Need Some Clarification

[labar914]

I have been reading literally hundreds of current and past posts trying to figure out whats growing in my tank.
Our 90 gal. has been set up for nearly 4 months. Here was my process, based on the recommendation of the LFS. I started the tank with 20 pounds of LR, about 25lbs of live sand from an established tank, a lonely little damsel and a couple bunches of brillo algae and calerupa. A month later I then added 75 pounds of LR which I cured for 1 month before in bins with scrubbing, water changes and protein skimmer. The rock was added as well as a basic LFS Clown and some snails. I have a MH pendant and a twin tube with some atinic lighting. I am not into the technical aspects at this point, I think you might need a college degree to understand it all!
We have aquired a few fish; neon goby, clown goby, mandarine blenny, purple pseudocromis, as well as the clown and his anemone over the last 2 months. Also we have a nudibranch, cleaner shimp, clove polyps, green star polyps, button polyps, hairy mushrooms, frogspwn and a pagoda cup. I also have coralline algae and little red gorgonians (according to the LFS) growing everywhere. All items are visually doing great. I know it is to much to soon, but between my husband and I, we are impulsive and buy what we like, when we see it!
This is the first week that I have had so much brown stuff, nothing red, the side with the pendant is worse. I have been cleaning the front daily to take it away, and of course it is covering alot of the rock. It comes off very easy but shows up again. Yuck! I am ready to take a tooth brush to it!
1-My first questions is, does this look like the "diatom" that I have read about in other posts or maybe something else? Look at the lower left hand side of the pic., I havent figured out how to take a good clear picture yet, hopefully you can see it. Is it better to leave it be, or scrub it away? What may help?
2-What type and quanity of "clean up crew" is a good number for this size tank? From reading posts I realize I am missing this very important thing!
3-Last but not least, I know you shouldnt put certain corals to closes to each other, but really what does that mean? Two inches between, six inches or just not touching? I am assuming it depends on the variety, but I havent found a general guide yet.
Sorry for writing a "book" of questions, sometimes I feel that the LFS will tell you anything to make you spend more $. I havent found anyone local I feel that I can trust, I will have to keep looking. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

 

[bigarn]

It's either Diatom or Cyano,it's hard to tell. How's the water flow in the tank? Is the lighting older? You did add to many fish at once for a new set up and this is probably contributing to the problem. Don't overfeed---do weekly 10% water changes and cut back on lighting until it clears up. Make sure you have a good clean up crew...snails,hermits etc.

 

[montidanae]

you added to many fish at wonce, highering the bioload in one big pulse, this caused it, it is Diatom,
do you use tap water? what are your water readings (ph, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites)
Your mandarine is most liekly goign to die, they need very mature tanks, at least 6 months old, with alot of liverock (100+pounds) aeither that or a large above tank frefugium, they only eat Amphipods, copepods, and other micro fuana, this all lives and grows on your LR, without it they will die.
And anemones need very mature tanks, and alot of light, your tank has enough light for it, as long as its under the MH pendant, but they need very mature tanks with clean water quality and very stable levels, they are ultra sensative.
try to add one fish a month, to make sure you dotn have bioload pulses, they can cause this, so can low flow, new or old bulbs, new tank, or tap water.....HTH

 

[montidanae]

clean up crew...
1 fighting conch
1 Queen conch(both these conches eat diatom and other algae, fighting conches are very pasive and eat the algae on the sand, while queens climb all on the rocks and glass)
as many Astrea snails as you can get! (around 30-40) dont add all at wonce, over a period of time)
2-3 Mexican turbo snails)
20 or so nassarius snails(stirr the sandbed and eat un-eatn foods)
10 Cerith snails (they lay eggs alot so you dont need so Many, these burrow in the sand and clean the glass/rocks)
Also, one last question, do you have CC( Crushed coral)?

 

[tizzo]

ummm, let's mot forget...
WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!!!!!
OK, now that's outa the way, I want to first point out that there are two "truths" if you will. There is the undeniable, factual, proven truth. And then there's the I can make a profit, if I tell you this truth. As far as finding someone to trust...stay here or find a friend, NOT a dealer!! Next, it has been mentioned, but I will stress it. Tap water will cause diatoms. I recently set up a 30 gal using tap (emergency hospital tank), OMG you should see the diatoms, I forgot about those til recently. A good cleanup crew, you can find on the "Reef Packages" section of this sight. It's a good guideline.
Gimme a minute, and I can show you EXACTLY what diatoms look like.

 

[tizzo]

Well, it's not as good as I thought, but it's the brown "dust" on the bottum.

