Orange stuff killing polyps! PLEASE HELP!!!

[socal_aqua]

i'm in my 3rd week w/ my 24 gal. Nano and orange/rust-colored stuff is growing on my rocks and on my polyps. My temp is steady at 80 degrees (no chiller), 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20 nitrate, 1.025 salinity, 7.9 pH....so...what the heck???
my urchin i added is fine, hasn't lost any spines but the polyps look bad and the rock is being overcome by the orange stuff! Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!

 

[sly]

That may likely be diatoms. It sounds like you started adding coral WAY too soon for an immature tank. Your pH should be 8.3 and your nitrate should be 0ppm for corals. I would recommend taking it back to the LFS before it's too late. Give your tank time to fully cycle and mature, add some live rock to help with your nitrate removal and then in about 4 months MAYBE you can add a coral.

 

[socal_aqua]

Sly,
what's LFS? sorry for the naivity here....well, Vividaquariums.com told me i could add some polyps and mushrooms this early! damn them! the mushrooms look great but the polyps don't.
should i scrub the orange stuff off the rock or? so more like rock to help lower the nitrate level (which is actually more like 40 looking at the color chart)...
anything else i can add?? thanks !!

 

[sly]

LFS is what we say around here when we mean Local Fish Store... It's easier to abbreviate it. Polyps cannot tolerate high nitrate levels. Nitrates are poison to them. Mushrooms are a little more forgiving. The orange stuff (if its diatoms) is perfectly natural for young tanks and I will go as far as to say it's unavoidable. Every tank I have heard of has had diatom outbreaks early on in life. It goes away on its own and will do you no good to try to remove it.
Here is a pic of a tank with a severe diatom outbreak:

Just let it run its course and add some more live rock to help get that nitrate under control...
Unfortunately your polyp will probably die unless you do some regular water changes to keep the nitrate down or you get rid of it until your biofilter system can handle the nitrate naturally.

 

[puffer32]

Your shrooms polops should do ok, place them in the sandbed, away from the algae, or scrub the off the rock they are on. Your trates are alittle high, a good water change should help both. (20 is acceptable, but lower is better) Make sure you have a good surface flow, that will help your PH. Do an iodine dip on the polops if you can.

 

[who dey]

Originally Posted by socal_aqua
i'm in my 3rd week w/ my 24 gal. Nano and orange/rust-colored stuff is growing on my rocks and on my polyps. My temp is steady at 80 degrees (no chiller), 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20 nitrate, 1.025 salinity, 7.9 pH....so...what the heck???
my urchin i added is fine, hasn't lost any spines but the polyps look bad and the rock is being overcome by the orange stuff! Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!
does it intensify the longer your lights are on?