Newbie fixes problems. This is what I've found.

I haven't posted in here for a while. I've been reading but not saying anything. I think I've finally made progress. Lemme just tell everyone about my setup and problems so everyone can catch up.

I've got a 75Gal tank with allot of live rock and a 3 inch sandbed. I have 1200GPH overflowing into a sump with mangroves, miracle mud and sand. I have the TEC 5 with 6 light bulb unit glowing the bed. This is a new setup. I cured my live rock in the tank itself and let the tank cycle with tang in there. (I live by the sea, so I cought the tang) My tank took a LONG time to cycle. I did a couple things wrong. I don't have a protien skimmer and I should have from the start, I should have also cleaned the rocks intermittently of all the dying stuff but I didn't. The tank finally cycled in about 3 months. I celebrated and thought that everything was cool.......

The Dilema: I found that fishes were fine. I even had a four spot buttefly that I cought and is supposed to be very difficult to feed and keep. He did great. All my fishes were very healthy and ate well. The problem was that every snail, starfish, urchin, shrimp I put in there died. Spoke about it at length with many people and couldn't find out what the problem was. There were brown diatoms in the tank and it was getting thicker. Tried a reccomended grounding probe... nothing.... tried many water changes....... helped a little but not allot. Every coral I put in there died as well. Zoantids I put in there would close immediatly. Starfish were the worst... they would die as soon as they touched the water. If I put one in right after a water change it might live for a day or two. Then it would climb to the top of the tank and put a leg on the surface of the water like it was trying breath or something. Not even the calupra or the chaetomorpha would live. I just couldn't figure it out and it was driving me insane. For the longest time I thought it was some kind of invert specific poison killing everything, like the silicone I used. The water looked extremely clear and clean and the fishes were excellent.

Clarity: One day I left a white fishing net in the water and found that in a couple hours it would be filled with brown diatomic stuff. I rinsed it out and put it back in... a couple hours.... more stuff.... No matter how long I did this these the net would catch tons of fine brown stuff. I've come to realise that these fine brown diatoms in the water column were suffocating the inverts.. Somehow I think their gills cant take it and they soffocate. I started to try and figure out where the diatoms were coming from... it was the water I was using for top ups. It was bottle water that I thought was RO DI but it turns out that it was purified spring water from a local river!!!! I went RO DI, and the diatoms have started to turn from brown to black. Also with patches of green. Things are going really slowly but I have, urchins, sea stars and a couple mushrooms in there now and they aren't doing great, but they are doing ok. The diatoms are dying off and I'm still getting tons of it cought in the net. I've started running phosphate free carbon on the system and have ordered the coralife 220Gal skimmer for my sump. For a change things are looking up, hoping that the skimmer will take enough of the diatoms out of the water column so that I can correct my mistakes.

Well I know this is a long post, I tried to say most of what I've found so far in the hopes that it can help someone else. One thing I want to ask is if some of the diatoms are now turning a little green should I clean this green algea off the rocks? I'll try and post some pics when I get home.

 

Congratulations isolating your problem, let us see pics!!

 

Anyone? Should I clean the green stuff of the rocks? Or do I need to post the pics first?

 

I wouldn't bother trying to clean the rock. If you keep your calcium and alk up, it should encourage coralline growth and starve out most of the "bad" algae. Keep your phosphates and nitrates down and that will send the bad algae packing as well.

 

Great if I were to clean the dying diatoms off the rock with a toothbrush wouldn't it kill the biological filter bacteria? I'm asking cause the diatoms are making a mess as they flake off the rock.

And to keep calcium high. I'm using kalkwasser. Someone told me that kalk can maintain the calcium level but it won't make it higher. I'm currently at 350. He said I need a two part addative to get it higher then the Kalk would maintain it at that level. Is this true? Or should I just use the Kalk?

 

If you pull the rock out of the tank and scrub it, you will indeed kill some of your bacteria but not all. I can't believe your diatoms are so thick that it flakes off the rock? That's just crazy!! Do you have a picture of this algae?

We drip kalk in our tank and still need to supplement buffer because our corals suck the water "dry" so you'll want to test your water and make that determination.

 

Welcome back. Don't give up, most of us have gone through this and worse. I understand the algae situation, since my nitrates have been up there I have had diatoms and green algae which I hate and they are tough to get rid of.

The best thing about this is you now know what the problem is so you can fix the problem. I am sure once you start using ro/di water the problems will diminish. You may want to incorporate using a nitrate sponge, phos remover and carbon to help you.

Karma to you for all the work you are doing and the knowledge you have gained.