot for 35 not 36 and the phosphate is to high. As for the white stuff it maybe calcium that fell out a solution or it was from whatever type of substrate was used before. The brown algae if from the phosphate. Ideally you want .08 and better yet around .03 IMHO.

your snails are quite sensitive to low and high numbers.

pH open a window and see if it raises. Your on the low side there.
pH 7.8-8.4 if your lucky but try and raise it with an open window for the day and watch it rise.
try SG at 1.026
Dkh 7-8
Nitrate 5 or lower
Phosphate between .04-.08

if you can get those numbers steady then try adding a couple snails and they should be fine. As for fish they can be quite adaptable ( clowns and damsel fish) when things are out of balance.

Thanks, I will try the window opening this week to see what I can do about my PH. Yes my phos is going down but it will take a while as I think one of my rock is leeching. Also, there was no substrate before, it was a bare bottom tank. The white stuff looks like hair algae, so do not think its calcium deposit. Also its just on the bottom surfaces of the rocks. Even ones that are away from the substrate.