Really Annoying Prob Please Help!!

turbo101

turbo101

New Member
So i have had this problem for a while now with this alge...i have done everything trying to fix this but i cant, i have tried to research this but i cant find anything on it for mine.....things that i have done are weekly water changes,cleaned the sand and scrubed the live rock also...and just last week i did a 90% water change and scrubed the rock and cleaned the sand but now it got mad and went every where...

Please Help!!!!!
here are a few pics
Also no cleaning crew except for a diamand goby and a orange linckia starfish


 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
I would honestly leave it alone. It seems the more you jack with it, the longer it takes to go away. It's diatoms.
What is your water source?
 
turbo101

turbo101

New Member
My water source is from the tap but I have a pureone purifier on it to clean the water and I also use a water conditioner at the same time
Is their anyway to get rid of this its starting to get really annoying and starting to take over the tank
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3136862
Your water is probably making it worse but it should go away in time.
I agree.
The reason why you have diatoms growing in your tank still is that you have too many silicates in your water. Silicate is what diatoms use to create their shells. Take away their shell source and you get rid of them. Typically you will have to use 100% RO/DI water ... Reverse Osmosis/ DeIonized water to completely remove all the impurities in tap water.
It's kind of neat, but diatoms are one of the worlds oldest organisms.... look it up!
 
xcali1985

xcali1985

Active Member
Grab a few more snails also they help eat at it, it takes time. I have it on my rocks and since i upgraded to an 80 from a 55 i can see them starting to form on my new sand. RO water helps but won't prevent it from happening.
A lot of the research I have read says that the bloom is a good thing and the longer it lasts the healthier your tank will be in the long run. Diatoms are a base food for the lower end of the ecosystem and many of the creatures that will later help breakdown matter in your tank will become populated via the diatoms.
I started my tank dreadfully with Tap water and that probably made my bloom worst than it needed to be, but I had a pod bloom that was huge.
Switch to RO water if you cant install one at your house most of the LFS sell it for about 25cents a gallon. Here its 20 cents a gallon.
When i switched from tap to RO I did a "processed water change" Where I removed 80% of the water then filled the tank from 20% to 40% then reduced it back to 20% and then filled the tank. This process left me with about 5% of tap water mix. I noticed a change within about 3 days of the amount of diatoms I had especially on my sand and it appeared the snails were getting the upperhand on it also.
Sources: The "PWC" that I explained I actually got of about(dot)com under reducing nitrates. The process can be used to reduce just about any negative mineral in the water.
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
OK so here I am with the good news and the bad news. Well pretty much bad news, but we can get you back on track. Yeah what you have is diatoms and it is pretty much a normal part of the cycling process. They should live a couple of weeks and then die off. The shell will still be there and you will have to remove it from your rock and/or sand. Usually you can fan it off with your hand or a turkey baster.
Now for the bad news, and it is pretty big. It looks like you started off with live rock and live sand. Well my bet is that all of this washing of the sand and rock has rendered it pretty much not live. The thing that makes rock and sand "live" is the bacteria, bugs and good critters that live there. When you wash your rock and especially sand, you wash away these good things. As a matter of fact, you are not even supposed to vaccuum your sand, you are sucking out the good things in your sand when you do that. In order to fix your tank I would recommend getting a small piece of LR and adding it to your tank. This will seed the rest of your tank. The next thing I would recommend is leave it alone for the next month or two. Literally. You are probably going to go through another cycle with your tank while it builds these good critters back up.
 
turbo101

turbo101

New Member
So if i do get a small peice of live rock and mabey end up going through the cycle again will the fish in my tank die or will they surrvive

Fish that i own:
1. Blue hippo tang
1. 3 strip damsel
1. clown fish
1. diamend goby
1. orange linckia starfish
 
chaseter

chaseter

Member
If it cycles again, the linckia will definitely die. The goby and the damsels would probably live. Just check your levels daily so that you can get them out before levels get up too high.
 
turbo101

turbo101

New Member
well i havent once vaccumed the sand or washed it either but the rock i have scrubbed twice and on one of them it does have purple but onle one does...would this make a diff at all about the cycle repeating or not? Also when i did the 90% water change i did put about 10 gal of the orig water back in before replacing the rest.
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
First of all, good job for you. Many newbies will get advice and not want to hear it.

I may have jumped the gun, when you said you cleaned the sand I thought you took the sand out and "cleaned" it. If you did not do this then you should probably be fine. I am not sure if you know how it all works so sorry if you already know this. The bateria, bugs and critters in your LR and LS break down the waste in your tank. When you cycle your tank you are basically building up enough of these good things to break down the waste in your tank. Look at it this way, you have an ant farm. You put in a teaspoon of sugar a day into the ant farm. There are not enough ants to eat all the sugar so they start to breed and finally there are enough to eat the teaspoon of sugar. Now your ant farm is cycled so you add something to your ram that you have to feed, you of course add more sugar to that farm. Now there is not enough ants to break down the sugar the thing does not eat and the waste from the thing. So your ants have to breed more until there is enough. Everytime you add something to your ant farm it increases the amount of waste and so you need more ants. Say you add 3 things at once and there are not enough ants top break down the waste, well you would have problems on your ant farm.
Now some questions, how big is your tank and how long have you had it set up? Also since you seem like a good guy and willing to learn let me give you a couple of threads that might help you out.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/365647/really-annoying-prob-please-help
HTH
Scott
 
turbo101

turbo101

New Member
Well i have a 55g and ive had it set up for about 3-4 months now, whith 45lbs of figi live rock and 80lbs of live sand
Also thanks for the threads scotts they were very informitive(sp)
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
Sounds like you are off to a good start. Now for some more bad news, I know you are probably going to hate be but I really do have your best interests at heart. Your tang, no I know you just cringed because it is a beautiful fish and probably your favorite. Many people on this board recommend that tangs be kept in a larger tank than yours. Not exactly sure about a blue hippo tang but usually 75 to 100 gallons is the minimum tank size recommended. I know you are saying what it the difference? Well let's put it this way, what is the smallest size room that you could live in? You could live in a 4 x 6 room, although you would not be happy. a 10 x 20 room would feel much better to you. Tangs like to swim around and they get pretty big. No worries just as yet but something to think about in the future. You also might want to check around on your starfish, I think they might need specail things. Ophiura who is a mod here would know a lot more than me.
Another thing, don't take one person's opinion on your tank, including mine. There are at least a dozen different ways to run an aquarium. When someone tells you something, make sure to what they say as a baseline and then do your own research.
I hope I am not scaring you away from this board, you can learn a TON here.
 
turbo101

turbo101

New Member
thanks for the info about the tang..and yes i already known that i got a small one and after it outgrows the tank i am giving it away to my cousion that has a 200 plus tank...the only reason why i got him was because of my fiancé but thank you for the councern.
Oh, thank you on the info about my starfish i will be looking into that after work today. Thank you for all your help scotts
 
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