Frustrated--look At Pics

gary1328

gary1328

Member
Please help!!! Hope you can see these pics, I had to really shrink them to fit on this forum.
Is this Diatoms or Dinoflagellates???
This is around the third week of it now and it is really frustrating, i do not know what else to do. I figured you guys could give me the best advice. I feel that I am pretty knowledgeable about the hobby, and like I said, I thought that i have tried everything to elimanate this outbreak.
Thanks in advance,
Gary
Brief background::
125G Oceanic tank with model 2 sump
*Use RO water
*Drip kalkwasser everyday
*Feed once a day(alternate between flake,pellet,frozen)
*20-30 nass. snails
*15-20 turbo snails
*120 blue legged hermits
*2 tangs, 1goby, 1 foxface,2 clowns, 1 blenny, 2 chromis
*200 lbs. of live rock
*small in tank refugium in tank with mud,live rock, and gracilara(3 days new)
*halides on 8 hours, actinic on 12 hours
***in sump***
super skimmer
2 bags of carbon
kent phos reactor running with phos media
no bio-balls, jus live rock in sump
turbo twister UV
*****
Ph--at night 8.04 climbs to 8.35 during day
water temp average---76
salinity---1.025
water change every other week 10%
PICTURES--www.msnusers.com/fishtankspics
please check out this website under Gary13, this is where my pictures are, I can't get them to upload on this post.
WHAT MORE CAN I DO????
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
How old is the tank? What are your other water parameters, like nitrates, phosphates, and alkalinity? How old are your RO filters/membranes?
 
gary1328

gary1328

Member
Thanks for the reply,
My tank is in its 7th month
My Ro unit is 3 months old (also has deionization module)
Phospates are almost undetectable
Nitrates were a problem, and are slowing coming down to about 20
The only thing that I can think of, is that I had 3 peppermint shrimp, that are now gone and I can't find them(didn't really look) Could they possibly be decaying and causing this outbreak whatever it is???
 
bill109

bill109

Active Member
Originally Posted by gary1328
Thanks for the reply,
My tank is in its 7th month
My Ro unit is 3 months old (also has deionization module)
Phospates are almost undetectable
Nitrates were a problem, and are slowing coming down to about 20
The only thing that I can think of, is that I had 3 peppermint shrimp, that are now gone and I can't find them(didn't really look) Could they possibly be decaying and causing this outbreak whatever it is???
when you test phosphates wont show up as much as you really have most of the time. it will say some andyou will have ton. add some phogaurd
 
gary1328

gary1328

Member
I know that the pics are bad, but this brown stuff is all over the rocks, the sand on the bottom, the corals. It is like a film, it lifts up in pieces. Is this diatoms or just brown slime algae.
I am running Two Little Fishes phos guard in my phos reactor, but I just started this less than a week ago
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
Three dead peppermint shrimp wouldn't do much to the nitrates in a 125 gallon. How long have you had all the fish? What kind of skimmer do you have?
Also, what is your alkalinity?
 
payton 350

payton 350

Member
you need to clean all the rock and glass with say a turkey baster...just blow it up and net it....nothing will eat it and it will never disappear unless you clean it yourself...then check your water levels and lighting schedule and make sure that's not out of whack...but i would recommend just cleaning it yourself and increase the water flow to all areas of tank....
 
gary1328

gary1328

Member
Had all of the fish for the last 5 months except for the foxface, he is about 1 month old. All of the fish have been doing great despite the ugly conditions.
I keep my alkalinity high---3.2 to 3.6 because everything that I read says to keep it high.
 
