Three year old tank 2 year old problem

archie

archie

Member
Hi, I have a 75gal tank that has been setup for three years with this brow stuff semi-covering the substrate and has been for two years. I'm running a sump with bio balls, a Fluval Canister Filter w/ carbon and phosgard, a UV Clarifiar, and a Protein Skimmer in the sump. I do at least a 20% water changes monthly using Oceanic salt, I use the water from Wal-mart, the label states the water is processed by: Carbon Filtration, UV Treatment, RO, Microfiltration, and ozonation. I top off with an RO unit I purchased from Lowes. I have tried using Liquid Gravel Vac with no succes. I have 3 powerheads in the tank (600, 900, 1200). I have 2 small fish, plenty of turbo snails and blue legged crabs, 1 serpent star, and 1 shrimp. I just tested my water the results are as follows:
Ammonia = .50
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
Phosphate = 0
Ph = 8.1
Alkalinity = 5.5 meq/l
Calcuim = 640
Currently my lighting consists of 4x55w VHO 10000k and 2x50/50 Actinic. I have just orderd a new Orbit system 2x150w MH HQI, 2x130 dual Actinics and 6 moon lights. (Can't wait for this to arrive.)
Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what this is? I have been told it is everything from low Alkalinity, phosphates, diatoms, or nutrient build up in the sand. (I vacumed the sand bed thoroughly at my last water change) But still the brown gunk reappears every morning when the lights come on, and goes away again at night.
I have attached a photo. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
 
paulcoates

paulcoates

Member
I had the same problem and used Chemi Clean (same lighting in fact over a 55 gal). Just follow the directions and your problems should go away
Cyano Bacteria is probably what it is
 
T

tizzo

Guest
I gotta ask or I'll be up all night... Your alk is 5.5 meq/L Not 5.5 dKH right??
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Lemme splain so as not to insult your intelligence.
I had the same stuff. Went away at night. Tried chemiclean even red slime remover. New RO cartridges and lights not to old or to new.
It was my alk. It was at 6dKH so I raised it to 9/10 ish and in 3 days it was gone. Hasn't returned since.
I have a pic of it in this one of my polyps.
 
archie

archie

Member
This is the first time I used the Alkalinity tesk kit so I am a little unsure of how to interpert the readings. I used a Seachem test kit. The kit read that 1 drop of the solution is equal to 0.5 meq/l, I had to add 11 drops so I divided this by 2 to come to 5.5 meq/l. I am not sure what the difference is between meq/l or DKh. Can you explain?
Thanks
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Actually I cannot, I have no idea. All I have is the table that comes with the saliferts test kit. 5.5 meq/L is equivelent to a dKH of 15.5 which is EXTREMELY high. Natural seawater is 8dKH or 2.9meq/L according to the test.
Post your e-mail and I'll send you a copy of what I have. Maybe you can figure it out better than I can. Alls I know is how to fix it.:nervous:
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
i have that same stuff on my substrate also!!!!
so its alkalinity?? ive never tested mine .... i get confused because last time i went to my LFS store i asked the guy if i should be doing an ALK test on my tank and he said if everythings ok u dont see any problems then y bother testing...
i was like hmmm ok kinda makes sence kinda not so ive never tested it..... how do i get rid of that and how do u raise ur ALK??
thanks!
 
archie

archie

Member
Ok, so since it is that high, how do I reduce it. And why would it be that high in the first place?
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
Several of your water parameters seem to be off. Your alk is definitely high, as is your calcium, this should be somewhere around 450. Also, why do you have ammonia in your tank? Do you add any additives to your tank? Water changes should help bring your alk and calcium back down to good levels.
 
archie

archie

Member
I think the ammonia may be high because I recently added some Reef Bone and a few pieces of live rock. I think it may be cycling again. Is that possible?
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
I've not heard of reef bone, what is that? Where did you get the live rock from? Was it cured before you put it in? And what about additives?
 
archie

archie

Member
I actually added some Kent Marine Supperbuffer-dKH the other day, this is the first time that I have added in quite a while though.
 
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