Issues With My Tank - Need Advice

[estein02]

I'm having 2 issues with my tank that are driving me crazy. First my paramaters: temp 79-80; salinity 1.023, ph 8.4, trites & amm 0ppm, trates 10 - 20ppm, calcium 390, phosphate 0. Tank is about 7 months old. I have T5 lighting (nova extreme fixture...actinics on 9 - 9...daylights from 10 - 8) ...use tropic marin...its 65 gallons...have a sump with protien skimmer and HOB fuge with chaeto. I have about 1,900 gph of flow (2 koralia 1s, 1 koralia 2, 1 small maxijet and a mag drive 7 return pump). Also, I am using RO/DI water.
My first issue is the coraline on the glass. It is constantly turning white in spots then it will turn back to purple. I'm guessing that this is due to the calcium levels being a little low. I've been dosing with B-ionic to try and keep the levels up. Wonder if switching salt would help...maybe to reef crystals or tropic marin pro. Any suggestions? Should I test for anything else?
The 2nd issue is my sand looking like crap as you can see from the pics below. I'm guessing that this is hair algae. I don't believe that this is a flow issue, but not sure what it could be and it looks ugly and I want it gone. I've tried siphoning it to no avail. What should I do?

 

[coraljunky]

Test for phosphates

 

[estein02]

Originally Posted by coraljunky
Test for phosphates
They are 0...plus I don't beleive that there are phosphates in RO/DI. Is that correct?

 

[renogaw]

phosphates can come from your food, what are you feeding? you could be reading zero phosphates because all that algae is using it up.
what is your clean up crew? what corals do you have? i think your coralline turning white is a common occurance--it's happening about the same time a lot of other's turns white, then comes back full force.

 

[estein02]

Originally Posted by renogaw
phosphates can come from your food, what are you feeding? you could be reading zero phosphates because all that algae is using it up.
what is your clean up crew? what corals do you have? i think your coralline turning white is a common occurance--it's happening about the same time a lot of other's turns white, then comes back full force.
For food I use a lot of different things; frozen mysis, krill, formula one, formula 2, cyclopeeze...also use formula flake. I dose feeding occasionally with either vitachem, selcon or zoecon.
My cleanup crew has thinned out a little. It includes 2 turbo snails about 8 astraea snails, 2 nass snails, 15ish red leg hermits, 1 sally lightfoot and 1 emerald crab.
I don't have very many corals at all...1 sun coral, a few zoo frags and a BTA is all.

 

[earlybird]

I'm curious how often people have to "up" their cleaning crew. I've had a major thinning also. 10-20 nitrates is enough to feed your algae IMO. How much and how often are you feeding? Personally I've just about stopped feeding flake and when I do I put in so little that it all floats and my clowns get it before it has time to absorb water and sink/disintegrate. I have 0-2 for nitrates but I only have 2 clowns. To reduce your trates you have to do larger water changes than you normally do or more frequent. Have you tested your make up water for phosphates? Like reno said they could be locked up in your algae.
How's your skimmer working? I gave mine a good cleaning a few weeks ago and I noticed a huge difference.
As for the coraline on the glass. I have yet to get any on my glass but seems to be growing well on my rocks but I'm not dosing a thing. I personally don't like the look of coraline on the glass and would scrape it off. How's the color on your rocks, is it doing the same thing? Normally if it's white it's dead or dying or bleaching but you say the color comes and goes. Could (not sure) have to do with fluctuating cal,mag,alk levels but if you are doing water changes the fluxuation should be minimum. I'm really not sure on that.

 

[renogaw]

is that crushed coral, or sand? if sand what type did you put in there? there's tons of huge particles in there. when you feed your frozen foods, do you just plop the whole cube in, or do you thaw it then strainer the food out? lots of frozens have phosphate additives (mainly vitamins). Did you ever go DSB in your fuge? as EB says, get rid of your nitrates as well.
how long do you run your lights? (EDIT: nm, you run for 12 hrs) you may want to reduce your light cycle.
I think you could probably put in a sea hare (pretty cool looking slug) or 1 or 2 more mexican turbos. i'd also put in about 15 blue leg hermits, red legs are a little more lazy than them, to help out with the excess food. also, you should have about 20 nassarous snails to keep the sand stirred.
get these snails, not the black shelled ones. they cost more, but are well worth it.