payton 350

payton 350

Member
i just got over this problem too...well at least for the last 2 months...i was feeding everyday too then i switched to every other day or sometimes i would skip 2 days ....i personally am not worried about under feeding because the fish tend to eat more of the rock and glass this way and control more of the algae...they also will eat the copepods when hungry too..just a suggestion
 
mpls man

mpls man

Active Member
Originally Posted by gary1328
Please help!!! Hope you can see these pics, I had to really shrink them to fit on this forum.
Is this Diatoms or Dinoflagellates???
This is around the third week of it now and it is really frustrating, i do not know what else to do. I figured you guys could give me the best advice. I feel that I am pretty knowledgeable about the hobby, and like I said, I thought that i have tried everything to elimanate this outbreak.
Thanks in advance,
Gary
Brief background::
125G Oceanic tank with model 2 sump
*Use RO water
*Drip kalkwasser everyday
*Feed once a day(alternate between flake,pellet,frozen)
*20-30 nass. snails
*15-20 turbo snails
*120 blue legged hermits
*2 tangs, 1goby, 1 foxface,2 clowns, 1 blenny, 2 chromis
*200 lbs. of live rock
*small in tank refugium in tank with mud,live rock, and gracilara(3 days new)
*halides on 8 hours, actinic on 12 hours
***in sump***
super skimmer
2 bags of carbon
kent phos reactor running with phos media
no bio-balls, jus live rock in sump
turbo twister UV
*****
Ph--at night 8.04 climbs to 8.35 during day
water temp average---76
salinity---1.025
water change every other week 10%
PICTURES--www.msnusers.com/fishtankspics
please check out this website under Gary13, this is where my pictures are, I can't get them to upload on this post.
WHAT MORE CAN I DO????
#1, why do you have to kalkwasser every day?
#2, cut way back on feeding. i feed about 1-2 week
#3, how old are your lights?
#4, try cutting back on lighting.
#5, ph not too bad..mine is 8.4-8.6
#6, i change about 15 gal every other week on my 75
what are the rest of your tank specks??
 
gary1328

gary1328

Member
I just drip kalkwasser everyday, because I have the very small kent dosing tank, and I slowly drip it in to fill the evaporation line that I have on my sump.
My lights are as old as my total setup---about 7 months.
I just now purchased a bigger skimmer, hoping that this will help. I have been running the super skimmer, but the one that only goes up to 125 gallons, I now am installing the biggest one ----for up to 225 gallons
 
jmick

jmick

Active Member
What do you have in the way of flow? I'd think if you had proper flow a lot of your issues would be solved.
 
gary1328

gary1328

Member
Flow is definately not a problem--the tank is a reef ready, so both corners have returns at each end. and I have a total of 5 Seio powerheads at various levels.
 
tnn1567

tnn1567

Member
The problem I see with the tank look like you lack flow. Everything seem to look great but, seem like everything is settling down. I had the same problem when I first started.
Recommend that you get some Tunze which consume 11 watts or maxijet 1200 with mod to get the same output waterflow. The electric consumption on maxijet is around 18 to 22 watts per hour. Give that a try and you will notice the diffrence.
Seem like you have a lot of nitrate bubbles forming. Try adding a 12" sand bed in your refugium. You might want to get some miracle mud then place the a 12" layer of sand on top of that. Give it 5 to 6 weeks and you should get some good results.
 
bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
Order new metal halide lamps; metal halides need replaced every six months, but I don't think that would be the sole cause of your problem. Are you sure no one sabotaged your tank and dumped like four cups of flake food in there or something? Do you have children? What is the TDS, phosphate, and nitrate of your RO/DI water? Did you recently switch to a different salt mix?
That much algae needs lots of nutrients to grow and nutrients only come from excess food, decaying animals, or poor quality water.
If you don't already have a TDS meter, purchase one and check your tap water which should be 40-200 ppm and your RO/DI water which should be zero ppm.
Don't change your photo period, it may reduce the algae growth, but it does not solve to problem.
:notsure:
 
tnn1567

tnn1567

Member
Originally Posted by gary1328
Thanks for the suggestion tnn1567---It makes sense, I will try to get more flow in there
I am all about saving electricity and using the extra cash for other various equipment for the tank. You have Seio and they consumed 45 to 70 watts per hour on electricity.
 
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