Algae from Lighting or Nitrates?

[bchap05]

I've had this constant battle with what seems to be a diatom going on for a long time. I clean my glass daily, and the next day the brown is back all over the glass. I use RO water and pre mixed salt water from LFS. I've slowly been trying to add things to improve this but it never seems to help.

65 gallon tank around 2 years old and originally had a HOB Reef Octopus that was too small for my tank. I assumed this was the issue.

Built 29 gallon sump, bought a used Turboflotor 1000 skimmer, added a fuge, and still have the same issue.

Using API test I have 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, and 5ppm nitrate. I've pretty much always had 5-10 ppm nitrate. I can never seem to get this number lower. Phosphates were zero per the LFS checking with Red Sea test.

Lighting is a Reef Breeders Value LED. They recommend 2 of these for a 65 and I only have 1, is not enough light causing an issue? Or is it more likely the 5-10ppm nitrate?

 

[shifty51008]

Algae needs light, nitrate and phosphate to grow, alot of our test kits dont read them good enough but some are better than others. Hanna checckers are great for testing phosphates and i like the salifert for nitrate, ime api sucks for nitrate as you have to shake the crap out of bottle #2 even hit it on the table a few times to get a decent result. Even then the algae takes up the nitrate and phosphate as soon as it comes in the tank and what test kits read are kinda like the excess. Lights imo are last to worry about but does have some impact such as spectrum and such. In the end if you have algae, no matter what test kit your useing you have excess nitrates and phosphates.

 

[bchap05]

I have a couple LFS's I get things from and the one I haven't gotten water from before told me yesterday they have proof the other stores RO water is not good. They showed me pictures of their TDS reading vs water they tested from other store. The store I normally buy water from was very very high. So if that is the case I guess that probably isn't helping.

The used Turboflotor skimmer I bought is pretty much refusing to skim for the most part. Pulls a tiny bit here and there. Been messing with it for a few weeks. I'm guessing until I get a new skimmer I'm going to have an issue with nitrates.

Yeah I agree on the API tests, I hate the nitrate test. The difference between 5-10 is almost impossible to read. Planning on getting some testing equipment for xmas.

 

[bchap05]

So if the issue is likely nitrates and or phosphates do you think the fact that I had to reroute the connections for the skimmer pump might be causing its lack of skimming? The Turboflotor has a ridiculous footprint (16inches), my overflow in the sump is 12x12. So I had to place the pump to the side of the simmer body instead of the front, and add a bit of extension to the hosing in the shape of U. I could see this lowering the efficiency of the circulation pump.

I've got it in 8 inches which from searching old threads seems fine, I have the skimmer being supplied by a maxijet 900 which also from searching is said to be powerful enough I can just pull the throttles out and let it run full speed. I've tried throttle less and using them. Neither seems to skim much

Tempted to try to just sell it and buy a new one, but already wasted money on it so rather be sure it won't work.

 

[tzylak]

What's in you fudge? What lighting do you have over it?
My 2g fudge has chaeto with some intense lighting right over it. This makes it grow like crazy eliminating any nutrients left overfor growth in the DT.

 

[bchap05]

Chaeto and then I just bought a clip on light shop type light and put a 5000k led bulb in there. Not much flow in the fuge. I just have a T off of the return line dripping some water in the fuge.

I don't get the skimmer. It has tons of microbubbles in the chamber (looks milky), the bubbles go to the top of the chamber overflowing with the cup off. When I install the cup it does foam to the top creating a mushroom like cloud of bubbles but there is never any gunk in it besides maybe like a teaspoon after 2 days.

 

[aquaman183]

Do you have your skimmer tuned correctly? Have the water level near where the cup connects to the neck of the skimmer?
Also what kind of lights are you using in your tank and how long are they on?

 

[bchap05]

Do you have your skimmer tuned correctly? Have the water level near where the cup connects to the neck of the skimmer?
Also what kind of lights are you using in your tank and how long are they on?

