Diatoms and algae problems

[cskendrick]

For some reason i keep getting brown algae and some hairy algae. My tank been running for about 6 months now. and the first time i saw the algae , i put a cleanup crew in there, about 100 snails and 100 crabs. that did the job pretty good and now the cleanup crew are dead, and the algae is comming back, i hate to keep buying snails and crabs every 4 months or so. Why am i getting algae all the time, I am using a ro/di system, have a 90gal tank, parameters are all great. using pc lighting. Read some where that silicate might be getting in the water, don't have a tester for that or phosphate. Any suggestions!!!

 

[slider101]

Originally Posted by cskendrick
http:///forum/post/2916599
For some reason i keep getting brown algae and some hairy algae. My tank been running for about 6 months now. and the first time i saw the algae , i put a cleanup crew in there, about 100 snails and 100 crabs. that did the job pretty good and now the cleanup crew are dead, and the algae is comming back, i hate to keep buying snails and crabs every 4 months or so. Why am i getting algae all the time, I am using a ro/di system, have a 90gal tank, parameters are all great. using pc lighting. Read some where that silicate might be getting in the water, don't have a tester for that or phosphate. Any suggestions!!!
What killed 100 crabs and 100 snails!? Is your water testing fine for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph?

 

[coralstacker]

I get the brown algae on my sand and then on my glass too. My water tests perfect for ph,ammonia,nitrites, nitrates every time so that is not what killed your clean up crew. I do not use an RO, all I use is my well water. I have asked for advice on this problem many times and received a lot of different answers, of which none of them worked.My store told me to put an 18 watt UV sterilizer on it but this made no change. as far as the snails and crabs I did that too but most of them died i beleive because there actually was not enough food source for all of them or they just didn't eat it. My snails died off to about 6 and my crabs down to 1. What seems to make a difference is more water movement but then you need to be careful of what is in your tank (corals) because you can beat them up. The other thing is the stronger your light the more of it you will have

 

[cskendrick]

all of my test are good, ph, nitrate and nitrite,and ammonia are good, don't know what killed the crabs and snails , i mean there are a few left. I thought that they don't lived that long, maybe 6 months or so,

 

[cskendrick]

And i have a refugium with tons of chaeto

 

[cskendrick]

anyone have any ideas thanks

 

[gypsana]

Well water can have all sorts of contaminates that will kill fish. Definitely not good that inverts are dying that quickly. I would invest in an ro filtration unit or at least buy filtered/ro water. Do you have anything in the tank besides the inverts?

 

[mr_x]

i've had snails come and go, but some of them have been with me from the beginning. they will live a long time if they are not killed prematurely. i drip my snails before adding them, for about 20-30 minutes.
are you adding anything to the water like supplements or vitamins or anything like that? i agree that the presence of different things in tap/well water can and will kill inverts, and so can the overdosing of certain supplements/vitamins.
the theory that the stronger your light is, the more algae you will have, is completely false. nuisance algae is a product of excessive nutrients.
the refugium with tons of cheato is proof that the water is nutrient rich. it will grow much slower in pristene water.

 

[spiderwoman]

Could you post your exact water parameters. I'd recommend getting a RO or RO/DI unit to eliminate any toxins from your well water. We are on well water too and were using it for a while. Also what size is your tank. 100 crabs and snails is a lot for anything under 150+ gallon tank. The general rule of thumb is 1 CUC for every gallon of water. Smaller amount of correctly selected inverts can clean up a tank in a week and still continue living when the amount of food is less.

 

[cskendrick]

I am using an ro/di system as stated at the top of the page. And i am not using well water. I am not adding anything to water except marine buffer to raise the ph. strange

 

[gypsana]

Sorry got you confused with the third post. If you are using RO water I am stumped. Is it possible that copper was used in your tank for any reason? What brand of salt are you using?

 

[brian_wis]

what size water changes are you doing and is it weekly or biweekly, monthly, I would change out 10-15g weekly if I were you,algae is the problem here, how old are your lights, bulbs should be replaced every 10-11 months?
How bout a skimmer, I have a skimmer rated for tanks up to 400g on my 150 ref with 125g refug,
Just my ideas,
Brian

 

[coralstacker]

I forgot to mention in my first post that I also test for phosphates and it is always zero. Even after that I still used phosphate remover and it didn't change anything. Recently my brown algae was not as aggressive as it was in the beginning. I changed my light bulbs because I was at 8 months use instead of 6 and guess what happened as soon as I put in the new bulbs. More brown algae on the sand with air bubbles under the sand. Light does make algae grow and along with it, it makes other beneficial things grow. Also if the lighting is directly on top of my tank it will grow a green algae on the glass, and when I raise the lighting just 3" above my tank the algae then grows brown. It would be nice to find the solution to this but I have asked this question over and over, so far noone has had the answer. You can go to 2 fish stores and get different answers, and you can talk to 3 different employees in the same store and get 3 different answers and none of them are right. If you find a solution I sure would like to know what it is too. Oh by the way if you look closely at the tanks in your fish store you will find the same thing in theirs as long as you don't go in right after they have been cleaned.

 

[coralstacker]

Even more info, I used to change water at 25% every month and am now doing 15% weekly to keep the water more regular instead of depleting it over a month. Regardless neither way had any effect on the brown algae.

 

[spiderwoman]

Coralstacker, please start your own thread. I'm getting confused who is the one OP here.
Sorry cskendrick, I got you mixed up with Coralstacker who is posting his problems in your thread.

 

[gypsana]

Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2917780
Coralstacker, please start your own thread. I'm getting confused who is the one OP here.
Sorry cskendrick, I got you mixed up with Coralstacker who is posting his problems in your thread.
I did the same thing.

 

[mr_x]

Originally Posted by coralstacker
http:///forum/post/2917767
More brown algae on the sand with air bubbles under the sand. Light does make algae grow and along with it, it makes other beneficial things grow.
light does make algae grow, but why is algae present in your tank, but not in mine?
also, the bubbles in the sand makes me think that this could be cyano, or dynoflagellates. cyano comes in different colors.

 

[coralstacker]

Thanks Mr. X I will check into the two options you suggested as so will cskendrick I'm sure. And now my apologee's to cskendrick for the following. It turns out that in 1 of my threads a person responded 1 time only to have spiderwoman begin an attack on this person which then led to everyone posting un-related junk in my thread than what it was started for. I thought I was giving you very helpful info on this problem as someone who has experienced the same thing as compared to someone taking a guess. As for spiderwoman you have difficulty understanding what you read so instead of apologizing for your mistake you decide to attack someone else. This forum is mean't to help people, not take out your frustrations. Maybe you should join a YMCA and take up boxing and vent your personal issues there.

 

[spiderwoman]

Originally Posted by coralstacker
http:///forum/post/2926581
Thanks Mr. X I will check into the two options you suggested as so will cskendrick I'm sure. And now my apologee's to cskendrick for the following. It turns out that in 1 of my threads a person responded 1 time only to have spiderwoman begin an attack on this person which then led to everyone posting un-related junk in my thread than what it was started for. I thought I was giving you very helpful info on this problem as someone who has experienced the same thing as compared to someone taking a guess. As for spiderwoman you have difficulty understanding what you read so instead of apologizing for your mistake you decide to attack someone else. This forum is mean't to help people, not take out your frustrations. Maybe you should join a YMCA and take up boxing and vent your personal issues there.

oh well
This isn't your thread, so I don't know what your problem is. And attacking someone? Please!

 

[mr_x]

she's got a mean right hook!