Tropic Marin Pro to D-D H2Ocean to no water changes for a while to Reef Crystals....

[PhoenixOne]

Sometime in 2012, I switched from Tropic Marin Pro to D-D H2Ocean because TMP lacked in Mag/Alk. Everything looked better and my 15 head Hammer Coral grew to 80+ heads and my Galaxea grew from 5 inches to a behemoth 16+ inches (gave it away and kept a small patch) but I would often have Cyano outbreaks and I would use Red Slime Remover to get rid of it. Not sure what could have caused it. I don't over feed, my water is 0 TDS (using Kold Steril II and 2 DI canisters) and I have very good flow with no dead spots and I would occasionally wet/dry vac my sump for detritus (not using filter socks). Then tried the no water change for a while. For roughly about 2 months, I only dosed CAL, ALK and Mag. My tank looked fine. Everyone seemed happy, just some bubble algae started popping up which grew in between my Hammer coral and broke the branches. I finally decided to do a 15 gallon water change and cracked open a new bucket of D-D H2Ocean and about a week later, things went bad....real bad. I had a HUGE Cyanobacteria outbreak. After using red slime remover, a week later I had a Dinoflagellates outbreak and it killed my Hammer corals, my small patch of Galaxea and severely damaged my Favia. I needed to do an emergency water change after one of my 5 long tentacle anemones (1 split into 5) "decided to die" and started to slime so I brought 15 gallons of Nutri Seawater to do a water change after I got the anemone out and a few days later, the Dinoflagellates died off. Tank looked beautiful. Brought two more 5 gallon Nutri Seawater to do 5 gallon changes for the next two weeks. All looked great. Decided to change my salt, thinking I may have a bad batch batch of D-D H2Ocean...plus, it would leave this brown calcified residue on my equipment which sometimes would cease up pumps. So I brought a small box of Reef Crystals with the extra Magnesium and did a 15 gallon change last week. I checked the parameters of the salt before I did the change and it was 1.026/35ppm specific gravity. Cal and Alk were fine but Mag was LOW at 900 (all with Elos). Tested my tank and my Mag was 1400, Cal was 450 and Alk was 9. Proceeded with the water change. 2 days later, the tank smelled something awful. Smelled like low tide in my living room. Checked everything and nothing had died, no gunked up skimmer cup. Everyone seemed fine but I started to see a brown jelly snot start appearing on my power heads, overflow box and rocks. I shut the system down to check my equipment to make sure nothing got sucked up in the sump and I saw a layer of brown mist cloud just hovering above my rocks and Favia. Should of taken a picture. I had 5 gallons left of the Nutri Seawater so I siphoned out that brown cloud stuff. In the bucket, it looked like brown snot and smelled funny. Everything seems fine now. I don't want to keep buying the Nutri Seawater because it is more expensive than buying a bucket of salt...but man, everything seemed to liven up in my tank after using it. It looks like that brown snot is slowly starting to show up again in some spots. I brought another small box of Reef Crystals and was planning to make another 15 gal of new SW this weekend to check to see if the Mag is low again.

 

[PhoenixOne]

I shut the system off today and saw it reappeared so I was able to take some pics of this "brown mist cloud.

 

[NYreefNoob]

esv salt,
the residue your seeing if more then lightly presipitation. read the directions on the salt, if i remember correctly the d&d states only mix for 4 hour's and was my favorite brand of salt

 

[PhoenixOne]

Thanks NYreefNoob.
I've been thinking about trying ESV salt. Even brought a scale in case I decided to buy the kit (even if I don't, I figured it's good to have a scale). I didn't know about the 4hr mixing. But that brown cloud mist. What the heck is it? Another type of Dinoflagellates?

 

[NYreefNoob]

looks to be some sort of algea growing, alot of times going without doing a wc for long periods then doing one can cause all sorts of issue's, good and bad

 

[Aquadicted]

looks to be some sort of algea growing, alot of times going without doing a wc for long periods then doing one can cause all sorts of issue's, good and bad

+1

I think your issue came from the lack of water change as opposed to changing salt.