My overflow is 13 inches deep, and I have a 4 inch stand for the skimmer so its in about 8-9 inches of water which from searching old posts on this skimmer seems to be correct. This skimmer is sort of weird as it uses two pumps so I'm not certain in sump water level really even matters on this skimmer much. One pump is for feeding sump water, and one for circulation through the venturi. This skimmer is ancient I think they were sold around 2005 from most of the posts I've found.

And most of the old posts claim if you use a powerhead rated above 200 gph to feed the skimmer you can just pull out the throttles and it should run fine at full speed.

Light is on a timer for 10 hours of white and 12 hours blue. Reef Breeders Value LED: Each fixture measures 16″ long x 8.5″ wide, x 2.5″ tall, and covers a 24″ cube for SPS, and a 36″ long area for SPS in the middle, and LPS/softies on the edges.

The fixtures have 2 plugs, one for each channel, which allows for a dawn/dusk effect to be achieved with external timers.

They consume about 115watts at full power, and 65watts at half power.

 

[bchap05]

Do you have your skimmer tuned correctly? Have the water level near where the cup connects to the neck of the skimmer?
Also what kind of lights are you using in your tank and how long are they on?

Also the directions on the skimmer are fairly weak. From searching around it seems like this skimmer was a tough one to tune but that works well once tuned.

 

[shifty51008]

Do you have a pic of how you have the skimmer setup with the new plumbing?

 

[OrQidz]

I would start by getting good RO water as a priority. Maybe buy your own unit, and research getting the skimmer to work better in the meantime. Do you have sources of nitrate like detritus building up or a heavy bio load?

Another thought, if the "bad" RO store is where you are getting your salt water from, that's probably an issue too. I'm assuming they are using their RO which had the high TDS?

Good luck with getting this fixed, algae is a pain!

 

[bchap05]

Do you have a pic of how you have the skimmer setup with the new plumbing?

I'll be home from work in an hour or so and will take some pics

 

[bchap05]

I would start by getting good RO water as a priority. Maybe buy your own unit, and research getting the skimmer to work better in the meantime. Do you have sources of nitrate like detritus building up or a heavy bio load?

Another thought, if the "bad" RO store is where you are getting your salt water from, that's probably an issue too. I'm assuming they are using their RO which had the high TDS?

Good luck with getting this fixed, algae is a pain!

yeah I've been getting the majority of my salt water from the same place, meaning that they were using the same RO filter on the salt as their fresh. So all of my water would be with the crappy RO assuming what the other store showed me is true. I don't remember the exact numbers they showed but they were bad. They showed something like 190 for tap water, 170 for the other stores RO, and .0 something for their water.

 

[shifty51008]

Yeah with getting bad water like that i can see why you have algae issues. Even so the skimmer isnt gonna do much to help lower that part, the skimmer removes organics before the convert to nitrates and phosphates. Your best bet right now would be to do water changes with better water to lower the nitrates and use a phosphate remover such as gfo to remove the po4.

 

[bchap05]

I'm going to try switching to the other stores water and do a few changes and see if that helps. 2 of the 3 LFS here give RO water for free so not really a reason to buy my own set up unless they aren't maintaining theirs. I'll start asking them what their TDS is occasionally.

 

[Tautoga]

Have you added any new rock lately? Rock can bring in silica. Have you tested for silicates?

Diatoms need silica to make their cell walls.


I set up a tank 2 months ago. My ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and phosphate have tested 0 the whole time. I had a big diatom bloom after I added dead rock to the tank.

 

[bchap05]

Have you added any new rock lately? Rock can bring in silica. Have you tested for silicates?

Diatoms need silica to make their cell walls.


I set up a tank 2 months ago. My ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and phosphate have tested 0 the whole time. I had a big diatom bloom after I added dead rock to the tank.

I haven't added anything for quite awhile since I've been trying to fix this before adding anything..Last thing was probably some mushrooms like 2 months ago or so

 

[bchap05]

 

[bchap05]

 

[bchap05]