Need some serious help..../frustrated!

[Greenspider]

Ok. Where to start... I have a 55 Gal. Main tank, with about 40lbs of Live rock, and 50 lbs of Live Sand providing me with about 2 inches of sand bed. Main tank has 30+ nassarius dozen or so Blue Legs, a coral banded shrimp, 3 skunk shrimp, 2" Horseshoe crab, 4 or 5 brittle / serpent stars. One sand sifting Goby and one Split tail Goby. I have a 40 Gal Long on the bottom with my refugium setup, built up 1" from bottom with eggcrate, then screen, then 30 lbs of Crushed Coral, then screen, then 60+ lbs of Live Sand. Total sand bed is 6+ inches, with 12 lbs of Cured Live Rock. 4 skunk shrimp, 2" horseshoe crab, 1/2 dozen nassarius, 1/2 dozen blue legs, Green Grape Caluerpa, Brown Caluerpa, 4 Mangroves, shaving brush and Chaetomopha.

Now I have a Mag Drive 12 pushing water up from Fuge to Main thru a SCWD system and 3/4" tube, one over flow box with 2 U-tubes falling into a sock, then skimmed and across the fuge to repeat the process.

I have 5.3 Watts per gallon in main tank, and fuge is on opposite cycle of lighting, 6500k x2 flood lamp types with wattage saver lights inside from 1000bulbs.com.

Temp is running around 78 to 80 degrees F, all water tests are in line or 0, except Nitrate is 10 instead of 0. Ph 8.4, Calcium 530, and salinity is 1.021 to 1.023.

When I started the aquarium, I only used RO/DI water from my system and its been calibrated to be on the right microns per Million. Think it was 11 or something close.

I run my lighting as follows:
6am - Actinics On
7am - Moons off / Daylights On w/Actinics
8am - Actinics Off / Daylights stay On
6pm - Daylights still On, / Actinics On
7pm - Daylights Off / Actinics Stay On
10pm - Moons On / Actinics Stay On
11pm - Moons On / Actinics Off

Tank and fuge been running for 6+ weeks, and this brown looking stuff has shown up and will not go away. I tried this "UltraLife Red Slime Remover" just as prescribed, and still its there. I also did a 25% water change, still there after a few days. Tried a 40% water change 2 weeks later, still brown stuff.

I need some serious help.

Oh yeah, I use some carbon to keep the water clear, and also use a Nautilis to top off my tank in a 5 hour drip.

Any help will be much appreciated!






P.S. There is no sign of this Brown stuff on the sand in the Refugium at all. Or none that is noticed.

[Chibils]

Sounds like you're doing everything about right, but the 13-14 hour photoperiod might be promoting algae growth. And if I had to guess at what that was, I'd say that's what you've got (but I don't know much about algae).

[Demonic]

You have what looks like to be Diatoms. This is a normal stage in setting up a tank. Just cut back on the lighting a little, maybe a little less feeding and frequent water changes and it should go away.

[Tahlequah]

Yeah, it will happen in new tanks. It will go away soon...


Doh, edited because i see you have a gobie already... lol

[ihopss]

This is a new tank,itill goway give it time.I think the more fish the longer it takes.

[Aquarist007]

it looks like diatoms--don't use red slime remover for that--for obvious reasons.
Red lime remover is an anti bacteria--and can harm some of the good nitrogen fixing bacteria as well as destroying the bad (cyano but you don't have it)
the bacteria will grow back but in a new tank it's numbers are not the well established yet
the main cause of the algae is an abundance of food---phosphated, nitrates etc---this is usually caused by over feeding
Normally this would be taken care of by that huge cleanup crew you have but IMO--there has been an increase in nitrates from using the slime remover in such a young tank.

If you don't have fish and are not overfeeding then your live rock is still not fully curred and releasing phosphates and nitrates still

Also I don't see any listing of power heads above? You should have a least two---the hydors are excelllent --one in each corner will give you a random turbulent flow--you want to increase the flow over the bottom of the tank and on the top surface so you can get some of those extra phosphates and nitrates into the water column and to your skimmer and fug.

Is there a reason your salt is so low---should be .024-.026
your nitrate level could be high simply because the tank is still cycling or for the reasons above.

[T Man]

Diatoms feed on excess nutrients such as silca/silicates, nitrates and phosphates in the water column. Although you use Ro/Di, you can still have phosphate and nitrate elevations due to salt mixes, activated carbon, KH buffers and food - find the source if you can and eliminate it. Diatom blooms are commonly followed by other nuisance alga and bacterias. Check the levels on the products that you use, I'd start with the buffer........Welcome to Reef Central!! TinMan




Nutrients: Diatoms are most responsive to silca/silicates, but DOCs (Dissolved Organic Compounds), nitrates, and phosphates are food sources as well.