 

[PhoenixOne]

Since I have 1 box of Reef Crystals that I recently purchased, next water change I'll use it and see how everything looks. I'm very surprised how low the Mag was on Reef Crystals since it specifically mentions that it has higher Mag.If the Mag is still low on the newly made up SW, then I'll switch to ESV and see how that goes.

 

[Geraud]

Agreed with the above, if you are going to change salt, ESV is really good. Mixes clear in minutes, and everything is spot on... The scary aspect of having to mix 4 different things is really nothing to worry about, especially considering the quality you will get.

 

[PhoenixOne]

Update:

I found the reason why Mag and Cal were so low using Reef Crystals. My refractometer was out of calibration. The thought came to me when I found my calibration fluid. Stood there staring at it for a few secs....you know when you get that wide eyed "Eureka" look when that rusted cog in your brain starts to work again? So yeah, I checked it and it was 1.023. Just made new SW and its on the money now.
So I went ahead and brought one of those Hanna Phosphate Checkers because using the color tests doesn't tell me exact numbers. Well, tank was 0.25. *sigh*. So I checked my make up water and that was 0.15. Yay. Now I know what is causing these outbreaks every time I do a water change. I'm using a Kold Steril unit with 2 DI canisters after it and it gives me 0 TDS on demand. My tap water is 35ppm TDS and the Kold Steril output is 32ppm TDS. Figured that I better check the rest of my meters I also brought a hand held TDS meter and checked both and it was 30ppm in and 26ppm out. *Scratches head*. My inline TDS meter is out of calibration too? Swapped out my DI TDS meter and got the same readings as my hand held. So My Inline TDS meter has to be recalibrated too. Found a Hydroponics store near me and they had 342ppm TDS calibration solution and went ahead and started the recalibration.....and ran into a problem. Dipping the probes into the calibration fluid, it read 452. I started turning down the calibration screw in the back and the reading only went down to 401 before the calibration screw was at dead negative. Meaning I couldn't turn it down anymore. I cleaned the probes with rubbing alcohol as per HM's instructions and it didn't help. Pets Warehouse had Inlines in stock so I just went and got a new meter. Well, THAT meter read 50 in and 46 out. Thought these things were supposed to be calibrated from the factory. Popped open another calibration solution and put the probe in and it was 418ppm. Turned it down to 352ppm, as per HM's non flowing calibration instructions. Now it matches my hand held.
I'm looking into getting an empty DI canister, fill it with GFO and put it at the end of the 2 DI's to get Phosphates down to 0. I've been resisting going the RO route because I'm in heaven having 0 TDS water on demand and after a lot of research, I find that some people get 0 Phosphates and some don't while using RO systems. But by putting GFO at the end, would this solve the Phosphate problem? I currently have my Two Little Fishies GFO reactor running in my new make up SW and after an hour I tested and got a 0.03 reading. Not too bad!

 

[PhoenixOne]

Update:
Did more searching online and I came across a thread in another forum with someone who had a similar problem with phosphates. Someone suggested to make sure he packed the DI tightly or else it will be less effective. I remembered that since I got the canisters I only "tapped" packed them. I refilled them and used the bottom of a small glass cup and packed them down. After flushing them for about 5 mins I retested and got 0.00. Amazing how something simple can be a solution.

 

[PhoenixOne]

Update:

1 day after doing a 15 gallon water change, my phosphate levels in my DT read 0.00. The next day I noticed my 1 remaining Hammer Coral head started to come out. Looks like he's feeling better. During feed mode, there was a lot less brown snot coming out from the rocks. It's been 7 days and the brown snot is about 98% gone and the tank still looks like I just did a water change. My product water is still 0.00 phosphates. I brought 2 mesh socks from BRS instead of felt because they are way easier to clean. Just a quick rinse. Also, they catch the medium to large detritus/uneaten food which would settle and foul up my refugium. I don't mind the small particulates floating around my DT and my fish and clean up crew don't seem to mind either. I'm going to stay on a steady regiment of changing out my GFO every 3 weeks to keep the phosphates in my tank in check and decide if I'm going to do a water change every 2 or 3 weeks.

