Brown diatom/algae ?'s

[Anonymous]

:x

hi, my name is jason and im fairly new to the reefkeeping world (about 8 mo) and ive had quite a problem with. Its a 20 gal H tank.. It currently houses a few shrimp(peppermint) an urchin, a chocolate star ( i know a no no but he has been really good) a clarkii clown, mandarin fish, misc hermits, emeral mithrax, couple hawaiian feather dusters, unknown anemone, yellow polyps, button polyps, an unknown sps, and some mushroom corals. ive tried everything except chemicals....its this brown algae/diatom crap that is choking off my live rock and covering my glass....ive was told i might have high phosphates? i guess its possible but i cant afford every test kit out there....the ph is good 8.2....we have perfect water up here in carson nevada...i have to lower it in my freshwater tanks..anyways...snails have failed miserably..i had 5 large turbos and they all died after a few months...i would love to know how to curb this problem..

email me at [email protected] for solutions or if i left out any info
thanks jason

 

[mountainbiker619]

How long has the tank been up and runing? Algae cycles are common for new tanks. Lack of water quality is the biggest contributer to algae blooms. You mentioned the quality of water in your area is fine..have you tested it with a TDS meter? Do you us a RO/DI?

 

[reefann]

Diatoms normally are a product of high silicates in your water. Turbo's may appear to be eating diatom's but they really are not. The best way to get rid of diatoms is to have RO/DI water and wait it out. If this cycle does not clear in a normal amount of time there is probably a problem with the water. How long has you tank been setup?
JJ
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[reefann]

BTW what kind of lighting do you have on the tank. The chocolate chip star is another issue we will takle later :lol:
jj
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[Anonymous]

The lighting is a 10000k daylight, i also use actinic..it has been up for about 6months but all the stuff i have in there now is, was transfered. and no i do not use ro/di water...i live in an apartment and cannot tie up my sinks with an RO deal. And i know with the chocolate chip it could turn out to be a mistake, but like i said, it is one of the original things in my tank...i hand feed it frozen squid and freeze dried plankton...and it has yet to do anything...actually i had a cowrie that did more damage...

 

[klingsa]

It sure sounds to me that you are seriously overloading your tank. That sounds like a LOT of bioload, which could easily account for high phopsphates or nitrates causing the algae bloom. That would be my first guess. What do others think...too many animals?
Sara

 

[grav]

Sara,

Just 2 fish, some shrimp and a cleanup crew. That seems fine IMHO. Perhaps I don't know too much about this star we are talking about... do they eat a lot?

My guess is that the tank is too old to blame the cycle, and not too many aninmals. I'd think poor water or over feeding.

 

[Anonymous]

The Bio Load maybe too big...I tend to agree with that...my nitrates are low...0ppm or less than .25...ph is 8.3....ammonia is 0ppm or under 5.0 nitrite is the same result as the nitrate...as of august 23 03...as for the starfish, it has a tendancy to eat corals, shrimp, algae, sleeping fish...So i have read...the chocolate chip star is not a reef safe fish...what i do know about animals, including fish, is that all temperments vary..a passive species may turn out to be mean and vice versa...i speak from experience with my other pets...Back to the subject.. Perhaps more frequent water changes and more live rock would help...(i only have 14lbs of LR in my 20gal.) This seems to be under..The 14lbs of LR was originally in a 10 and then i upgraded.....Let me know if this would be a good idea????

thanx jason 8)