Diatoms after 2 and a half months??

[lanej20]

My tank has been setup for about 2 and a half months. My tank is 55gallons. I have about 60lbs of live rock, 60lbs of live sand, one plant, 4 small, soft corals, 2 hob filters, jebo protein skimmer and 265 watts of light. half the wattage is actinic blue and the other half is 12k daylight.

I am getting all sorts of weird algae. For a while I was getting nasty green and red cyno and now diatoms are showing up again? I dont like the way the tank looks. I checked my water parameters and everything is perfect. I have no idea what is going on. Help please!?

 

[chase33]

What type of flow do you have? How often do you feed? How long do your lights stay on? Whicg inverts are included in your cleanup crew?

Overfeeding and/or not enough flow can lead to Cyano. Sometimes a reduction in the time your lights stay on can reduce the amount of algae created. An adequate number of inverts in a cleanup crew can help remove algae.

Here you can find a good article regarding cyano:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_cat.php?fldAuto=2/

You can also find more information on wetwebmedia.com

 

[Ziggy953]

If you are having "all kinds of weird algae" showing up then your water is not perfect. If you are using HOB filters with carbon in them how often do you change out the carbon?

How often do you do PWCs? What kind of source water are you using? Tap? RO/DI? Getting it from your LFS? What are you readings when you tested your water? For algae to grow there have to be nutrients in your water, phosphates, NitrAtes, something is causing it. Diatoms aren't anything to worry about, I still get them in my tank and its been up for 2 years. That happens. As for the cyano there is an issue somewhere and my guess is poor source water, and or filters needing cleaning. If you are using carbon in those filters then you will need to change it out weekly. After a week it is pretty much useless and they filter is just collecting muck.

 

[lanej20]

My source water is Ro/Di and is also uv sterilized so i dont think that is the problem. I cut back on feedings to see if that will help. I usually change my filter cartriges every month. Maybe I need to do that more often. I am also cutting back on the lighting. I tested nitrites, amonia, and nitrates the other day and they all read 0.

 

[Ziggy953]

Algae will grow when you have excess nutirents in your water, which means that your NitrAtes are most likely not 0 aslo you should test for phosphates. UV sterilizers will not get rid of the algae alone. How many fish do you have in the tank?

 

[melosu58]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=14

http://www.fantasyreef.com/database/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=11&item_id=5

 

[lanej20]

I only have two fish. A tang and a small trigger. I think I have narrowed the problem down to my filter and protein skimmer. They stink. Neither is working well at all so I think I am going to replace them. Can anyone recommend a good filter and protein skimmer for a 55 gallon tank?

 

[mike3epanda]

IMO I'd say best filtration = more LR, maybe another 40-50 lbs.
for protein skimmer, I have heard nothing but good in AquaC remora skimmer. They are pretty pricey but they do their part