new tank needs help

[maliskasmi]

Hi, I am setting up my first saltwater tank and I would love some help on a couple of things.I have 165 gallon tank,50 lbs live rock (plan to add more soon).I've had it set up for a few weeks.nitrates are high and Ikeep getting this rusty colored stuff(algae?) on glass,sand and rock. The tank was originally a freshwater tank.It has the bio-balls in the filter and i see alot of bad comments about those.Should I get rid of them? put something in their place?when should I put in snails and crabs? Thanks for any help you can give !

 

[aceroc]

The rusty colored stuff sounds like Diatoms, i went through the same thing when i set mine up. It will eventually go away over time, don't do as i did and pull your hair out because of it because it will get annoying and look horrible. Just clean it off the glass and the rest will go away. I am running a sump/fuge with bioballs and it is doing fine. Although these are only temporary until i get some Macro Algae for my fuge then the Balls are comming out.I use to run a freshwater with bioballs and when i switched to saltwater and cleaned the balls i couldn't believe the crud that came off these. They aren't as bad as people say they are

if you clean them but to me it is a pain to take some of the balls out clean them, then put them back then clean some more a week later and so on and so on. So basically IMO i would say not to go with bioballs as once they start to collect alot of junk they are a pain in the butt.

 

[maliskasmi]

So if I choose to get rid of the balls,do I use something else in its place? Do I need to get my nitrate levels down before I get snails?nitrate level is 25 right now. It was higher but ive done some water changes.

 

[wonderwit]

If you have a good mechanical filter before the bioballs, you shouldn't have too much of a problem with muck as long as you don't allow light into the container housing the bioballs (but you do have to stay on top of the filter, make sure its clean). Diatoms can actually make the cycling process longer (they are a type of algae, and so can use ammonia and nitrites as energy sources...they effectively compete with the bacterial colonies your trying to start). Its a good idea that, until your tank cycles, you keep it as dark as possible to minimize growht of diatoms and dinoflagellates.