Feeling Real Discouraged...

[ChiTownRomeo]

My 55 gallon tank is looking like crap. My sand bed has diatoms that will not go away at all. I use rodi water, run gfo, chemipur, purigen, skimmer and everything but they wont go away. Went and got this high price fancy led lighting for nothing. I have weird air bubbles coming from my sand bed. My Zoas have so much hair algae growing in between them. My Green Star Polyps have this green slimy leafs growing on it. It's not bubble Algae though. I'm ready to take this tank down and sell everything and go back to freshwater aquariums. Anything I can do to make this problem go away. I have turbo snails, nass snails, emerald crabs and nothing! Took out the live rock since it was covered in bryopsis and switched to BRS reef saver rock. Anything else I can do. Tank is 6 months old now.... You think the led's are tooo strong? They are a 3 watt Quad fixture. 64 led's.

 

[mr funktastic]

u have an excess of something in your tank. u need to run a full test of all your levels to see what is off. manually remove as much of the algea as possible. increase your water changes. make sure your tank isnt seeing direct sunlight. reduce your lighting.


all those things are simple first steps to fixing the problem. main thing is finding out what is out of wack. do u have any test readings?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Its probably too much food in your tank

 

[Crystal A]

Pwcs are a saltwater keepers best friend. It's the only sure fire way to export nutrients from the tank. Don't be discouraged. Change the water.

 

[bonniewoodruff]

Do you have a conch? I added 2 and they took care of the sand quick. I have a 100 gallon tank so maybe add one. I also had to reduce feeding. It sucks because I love to watch them eat(just like my kids). Good luck!

 

[ChiTownRomeo]

Do you have a conch? I added 2 and they took care of the sand quick. I have a 100 gallon tank so maybe add one. I also had to reduce feeding. It sucks because I love to watch them eat(just like my kids). Good luck!

I have been waiting to get one. They are always out of stock lol

 

[Holygral]

A conch will only mask the problem, you have to find the source. Please post ALL water perameters, equipment and history. You have not gone where no man has gone before, just need to figure it out. Remember it takes 12-24 for a reef to get established, this is the learning phase for you.

 

[Greenpillow]

Dude do not give up! Everyone's tank looks like crap the first couple of months. Do not feed fish every day. If you are feeding frozen then rinse it off with RO water. Maybe silicates are being leeched from somewhere? Maybe the RO filters need to be changed out. Test the water and let us know. How are your phosphates?

 

[Schism]

Chitown, algae problems can be a pain but everyone has them and i mean everyone. All algae problem revolve around excess nutrients. This mean either too much is going in to the tank or too little is being taken out.

How much and how often are you doing water changes, also what is your fish stock.

 

[ChiTownRomeo]

Chitown, algae problems can be a pain but everyone has them and i mean everyone. All algae problem revolve around excess nutrients. This mean either too much is going in to the tank or too little is being taken out.

How much and how often are you doing water changes, also what is your fish stock.

I love this forum!! Thanks for all the input guys. Right now my only bio load is 3 green chromis, A few Zoa colony's, 20 Nass snails, 15 cerith snails, 1 emerald crab, and some green star polyps oh and a toadstool Leather & Duncan Coral. I have a Rena xp 3 rated for 175 gallons and my tank is only 55 gallons with a surface skimmer attached since I don't have a sump or overflow due to my landlords rules. I change the micro pads once a week and just have chemi Pur, Gfo, Purigen and carbon. I think I was leaving my led's on too long and not enough flow. they are intense and i had them on for 12 hours a day thinking my corals needed the light. Also I'm thinking that this BRS reef saver rock is leeching Phosphate.

 

[willbratz]

I run my metal halides for 8 hours and run my actinics for 10 (1 hour before and 1 hour after metal halides). What is your water temp? Temperature seems to help algae grow. Also, if your feeding daily, I'd reduce it to once every other day. If you can pull your rocks, pull them and brush them off in a bucket of salt water ( you can use some of the water you pulled out while doing a water change). Water changes weekly (I do mine every other week) are necessary to say the least!!! And don't give up!!! I had the complete opposite of you, I was TERRIBLE at FW but for some reason SW was easier to me. But like everyone else here we've all had some issue or another with our tanks!!!

 

[ChiTownRomeo]

I run my metal halides for 8 hours and run my actinics for 10 (1 hour before and 1 hour after metal halides). What is your water temp? Temperature seems to help algae grow. Also, if your feeding daily, I'd reduce it to once every other day. If you can pull your rocks, pull them and brush them off in a bucket of salt water ( you can use some of the water you pulled out while doing a water change). Water changes weekly (I do mine every other week) are necessary to say the least!!! And don't give up!!! I had the complete opposite of you, I was TERRIBLE at FW but for some reason SW was easier to me. But like everyone else here we've all had some issue or another with our tanks!!!

78 degrees

 

[willbratz]

78 degrees

Yep that's what mine' at.

 

[twoodrough]

I am a freshy but had algae problems for a while. Like you, I had my lights on ALL day long. I reduced the light to 4-5 hours a day and the algae went away.

 

[Sniperhank]

Can you post pic of your outbreak? If you have diatoms then that is probably feeding off the silicates in your sand and will burn themselves out. My concern is how you said that they are bubbling up, making me think it is either cyano or dinoflagellates.

Either way, it is going to break down to water changes, siphoning the stuff out during water changes, reducing time the lights are on, and reducing feedings/amount being fed.

 

[mr_X]

....What they said....except adding more eating, pooping critters to solve the problem of excess nutrients.

 

[willbratz]

....What they said....except adding more eating, pooping critters to solve the problem of excess nutrients.

You mean a "clean up crew" don't you mr_X

 

[Psychocircus91]

Yeah, his point is snails and crabs don't actually reduce bioload like people think, they add to it. They eat algae which kinda helps, but then they add nutrients, leading to more algae. Their bioload isn't huge, but it's still there.

 

[willbratz]

I know what he meant

 

[Psychocircus91]

I know what he meant

Sorry, more directed to the OP