What am I doing wrong?

[Og Drogon]

First off I want to thank everybody for there help this first year I been in the salty side of aquariums. (not that I always listen :-/)

Now, my tank livestock is: 2 yellow tangs,1 blue hippo tang, 2 purcula clownfish, 1royal grama,2 firefish,1 watch man goby, 2 green chromis,1 cardinal fish.......

My filtration is: bubble magus nac-3 rated for 80g and a 30g sump/refugium..... With chaeto and live rock....
I've checked my ammonia-0,nitrite,nitrates0-,phosphate-0.1 or zero can't tell,
But I'm still having problems with what looks like diatoms,my sand basically looks like the red sea:-/.and a real green film on the glass, that I guess it's green algae....

I feed once a day one cube of brine shrimp and flakes.

I would like to know where am I going wrong? or is it everything I'm doing??
Or should I get rid of the fish until my tank stables it's self out???

Would like some helpful suggestions, thanks again.

I'm Nemo's mother!

 

[knugenx]

how big of a tank, what type of water do you use, how long is your photo period...?

i would first remove the red sand, or get a sand sifter...feed less...cut back on lights.

 

[yesjenks]

+1 also what are you using to creat flow in your tank? MP40?

 

[Og Drogon]

how big of a tank, what type of water do you use, how long is your photo period...?

i would first remove the red sand, or get a sand sifter...feed less...cut back on lights.

90g
RO/DI with al replaced filters.
My light time is actinic on at 4:00pm off at 10:00pm
Daylight on at 5:00pm and off at 9:30pm

And


I'm Nemo's mother!

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

First off I want to thank everybody for there help this first year I been in the salty side of aquariums. (not that I always listen :-/)

Now, my tank livestock is: 2 yellow tangs,1 blue hippo tang, 2 purcula clownfish, 1royal grama,2 firefish,1 watch man goby, 2 green chromis,1 cardinal fish.......

My filtration is: bubble magus nac-3 rated for 80g and a 30g sump/refugium..... With chaeto and live rock....
I've checked my ammonia-0,nitrite,nitrates0-,phosphate-0.1 or zero can't tell,
But I'm still having problems with what looks like diatoms,my sand basically looks like the red sea:-/.and a real green film on the glass, that I guess it's green algae....

I feed once a day one cube of brine shrimp and flakes.

I would like to know where am I going wrong? or is it everything I'm doing??
Or should I get rid of the fish until my tank stables it's self out???

Would like some helpful suggestions, thanks again.

I'm Nemo's mother!

D i thought you was going to sell your tank? What happend the hobby sucked you back in to it buddy? Lol

 

[LatinP]

D i thought you was going to sell your tank? What happend the hobby sucked you back in to it buddy? Lol

It's easy for people to get discouraged in this hobby, it's not only very expensive but alot of things can go wrong. Don't knock him for giving it another try instead try to encourage it and help him out.

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

It's easy for people to get discouraged in this hobby, it's not only very expensive but alot of things can go wrong. Don't knock him for giving it another try instead try to encourage it and help him out.

I wasnt trying to say it bad way at all LatinP. But i know where he is coming from with the problem he is having.

 

[JonnyJ]

What type of lights? How close are they to the surface?

What is your tanks temp? Is it stable? Is it on the warmer side?

Which food are you using (brand)


Manually removing the unwanted algae would be my first step.


Id also suggest getting your water checked with a different set of test kits for piece of mind

 

[Og Drogon]

It's easy for people to get discouraged in this hobby, it's not only very expensive but alot of things can go wrong. Don't knock him for giving it another try instead try to encourage it and help him out.

Thanks man you hit it in the mark.
Angelo didn't mean nothing he's a cool dude lol

I don't know about saying the hobby suck, but it's just I am going thru a runt and now for the tank to give me problems too ....so I was going to sell it but the wife almost killed me.


I'm Nemo's mother!

 

[Og Drogon]

What type of lights? How close are they to the surface?

What is your tanks temp? Is it stable? Is it on the warmer side?

Which food are you using (brand)


Manually removing the unwanted algae would be my first step.


Id also suggest getting your water checked with a different set of test kits for piece of mind

Current USA 4x54w bulbs are about two month old.

My temp was extremely high this hole summer but now its under control at 79f
I'm thinking of switching out the sand slowly and replacing it.
Or if not go fish-less for awhile.

I'm Nemo's mother!

 

[noelskii]

run some carbon. what's ur WC schedule and how much?

 

[Og Drogon]

run some carbon. what's ur WC schedule and how much?

By WC DO YOU MEAN WATER CHANGE?
if yes I haven't done one in like a month :-/
I was doing them every two weeks.
Oh and I had switched to reef crystals too :-/



I'm Nemo's mother!

 

[Mattl22]

I know I'll proably get strung up for this but I exhausted all options finally tried prodibo tanks been looking great since I started might be worth a shot !

 

[noelskii]

Manually removing the unwanted algae would be my first step.

+1. when you do your WC, try to syphon out as much nuisance algae as you can. run carbon. keep up with the WC!

 

[LatinP]

Your red spots on the sand could come from about half a dozen sources. Anything from not enough flow around the sand bed (had this problem) to overfeeding, too much light, not doing enough water changes. Any of the mentioned stacked aka not doing enough water changes and overfeeding or too much light and not enough flow would just make it worse.

If you want you can get a sand sifting goby and they'll clean up the sand relatively fast, but that's only a band aid to a larger problem. If you really want to knock out the source try to keep up on water changes (can get old fast with real life believe me I know), take a look at how much your feeding, reduce your light schedule slightly for a little bit, try to rearrange the power heads or add another so there is more flow and also look at your skimmer... is it pulling out a good amount of gunk how long has it been since you cleaned the head etc...

Sorry about typos I hate cellphone keyboards.

 

[Og Drogon]

My powerheads are two korila 1050, the corals that I have in don't like much flow like my frogspawn,green Duncan, my RBTA ..... that's the weird part my fish and corals + anemone are Doing Great but the tank itself looks crappy :-/

Here's my plan of action (boy felt smart for a second )
Starting this Sunday:
Scrub the algae on the glass,do a 30g water change(should that be right for a 90g?)
Check make sure the skimmer is on point .
And I'll be doing this weekly for a month then go back to biweekly ...
What you guys think?


I'm Nemo's mother!

 

[noelskii]

sounds good. scrub,syphon and carbon...

 

[Cris007]

Dav don't forget to syphon out all that detritus that collects on the bottom of your overflow box..

 

[FlyTekk]

One think i noticed is that you said your feeding brine shrimp. Im assuming thats frozen. If so you must defrost in ro water. Making sure to throw out the water only feeding the actual shrimp. Rinse again if your psycho like me. Also i got rid of my sand. And when i did i saw all that crap that was causing my cyano. Amazing.Your test kits may read all zeros because the algae is consuming the nutrient. Suck up AAAALLLLLLLL the algae your eyes can see! Than leave lights off for a few days. And test your water twice a day while there is no lights and no visual algae. One of your parameters should start to rise. Dont go more than 2 days with out lights if you have coral. But still continue to test while all algae the eye can see is removed. Something has to pop up eventually.

 

[FlyTekk]

Besides the skimmer, and the RO water, and than water changes. I feel it will help all tanks to run carbon and a phosphate remover. Some live rocks have phosphates (as well as other things) bound up inside of them. Same for live sand. These can leach back out. Running a skimmer and carbon and phosphate remover helps catch these 24/7. Water changes, ro di filter rinsing frozen foods etc helps to prevent build up of these nutrients.