 

[estein02]

Thanks EB...During the week I am feeding once a day at night and during the weekend I feed 2 Xs a day. I usually mix 2 frozen things together and throw a little bit of the mixture in the tank. I don't use it all as it is too much. I also might throw a little bit of flake in but not every day...maybe 3 Xs a week. Also, every couple of days I spot feed my Sun Coral cyclopeeze, but not a lot...just enough to where all the polyps eat.
I have not yet tested my make-up water but I will. I currently do water changes of about 10 gallons every week. I'm wondering if doing little 5 gallon changes daily or every other day would do anything? My skimmer is working ok. I was having an issue with it just filling up with water not the nasty foam stuff, but that seems to have resolved itself. According to help from AquaC some of the Seachem products do something that can affect the skimmer so I stopped using that product. I was adding the reef plus concentrated vitamin and amino acids to some of the feedings. I've also cleaned mine recently as best I could (there I some surfaces that I just can't get to) and that helped a little too.

 

[estein02]

Originally Posted by renogaw
is that crushed coral, or sand? if sand what type did you put in there? there's tons of huge particles in there. when you feed your frozen foods, do you just plop the whole cube in, or do you thaw it then strainer the food out? lots of frozens have phosphate additives (mainly vitamins). Did you ever go DSB in your fuge? as EB says, get rid of your nitrates as well.
how long do you run your lights? (EDIT: nm, you run for 12 hrs) you may want to reduce your light cycle.
I think you could probably put in a sea hare (pretty cool looking slug) or 1 or 2 more mexican turbos. i'd also put in about 15 blue leg hermits, red legs are a little more lazy than them, to help out with the excess food. also, you should have about 20 nassarous snails to keep the sand stirred.
get these snails, not the black shelled ones. they cost more, but are well worth it.

Not crushed coral...it is a mixture of araqalive oolite and special grade reef sand. I thaw the food then use a baster to squirt a little in the tank. I don't beleive I can go any deeper the about 3" with the sandbed in the AquaFuge 2 HOB. I will double check though.
I will up the clean up crew. Is the snail in your picture a nass? The 2 I currently have have whiteish shells. thanks again...

 

[renogaw]

while you have your phosphate test kit out, thaw out the frozen and test the water. I just reread you have a hob fuge. can you put sand in your sump?
i think if you cut back on your light schedule, get a better CUC in there, and make sure (even though your flow is overkill) that there's no dead spots, your algae will start going away.
the snail i posted is what's called a tonga nassarous snail.

 

[estein02]

Originally Posted by renogaw
while you have your phosphate test kit out, thaw out the frozen and test the water. I just reread you have a hob fuge. can you put sand in your sump?
i think if you cut back on your light schedule, get a better CUC in there, and make sure (even though your flow is overkill) that there's no dead spots, your algae will start going away.
the snail i posted is what's called a tonga nassarous snail.
In the part of the sump where I could put sand I have the skimmer and pump for the skimmer. I don't think that adding sand in there is an option.
Would you suggest cutting back the flow? As far as I can tell I have no dead spots.

 

[earlybird]

I have the same situation with my sump. I wouldn't put sand in there unless you can successfully put a DSB in which I don't think you can.
I think your algae is coming from how you feed. Sounds like you "dump" feed. I also think you may be feeding to much. I think I have a good system of feeding.
I only have 2 clowns b/c I wanted to keep water quality as best I could in a small tank. I feed about 1/4-1/2 of a cube or the equivalent every other day. I rotate foods but only mix them together in my home made and cyclops is a treat and I'm careful not to overfeed which is easy to do b/c it's so tiny. I thaw and rinse the food in a coffee filter and then flip the filter and put tank or RO water to get the filtered food out of the coffee filter and back into the cup. I turn off my powerheads and return pump to stop the water movement. I then use a small syringe or bulb syringe and slowly feed my fish. I'm convinced that they eat 90 + % of the food or at least the larger pieces and nothing is lost. The really small pieces that disappear, I can't do anything about. Usually takes me about 5 minutes to feed. I just drop in a little until its eaten up and continue. I have 0 phosphates and 0-1 or 2 nitrates. I don't have any nusiance algae just detritus in some spots on my sand. Remember your rock provides food for your fish and you have enough that you won't have to worry about them starving even if you feed once every other day or so.

 

[pakora]

If you have any filter feeders and you dose too frequently it will allow algae to grow. Also the amount of lighting you give might have something to do with it. I had the same problem and when I stopped dosing food for my porcelain crab and zoos so much the algae dissapeared. I also put a clump of cheato in my 10g tank and it just sits in the corner; i think that helped out also since it is taking the nutrients for itself thus leaving nothing for the algae.

 

[snaredrum]

Originally Posted by estein02
They are 0...plus I don't beleive that there are phosphates in RO/DI. Is that correct?
There CAN be phosphates in RO/DI water. I bought RO/Di from a local supermarket and it was loaded with Phosphates. They needed to change their filters.