Need advise

Hi all,

New to the hobby, and I'm really in need of some advise. So I have been plagued with brown diatom and hair algae for over 3 month, even with 25% weekly water changes. The tank always tested at/near 0, but I thought I read that I was probably getting bad readings from the algae. I ended up adding a phos-ban to the Fluval, but did not seem to help. I have always used RO/DI water from FLS, and after doing the water changes, the tank would always look better for a couple of days. Around the third day though, sure enough the brown dust would always come back. I finally got tired of the weekly cycle, and decided to rebuild the tank. I also took advantage of this by adding another 30lbs of base rock (it was cured in a separate tank for over month). The process went smooth, and I was able to clean the existing rock and clean the water out (used a Vortex to clean the water). I was hopeful that I finally got away from the frequent water changes, and was really happy with the way the tank was looking. That is until I just noticed that dang brown dust coming back. The tank has only been reset up for about a week and I'm really at a loss. I heard people mention the lighting, but the fixture is only about 5 months old so I don't think its the light bulb. I don't know if this is to long, but I do keep the lights on for about 12-14 hrs. The tank consist of 2 damsels, 1 clown, 1 wrasse, 1 clam, 1 coral, 1 cleaner, 1 peppermint, 2 turbo, 1 emerald, 1 bristle star, and 6 blue legs.

If anyone has any suggestions to help me stop the insanity that would be great.

Thanks for your help!!!

 

Are you sure its not red slime? Its hard to tell from that pic, but that might be it. how much and how often do you feed, and what is your photo period like? A sand sifter like a diamond goby might help your situation depending on what the "brown dust" actually is.

~Will.

 

Hey Sal

its a very small picture but its looks more like cyno to me than diatoms, it seems to have a reddish tint?

if you can get a bigger picture up, it would help

aside from the fluval - what else you got in there moving water about?
check out the ultimate nuisance algae thread - its a sticky in the algae section on here

Steve

 

Thanks everyone for their help, took the advice and have include 2 more pictures.

For the readings, I have been testing anomia, nitrites, nitrates.

I always wondered if maybe it way cyno, but the light period really seems to affect the growth. I took a 3 day vacation and kept the light off during that time. When I came back, there was a huge improvement. Almost all the stuff was gone and the glass was really clean. This is what made me lean more towards diatom then cyno. For extra water movement I have a Koralia2 powerhead and the skimmer is a HOB so it add a little boost too. I cut the feeding cycle back to once about every 2-3 days and try not to feed them to much. The tanks diet is completely flake/granule so I dont know if that has an impact. I also do add some phyto about 1 a week for the clam.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/algae/ultimate-nuisance-algae-thread-58657.html

Hi Sal

even with the benefit of the 2 new pictures I could not say with any certainty that what you have is Cyno or Diatoms , it does have a reddish tint so I am leaning towards cyno
see above link and note cyno in powdery form, which would make it easy to confuse with diatoms

but more importantly the thread has some usefull tips on removing the problem


Steve