Some trouble here.

N

Nrwisch

New member
Ok so I've been having this issue with red slime and diatoms.

My setup is:
75gallon tank with no lids.
48" LED reef capable light
Magnum 350 canister filter
9w UV sterilizer
Sea clone 150 protein skimmer
750gph Aqueon circulation pump
750gph hydor circulation pump
75lbs live rock
200w stealth submersible heater

Live stock:
Mated pair of clowns
3in Arc Eye hawkish
Medium sized Yellow Tank
4in blue spot Goby
3 small damsels
Large Coral banded shrimp
Small skunk cleaner shrimp
Small 6 line wrasse
10 mixed blue an red hermits
6 big turbo snails
5 nassarius snails
1 porcelain crab.
15 inch Haddoni carpet
Small 4 inch H. Crispa nem
Branching hammer
Frogspawn
Random polyps
Trumpet coral.

I top off with vinegar/kalkwasser mixed with RODI water.
Do weekly 5gallon RODI water changes
I do dose iodine, mag and strontium.
I tested my water about a 100 times it seems and everything checks out perfect but I keep having this obnoxious out breaks of red slime an diatoms only on the sand. Never on
The rock. What am I doing wrong? This is my first saltwater and I haven't killed anything yet so I think I'm doing good. Any help?
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There are several issues I can point out with your set up in that I hope will help.

First how new is your tank? It looks like it is new and these are symptoms of new tank syndrome.

Second is your kalk - Your livestock list is not a heavy in stoney corals to does kalk and especially not to super saturate kalk with vinegar. Also, do you know you are carbon dosing while super saturating vinegar, which really you should only do if you are keeping SPS corals? Carbon dosing can also cause blooms of cyano and/or other bacterias and algae. My recommendation is to stop and just just plain Jane RO/DI water for your top off.

Third, you need more flow. Looks like you have a 4ft tank with pumps on one side? I would add at least 2 more pumps, either on both sides are put some in the middle to create a good flow with no dead spots. Flow is your friend.

Fourth, 5 gal weekly water changes is not enough IMO. You need to be doing a minimum of 10-15% on water changes.

You also talk about dosing iodine, mag and strontium. Are you testing for these levels? If so, what are they? You also say all your other parameters are perfect. What are they?

Regarding your lighitng - those 1w LEDs are not strong enough to keep that haddoni happy and healthy. I would suggest getting more powerful lighting or re homing the nem.

The diatoms are harmless and will go away in about 30 days. They are feeding off silicates, which could be coming from new sand, or in byproducts of the solutions you are dosing. Once the silicates are consumed it will go away.

Cyano - a type of bacteria. This comes around due to excessive nutrients (too much feeding) and not enough flow. There are several reasons I pointed above that could be causing this - water changes not enough so you are not controlling nutrients enough, your dosing, carbon dosing with vinegar, not enough flow. Also, the skimmer you are using is not a quality skimmer so it is not as effective in pulling out excess nutrients as others.

This is alot to evaluate and I hope it helps.
 
Lights 8hrs.

And thanks for that huge post. I don't always top off with kalkwasser, which I kinda rush posted earlier. I only do it when my calcium falls below 400. I'm gonna pickup something bigger to make my RODI water so I can start doing at least 10 gallon water changes. I can't remember what my readings are at. But the things I dose is very rarely. Only when a water change doesn't solve low readings.
And yes that protein skimmer is a piece of crap. I'm new so I learned the hard way, an upgrade will be soon. And as far as the lighting, I HATE LEDS and its probley the worst investment i have ever done. I'll be changing over to either a quad T-5HO or MH but I can't decide. Also a hang on back Refugium I'm considering
 
What kind of salt are you using?

You should not be consuming that much calcium with such a low calc demand. Also what is your:
Mag & Alk at? Those two parameters can determine how much dissolved calcium can be stable soluble. Otherwise your calc will precipitate out and your levels drop.
 
Instant ocean salt. But I'm at work ATM I'll have to re test that stuff and post up results when I get the chance. The diatoms I really only see here or there but for like a day. It's just the cynic that I keep getting random patches. As far as lighting would the investment be worth it for MH or would a good T5HO suit this setup well?
 
Nrwisch said:
Instant ocean salt.
Click to expand...

This is your problem. You should be using IO Reef Crystals instead. Regular instant ocean is not formulated for reefs, but for fish only systems.

Nrwisch said:
as far as lighting would the investment be worth it for MH or would a good T5HO suit this setup well
Click to expand...

Either is good. All depends what you are looking for as each has their own pluses and minues. You can also do a high end LED if you wish (LEDs that run 3w or higher - yours is a 1w LED which is not powerful/bright enough). I run a MH/T5 combo and my tank is heavily populated with SPS.
 
Agreed, after this bucket I'll be switching over to reef crystals. It's all a learning thing. I could have sworn I had 3w LEDs. I just don't like the idea of a chiller and I live on the third floor of an apartment complex so heat would definitely be an issue. I had the other pump out during that picture I have one on each side, I'm gonna get rid of them soon and use two 1000+ pumps
 
Your leds definitely look like marineland 'reef capable' leds.
These are very very weak 1w leds. Meant for a softie only tank like zoas and mushrooms. Maybe some easy lps high up.
Definitely not for your anemone...
I use the marineland reef capable leds to grow chaeto in my refugium, couldnt imagine sps/clams/anemones being under it.

Before you give up on leds, try a good brand that runs high output leds. AI/Ecotech/ect.
 
For a tank your size and depth, ecoxotic's fixtures would cover your tank for half the cost of ecotech and AI's and have amazing color, PAR readings and more. Unless you're going to get a 3 foot deep tank, it's pretty much overkill. they are incredible lights, don't get me wrong, but when you can get over 200 PAR at 24", that's plenty to grow sps on the sand bed. I personally believe many of the sps LED woes are because some of these lights are overpowered.
 
Fixtures. Go to premiumaquatics.com and browse their lighting categories... lots of options to browse through.
 
im going to have to disagree with Eric on the salt. I use io for my reef and have no issue whatsoever with it. mixed to 1.026 i get:
440-460 calcium
8-8.5 dkh alk
mag around 1300-1400
ph 8.2 or slightly higher

salt is highly dependent on your goals, io is perfect for my sps reef but it might not be for others.
 
Just did a 10 gallon water change and air line siphoned all the crap off the sand. Just RODI water no kalkwasser or any thing added
 
I have the same results as Jose also using IO. Maybe they changed recipe? I top off with just RO/DI.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Problem solved. Cleaned my slimmer and filter real good. Replaced filter and media. Tank is perfect now. I also ordered a quad t-5 fixture to replace my LEDs
 
Nrwisch said:
Problem solved. Cleaned my slimmer and filter real good. Replaced filter and media. Tank is perfect now. I also ordered a quad t-5 fixture to replace my LEDs
Click to expand...

you should get more flow in your setup, really depends on your goals but with what you have i would not even try keeping lps. For example i have 2 powerheads each pumping around 1400 gallons(advertised) in a 40 breeder. Of course my tank is sps but i still feel i could use more flow.

Jose
 
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