 

[labar914]

Originally posted by MontiDanae
clean up crew...
Also, one last question, do you have CC( Crushed coral)?
I do have crushed coral on the floor. Along with sand from an established tank mixed in. The first 25 pounds was also from an established tank in my home (I acquired the stuff from my step-sons tank). There is also a Queen Conch and a fighting conch, along with a few little snails, of what variety I dont remember. I have had no deaths or illness. MH bulb is older, but the others are new. I have tons of little critters crawling around (copoeds, whatever they are). I just call them tiny shrimp things.
Levels are:
PH-8.3
Nitrates-0
Nitrites-0
Sal.- 1.025
Ca- 410
Alk- 2.9
Amm- 0
Temp- ranges from 76-82 which I am having a hard time controling, due to the location of the tank and the MH, I assumed
Levels spiked and dropped in the first 1 1/2 months time. Protein skimmer has slowed down significantly since then. I was dumping it 2 times per day in the beginning, now I would only need to do it once per week (if I wanted to look at it that long).
Thank You for the suggestion of the cleaning crew! I will work on that over the next couple weeks.

 

[montidanae]

CC traps uneaten foods and fish "poo" this is adding coal to the train, do you sue tap water? how old are all the bulbs?

 

[labar914]

Originally posted by Tizzo
Well, it's not as good as I thought, but it's the brown "dust" on the bottum.
Sure does look like the junk I have on the rocks, it brushes right off. Brushes right off of the front glass too. It is just making everything look dirty.

 

[montidanae]

Originally posted by MontiDanae
CC traps uneaten foods and fish "poo" this is adding coal to the train, do you sue tap water? how old are all the bulbs?
.

 

[labar914]

Originally posted by MontiDanae
do you sue tap water? how old are all the bulbs?
Tap water thru some kind of filter/uv that is "supposed to" clarify/clean/make it safe. Normal household thing. The MH is pretty old, I used it for 2 years then it was in storage for 6. The other bulbs are newer.

 

[tizzo]

Over time it will just disappear. To keep it gone however, I would get an ro unit. As far as your CC, it's a pain to keep clean. I also have it. I am anal with my water changes and I syphon EVERY time. I push the syphon all the way to the bottum glass, my nitrates are still 0. CRAP I said it out loud, now something terrible is gonna happen. Anyway, if it's not to late you should consider changing out the cc. The further into this hobby you get, the harder it will become to take everything out, but the day will come.

 

[montidanae]

ok you need to buy a new bulb, an aquarium bulb, bulbs lose their spectrum after time, they will only grow algae, MH bulbs arent cheap $60-$80 a piece depending on the wattage of bulb you have, I realy like the Hamilton 14ks, or the Ushio 10ks as long as you have suplimentation.
Ware house bulbs arent good at all, they do noting but grow algae, bad algae, whats happening to yours.
and tap water is increasing it, RO/DI water is very very pure, if you want a reef tank(or an algae free tank at that) this is what you need, RO/DI water can be bought at your LFS or grocery store for around $1 a gallon, but you can buy a good RO/DI unti for less them $100, when i started to use RO/DI water my algae went away, but your bulb is useless now, get a new bulb first, thats more important.

 

[labar914]

Originally posted by MontiDanae
do you sue tap water? how old are all the bulbs?
Tap water thru some kind of filter/uv that is "supposed to" clarify/clean/make it safe. Normal household thing. The MH is pretty old, I used it for 2 years then it was in storage for 6. The other bulbs are newer.

 

[tizzo]

https://www.saltwaterfish.com/
But you can get one at the Home Depot for about $150. It removes all of the "poisons" (to corals) included (in most cities)in tap water. Lead, copper, chlorine, and about 100 others that I can't think of right now...
Buy new bulbs...

 

[tizzo]

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/130623/new-mh-compared-to-an-old-mh
That's only what, 6 months!!!!!

 

[ams153]

hey i got my tank and cycled it and had no probs for 5 weeks then i added some more rock from a pet store and mytank within 5 days had a sand bed that was completely covered in diatoms it sucked and i cleaned it out bought a fighting conch and a lawn mower blenny and a few snails and there keeping it pretty well under control so far but it looked so bad and it just comes back withina day youll clean it one day and itll be back the next
Andrew

 

[montidanae]

you shouldt get a lawnmower blenny right away, snails will work, the blennys eat alot of algae, they eat it all day, and thats the only thing, they need mature tanks filled with alage, unlease you ahve one trained to eat frozen foods or nori,
labar e-mail me please, i have an ro/di until site you mgith be interested in, but it voids rules to post here.
Guppieslayer@yahoo.com

 

[labar914]

Originally posted by Tizzo
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...f0806ca11d4244
But you can get one at the Home Depot for about $150. It removes all of the "poisons" (to corals) included (in most cities)in tap water. Lead, copper, chlorine, and about 100 others that I can't think of right now...
Buy new bulbs...
Thats what we have now, its a whole house thing, that diverts the water right when it comes in the house.
Am I misunderstanding what the protein skimmer is for, wouldnt it remove anything remained? The brown dust didnt start until the skimmer slowed down. I have a Seaclone 150.
I guess the consensus is a new bulb, I didnt realize they faded so quickly.

 

[montidanae]

Oh well if tou have an RO/DI unit thats good, just change the lights, i change all my lights be them VHO/PC/MH every 6 months, gets kinda expensive though, lol
protien skimmers- the water mixes with millions of micro bubbles, all the protiensa dn organic waste's stick to the bubbles, bubbles go to the top, get pumped into the skimer cuo where it turns back into liquid, protien skimmers are great!