ID Please..brown stuff

[thincat]

You got pretty good information there. I have never vaccumed my DT sandbed. Allot of nasty nitrients can be stirred up when you vaccume your sandbed. All you were doing is feeding a new minicycle and thus the never ending diatoms. How long do you have your lights on for?

 

[ShannonFaas]

Thin,

I have t-5 lighting, one blue one white, on at 11a off at 7p. They are mostly gone first thing in the morning then bloom with the lights. There is very little direct sunlight on the tank. I thought they were dinoflagyllates so I was agressively vaacuming the substrate, I also got so sick of them I took everything out of the tank, replaced the sand bed and started over...no change...wow I got frustrated. I have one sailfin tang, 2 clowns and 1 small yellow tail damsel. I have a large shrimp, large brittle star, snails (which seem to be dying off) and hermit crabs. My zoa's and corals are doing great but the frog spawn is tinged brown..which is why we thought dino's. I did a fresh water bath on that, which lightened it up a bit. I am adding more sponges, corals and have 2 fish in QT (coral beauty and a flame angel) waiting to go into the tank. 2 more weeks. Then I will be adding a scooter blemy and one more fish...possibly yellow or blue tang. Then I will remove the two clowns and put them in my smaller QT tank which is regular salt not hypo. I had a major oops with my main tank and got ich with my blue hippo and ended up loosing my hippo, coral beauty, fox face and swallow tail angel...won't do that again. Actually Bully the brittle star is the only original tank mate we have...he is called Bully because he was eating other tank mates. Is there any other way to get rid of the diatoms? I have had them for sooooo long. (but I have been doing agressive vaac's since before that)

 

[thincat]

Well you have set yourself way back by replacing your sandbed. You just gave your diatoms fresh food so to speak. Cut your lights back a bit and If you have a sump, do your water changes through it not your DT. Your coral beauty and flame angel may not be reef safe and may start to pick on your corals. Your hermit crabs may be the reason for your snails going missing. Buy some extra sea shells so that when your hermits grow they don't have to kill your snails for their shells. Oh, I'll let the Tang police tell you about Tanks that are not big enough for them to swim in.

 

[Jimbo7]

Hey Shannon, I'm not sure exactly how much Sadie comes around the forums anymore. Diatoms stink for sure, if you are rooting around in your sand all the time that is definitely going to be the cause. If you do like you were suggested, they will be gone before you know it. You could also get a small sand sifting goby of some sort to help clear them out.
Best of luck!

I don't know if im a member of the tang police but, both those tangs are too large for that tank, even if they are small now. When they get larger they will shred each other to pieces, and the one that survives will get ill quickly from the lack of room to fully exercise.

 

[ShannonFaas]

TC and Jim,

I only have the one tang right now, the sail fin. He seems to be doing fine. My SWFS does trades if the fish get too big. They are monitoring my tank carefully as to what I put in it and the size of fish I have. The blue or the Yellow were only a thought. The Blue I was looking at only requires a 50g or larger. I have a 65, but am in the market for something bigger.

When I did the sand bed change, I was under the impression that I had dino's, not diatoms. Which is why I did that. I have started leaving the sand bed alone, even though I can't stand to see the sight of the brown on the bottom. I will have to learn patience there. As for the snails, I was told they were dying off because they are sick from the gas given off from the dino's. They wouldn't be able to stick to the glass or LR, they would either fall off or would just sit in one place and not move. Happened to most of my snails. There are a few doing fine.

I don't have a refugium so I can't do my changes from there. I just don't put the vac all the way to the bottom.

As for the angels, I have soft corals and zoa's. I don't plan on putting any hard corals in the tank. I don't want to have to worry about the protein I am putting in the tank with their feeding requirements. The ones I have are photo synthetic, but I do suppliment once a week with brine. I was told that the Angels wouldn't bother the soft corals. Is this incorrect information that I was given? I have a scooter blenny comming so it can stir up a little of the sand and hopefully get rid of some of these diatoms. I have had a couple goby's and have the tank covered other than the holes in the back where the protein skimmer is and the lines for the power heads and filter tubing. For some reason they all have committed fishyside through those holes. I have a 65g hex and put plexi glass over the main holes on the top to prevent escape. But that didn't stop the determined Goby's. Oh well, maybe a blenny will stay in the tank.

 

[thincat]

Okay, a hex gives your fish even less swimming room. Any way as far as your fish, if you do a little research on them and find out what they eat and where they eat it will give you an idea on if they will munch on your corals. Soft and Zoas can be the first to get munched on. When you vacume your tank, stick the tube no more then an 1' into the sand. If you go any lower you will start to get into the anarobic (area without any O2) part of your sand and that is where most of your nasty sulfuric acid lays...the stuff that smells like rotten eggs. That, if stirred to much can overpower your tank with nasty elements.