[Daytonarick]

Thank you for putting this out there. I've got the same problem. I just started my tank 2 weeks ago. I'm new to the hobby. looking at the reply's I can tell you that there are two things that jumped out. I have my lights on for 12 hrs and I used too much buffer to get the PH up. It caused the alkilinity to go sky high and a few days later this stuff showed up all over the sand and on my live rock. Thank you everyone for the great advise. I love this site!

[MTB]

I agree, looks like diatoms. How much flow is in the tank? Also the 17 hrs of lights being on isn't helping much either. I would recommend no more than 12 hrs of lights on. Salinity anywhere from 1.021-1.026 will be fine as long as it stays STABLE.

[Greenspider]

Forgot to mention it has two powerheads. Both are Maxjet 1200's in the center of the main tank pointed upward to break the surface. Main tank water flow is from a Max Drive 12(1200 Gal. per hour) on a SCWD System. No power heads in the Fuge.

Many many thanks for all the input. I appreciate all the help! Maybe I'm just a hair impatient and shouldn't have added the fish so soon. LFS told me to use the Slime Remover, because he thought it was a brown/red slime.(what a goof!)

Would adding Nitro-Max help rebuild the missing bacteria or just let nature take its course.?

Thanks again!!!

[Saltwaterstart]

I would suggest turning down your lighting periods, feed a little more sparingly, and just wait.

I'd bet, some of the sand has excess silicates, or the salt you are using has a trace of silica in it. As soon as all of the silicates are used up, your problem will go away. Just remember the algae also feeds off nitrates and dissolved nutrients, and by dosing with antibacterial will not help, because that will cause nitrite and nitrate spikes.

Patience will fix everything. Just leave it, and it will correct itself in a matter of weeks.

[SaltyDr]

Let nature takes it's course. Remember, only bad things happen quickly in this hobby. Are there any air bubbles in the stuff growing on the sand? If so, then that's cyano, otherwise it's most likely diatoms which will go away in time. If it's cyano, don't use red slime remover, but rather get a phosban reactor. It'll be gone in no time. Oh yeah,
To Reef Central

[Darkstar04]

Snag a couple nassarius snails, they will help churn up the sand a bit so you don't see the "carpet".

You have to correct the nutrient/cycle issues, but you don't have to look at the brown all the time too!

[fisher1234]

I would say definatley cut down your lights. I had the same thing happen to me. I added a cleanup crew and cut the lights back to 4-6 hours. This is plenty assuming u dont hav anything living in the tank.

[szwab]

increasing the flow in the areas you see it will help also.

LFS told me to use the Slime Remover, because he thought it was a brown/red slime.(what a goof!)
this is not entirely false it is just a general name. It will possibly help to some extent. The problem is it is not a cure it just masks the symptoms. It will also affect benificial bacteria in the tank.

Patience is golden in this hobby as nothing good ever happens quickly.

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by SaltyDr
Let nature takes it's course. Remember, only bad things happen quickly in this hobby. Are there any air bubbles in the stuff growing on the sand? If so, then that's cyano, otherwise it's most likely diatoms which will go away in time. If it's cyano, don't use red slime remover, but rather get a phosban reactor. It'll be gone in no time. Oh yeah,
To Reef Central

actually, diatoms give off bubbles. the pictures are almost definately of diatoms. I have two words for you... time and snails.

They will go away about as fast as they arrived. If you want to help the process, get some snails.

[Percula9]

Try some sand sifting gobies to mix up the sand. Definitely diatoms it will go away. Not cyanobacteria, do some water changes to lower the nutrient level. You can always mix up the sand yourself. Add chaetomorpha to your to your refugium to export nutrients out of your tank.

[got2envy]

I have this same exact stuff..It appears in the morning once the lights come on and thru the day just grows, then it disappears at night when the lights go out..just waiting to see what happens, I cut down on feedings, 10 hr photo period instead of 12 hr and added Sea Gel..I took out carbon as I have read that carbon will leak phosphates once it is not activated anymore..

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by fisher1234
I would say definatley cut down your lights. I had the same thing happen to me. I added a cleanup crew and cut the lights back to 4-6 hours. This is plenty assuming u dont hav anything living in the tank.

the main factor for the diatoms is excess phosphates etc probably in this case from the curing of the live rock--after six weeks it will not be fully curred.
Turning down the lights is only a bandaid at best---most of the time when the lights go back to normal the algae comes back too.

In this case I agree with patience and waiting the curing of the rock out or crank up the flow throught the refug, and invest in a cheap phosban reactor---40 dollars including the phosban.

[ferg822]

yah it happened to me it goes away within a week. its like a bee sting it gets worse before it gets better.