Looks like I've got this thing beat.

 

[PhoenixOne]

Since the last post, I've switched to ESV salt and I've added a GFO canister at the end of my Dual DI's. Unfortunately, that brown crap slowly returned to my tank. I've added a video to share. When my Vortechs are running, I don't see any of that brown stuff on the rocks. But when I put the Vortechs into feed mode (10 mins), the brown stuff starts to rise from the rocks and over flow box. I've notice the brown stuff is concentrated on the left side of my tank and not the right.
Just in case anyone is wondering, I am also running GFO on my tank, I DON'T over feed and my light cycle is 10am to 8pm, PO4 is 0.02 in my tank (hanna checker), I have a nice size ball of Cheato in my sump, I do a water change every 3 weeks, and I run my skimmer on wet.
Not are darn clue if it's Dino's or....some new form of life created to torment my tank.
Edit: I also run a U.V.

Enjoy the (eww, that's nasty!)video:redface: (give a bit for the vid to buffer)
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/feenxone/media/VIDEO0005_zps40130c6f.mp4.html

 

[Tonyscoots84]

how long has your tank been up and running for? Have you ever seen the brown algae cycle in your tank?

 

[PhoenixOne]

how long has your tank been up and running for? Have you ever seen the brown algae cycle in your tank?

Hey Tony.
My tank has been up for 9 years. I went through the brown algae/diatoms cycle when I first started the hobby during the cycling process.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

so obviously then it has to be a problem with something your doing (such as salt, water, ect).... also those hanna pocket meters are not reliable.

 

[PhoenixOne]

so obviously then it has to be a problem with something your doing (such as salt, water, ect).... also those hanna pocket meters are not reliable.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. If it's something that I'm doing wrong, something that I'm over looking, something that I may be missing. With the Hanna Checker, what would you suggest? But more importantly, is what is that brown stuff. Dinos?

 

[oh207]

Could it be the Nutrasea water? I have 6 boxes and was waiting until my box of IO Reef crystals finish to use them.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

for phosphates you need to get a real phosphate hanna meter the big blue one not the pocket. Its not very accurate. dino's are usually stringy and brown but can possibly be classified under dino's. Maybe also diatoms.

Lets start with this and narrow this down

How long are your lights on a day?
What type of lighting do you have?
Do you have a fuge?
What type of skimmer are you running?
How big is the tank?
How many fish are in there?
I forget but which phosphate media are you running? (Rowa is great)
Are you running carbon?
How much are what are you actually feeding?
Are you running a filter sock and are you changing it out every 3 days?

sorry for all the questions but there is alot that goes into getting this brown algae.

I use reef crystals and i do not have 1 problem with it.

 

[PhoenixOne]

How long are your lights on a day? 10
What type of lighting do you have? Acan 104AC-48B
Do you have a fuge? Yes. Proflex Sump Model 3
What type of skimmer are you running? Bubble Magus ES5
How big is the tank? 90 Gallon
How many fish are in there? 5 (hippo tang, yellow tang, gold bar maroon clown, neon goby, blue spot jawfish

I forget but which phosphate media are you running? (Rowa is great) BRS GFO
Are you running carbon? ues
How much are what are you actually feeding? pinch once a day(flake)
Are you running a filter sock and are you changing it out every 3 days? Yes

I used Reef Crystals but it was leaving brown calcareous deposits on my equipment and pumps and was ceasing up my pumps. (also while mixing new SW). So I switched to ESV Salt.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

couple of things i would change off the bat...

- Buy yourself rowaphos
- is the lighting on 100% all lights for 10 hrs Def. no good....
- are you running cheato or other macro algae in the sump?