Got some questions

[kanima]

OK background,
90 gal 7 months old mixed reef
30 gal fuge
coralife skimmer
phosban, carbon and uv
around 33% turn over at 2937 gph with pumps and powerheads.
amm 0
ph 8.2
cal 480
alk 16 dkh ( yea super high I know ) working on that
mag 1320
phophate 0
nitrite 0
nitrate maybe 10
I am keeping rics, shrooms frogspawn, open brain, xenia colt and a toadstool with no problems.
SO now lets get to the questions some of these are simple beginner stuff just for my own knowledge.
1. Green dust that you have to wipe off glass every other day? what is it ? what is it a sign of ?
2. Green hard stuff on glass most on bottom next to sand edge and silicon edges pain in the a$$ to get off razor blade and lots of effort. What is it and what is it a sign of?
3 Now for the hard question: I am running 8 t5's on a nova extreme on this tank I recently upgraded fomr the current lights to ati's aquablues, blue plus and uvl aquasun.
No less that 2 maybe three weeks later i have my first cyno outbreak. Went 3 days no lights, no help, got out what i could for a week and it is still getting bad change out the carbons phos and went to feeding every 2 to 3 days still growing ... lost some green eye zoas to it ... finally broke down used chemi-clean ( what a mess ) it did simi kill it most of it turned a rusty brown color but still dealing with.
Now my question is since for 7 months i have had no algea problems I change out my lights and cyno and algea show up and I have read that people say that bad lights or old lights can cause it are the aquasun's causing it? They are v-ho lights that are at 54w but have a pinkish color the overdriven ones at 80w have a white color ? Is that what has caused my cyno to start? Also when i change the lights out my coraline has stopped growing, most that had grown is now turning brownish even the big stuff i had growing good on the rock is turning brown or getting covered by something else.
Or is this all not related to each other and i need more snails in my sand bed to help with the cyno.
Really need you guys and gals thoughts on this I am tempted to just get a MH light but I would hate to spend xxx amount of dollars and the problem get worst or doesn't even solve it.

 

[renogaw]

the green powdery stuff is kin to phytoplankton, it's a sign of a healthy but possible excess of nutrients in the water
green hard stuff *could* be a type of coralline algae, i believe i've heard of something like that (also, please don't post around the word filters...)
rusty brown could be diatoms again. the new bulbs could have provided enough light to start up your algae that had been kept in check by just doing what you're doing with the tank. new lights = new parameters = opportunity for algae. while your nitrates are TESTING about 10 and phosphates are TESTING zero, your algae may be using up so much of them and you are onlyh able to test the excess. best ways of getting rid of cyano (and other ways can be found by using the search option, THOUSANDS of threads on it)
1) more flow
2) less light
3) get rid of nitrates and stop overfeeding
4) get more of a clean up crew to eat the excess food youre leaving from overfeeding
5) get rid of phosphates (even though you test zero, i honestly find it unbelievable... i rarely believe when people say zero nitrates as well btw. phosphates are in just about everything you put in your tank unless you do nothing but make your own food)
6) all else fails, chemiclean worked WONDERS for me.

 

[mr_x]

1. algae, from excessive nutrients.
2. algae, from excessive nutrients
3. i believe any change in lighting-old bulbs that have changed spectrum, or new bulbs, can trigger a bloom if you have the right chemistry for it. and judging by the speed of algae growth on the glass, i'd say you have nutrient rich water.
i don't think halides will solve this problem. a better skimmer might. are you using R.O.D.I. water?
as for the coralline die off, i think it doesn't fare well in strong lighting. the bulb configuration you've chosen has alot of PAR. also the alk level could be effecting it too.

 

[kanima]

OK thanks guys now lets talk about nutrient export. Besides cheato, carbon and skimming what else is there? I know snails, sand shifters and etc remove the excess detrius which I think is the problem because I haven't seen many of my sand bed snails like i used to when i feed the tank. The weird thing is the golden brownish stuff is now where the cyno was go figure. Yea the alk thing is my fault so I am hoping this is a tigger too with the light to causing all this.
Thanks cause I am was still sort am getting really really furstrated with it lately.

 

[renogaw]

you could get cleaner clams, do water changes, get hermits/shrimp to eat excess food, you could get fighting conches to eat the detritus/diatoms (probably what the golden brown stuff is), a sally liight foot is great for cleaning the sand as well (can get rambunshous (sp??) though as they get older).

 

[dennis210]

Hey I have to agree with renogaw's first post. It is dead on! As for flow just becuase you have 2937 gph flow doesn't mean there are not dead or slow slow zones. Try turning a couple of PH's or returns down slightly to point more towards the substrate. Also a 7 month old tank is still maturing, yes it has cycled, but it really is just getting it's legs under it. So watch the feeding, try putting food into a test tube to premeasure it out. The tube that we test with are fine and if you have more than 3/8 - 1/2 " of food in the tube you are over feeding (thats what I use in a 210 with 26 fish and it's both pellets and powders for corals!) Chemiclean will work, but the problem may come back if you don't address it's causes. The coralline die off - check the undersides of rock and shady area's - you should see no sign of die off there. Brighter light is an inhibiting factor for coralline (or the reefs would get the coral choked off by it!)

 

[kanima]

Wow thanks guys, My plan is as follows I am going to up my clean up crew and see what is going to happen, I would try to add more flow but I am afraid of the flow on the brain might rip it up, he floats a good bit now. Since I have cut my feedings way down I saw my sally actually working the rocks been a while since it has done that. If the larger crew doesn't help I guess I will punt on the feedings some more.