dirty tank

[gradth]

Im sure its not that dirty considering but its driving me nuts. This tank is about 3 months along, a tad longer maybe.

About a month ago the diatoms came in and kinda took over. Ive had that before in my other tank, not a big deal after a short while they went away, either from time or the sand sifters.

But now it is growing everywhere. I have long hair looking brown algae(what I am assuming is diatoms according to the help page) growing all over the rocks everywhere. I blow it off and in a day its back. The water constantly has bits of stuff floating around, just particales of sand, algae whatever.

I know have red slimy stuff growing on the bottom of the tank on the sand. Not sure what that is.

Fish seem happy, they eat good and dont seem stressed in anyway. Aside from it looking bad everythign seems fine.

water is good.
Ph is 8.4
ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0

need to check my calcium, but it was a tad low last I checked. I just did a 10% water change about 2 days ago.

The tank is 55 gal Reef, about 40-50lbs of live rock. Have a 20 gal sump refugium. Which brings me to the next question, should I worry about the other parts of the sump besides the refugium getting sand and things from the fuge?

More time, more CUC? not sure what I should do.

Anyway, here are a few pics of the algae.

red slimy stuff

[Rjukan]

I say more time, the red slime algae will eventually die off. I would also say not to worry about the calcium if you do routine water changes. The slime will stick around if you have high phosphates in your water, get a RO/DI if you dont have one already. Goodluck! The pics look pretty nice btw, Im so desensitized to bad algae lol.

[jenglish]

you may not get much of a reading on nitrates or phosphates when there is cyano and diatoms using the nutrients up. Do you run a skimmer or other filtration? Do you use RO for your SW and topoff? how often and how much do you change water?

[gradth]

I do use RO/di. I dont have my own yet but I get it from my local store and have not had any issues.

I do run a skimmer down in my fuge. and I normally do a 5-10% water change about every 2 weeks. Been busy so it went about a month this time.

my other issue is I have a pair of neon sleeper gobies that just terrorize my sand and make a huge mess. If I had to do that one over I would not have gotten them, but I am not going through the hassle of trying to get them out. Im hoping they will eventually settle down a bit.

[jenglish]

Is the RO coming from a LFS or a local grocery store? Grocers and Walmart offten sell RO but the membrane get very old b4 they get changed.

What are you testing your water with?

You can sometimes solve some cyanobacteria (red slime) with increased flow so it jsut doesn't have a place to settle. HTH

[gradth]

No it comes from my LFS. I have not tested it since I dont have a water tester.

i have 2 korillia 4's for water flow and they kick up quite a current.

[spw4949]

3 months is still very early in the process, it's tough but just give it time, as long as your levels stay good things should work themselves out. Just keep up on water changes.....

[jkrentz2515]

Next time you do a water change siphon out as much of the red slime as you can, change whatever filters you may have and possibly your carbon as well. If it still remains, turn your tank lights off for a few days and see if that helps, if not add another smaller powerhead and point it at the area that is the worst. I found that simply increasing flow in dead spots does not give the red slime a place to settle, and I no longer have nearly the problem that I did.

[gradth]

Whats the best tool for siphoning stuff out of a tank? I mostly just use a turkey baster but thats time consuming and doesnt work all that well.

[crvz]

Just a small diameter hose (1/2" or smaller) and create a siphon during water changes.

[marks4470]

I have had my tank up for 2 months and I had the algee problem too, but I started to cut back on feedings from 3 pinches to 1 or 2 and now it is going away. It took about a month before it started to clean up.

[mutateddogbone]

i wouldnt feed flake foods they are loaded in phosphates. frozen only is the way to go

[gradth]

Create a siphon how, sorry, not getting that? witha pump, mouth?

I feed brine and or mysis once a day. Some times feed pellets but rarely. Dont think feeding is the problem, they clean it all up pretty quick and what they dont the crabs and snails do.

Thats my next question. How many crabs and snails should I have in there?

[crvz]

I usually just suck on the end of the hose until the water starts flowing. Frozen food can still be loaded up with phosphates, do you rinse it off before adding it? That's usually recommended if you're having a nutrient issue. Also, how much are you really feeding? A cube of frozen shrimp can be quite a bit of nutrient load to add to a tank.

regarding snails/crabs, I don't think the crabs are going to be doing much for you, I'd say none. Snails, depending on the species, you can have as many as 1 for every 2 gallons and be fine. In your case, maybe about 20-30 good snails? I prefer the various turbo species and astreas over others.

[svynx]

I have a 55 as well. I keep nassarius, turbo, bumble bee, and cerith snails, along with a small serpent star for my CUC. They do a great job. I've heard that the cerith snails will sometimes eat the red slime. One thing you might want to try is run a reactor with Phosban in it. Your rocks could be leaching phosphates. I know that mine are. I have 3 rocks that have a thick layer of dense hair algae on them. All the other rocks either have nothing or coralline on them.

[gradth]

I do rinse the cube, then drain the water out once it melts. Then add garlic. I use a tad under a cube a day, they clean it up well it seems.

I guess I need some more snails, I have a couple large Turbos, but have had a few die on me from falling. I have about 5 asteria's and maybe 8-10 small turbos(I think thats what they are).

I have a bunch of little red legged hermits and 2 blue legged hermits. Mostly keep them in there casue the kids love them.

Thanks for the help all. Im guessing its going to be a waiting game and keep up on the water changes.

[gradth]

So a month later I am still fighting this. I have done a water change every week, syphoned out as much of the red stuff as I can, I turkey baste all the crap off the rocks prior to the water change.

I have added a bunch of new snails, hermies. I even found these little white legged guys(still dont have a name for them) that eat cyno. They munch away, but not near enough.

My skimmer is working great, and im pulling out good skinmate.

Aside from being diligent with my water changes, Im kinda at a loss. I clean it up and 1-2 days later is covered in red goo again.

How many snails is to many. How many crabs?

[Rjukan]

Hmm, maybe pick up a TDS meter? Odds are you will want one if you ever get your own ro/di anyway so you will know when its time to change the filter. This way you can omit bad water as a possible cause.

[woodoggy]

what TDS meter do u recommend? Seen some on ebay for about $15.

[mustang51js]

what about your light bulbs , maybe they need to be changed

[gradth]

Tds meter is on my list. Can anyone suggest a good one?

Lights are PC's and less then 4 months old.

[Rjukan]

I use something like this. Have been happy with it.

[gwenvet]

I added ChemiPure Elite and it helped take care of my red slime algae in a week. I know my phosphates measuered 0 but assume that the algae was consuming it. I just put it in my sump but I think I may get a Two Little Fishies brand phosphate reactor. Frustrating to deal with.

[wolfblade]

i have had the same problem on a tank that has been set up about the same amount of time i have bben told new tank sendrome . i clean the tank every day cut my lights on time back and it is going away and a uv light helps some to

[dwinter]

I had a similar problem about 4 months after my tank was running. I use R/O water, and parameters were all good. How much flow do you have in the tank? I found bumping up the flow helped a lot, Im running around 20x now. I also use phos gaurd.