Hi Everyone,
I recently setup a 60 gallon reef tank. I bought 60 pounds of live rock that was already cured but wanted to be safe so let the tank cycle for about 3 weeks with nothing but rock. I tested nitrate and ammonia throughout the cycle. Ammonia was never present and nitrates were really low the entire time and eventually went to zero a few days after adding 60 pounds of cultured live sand. I only had the lights on for an hour or so a day just to check it out. I have 4 39 watt T5's. one blue, one purple and two white. after about a week after the sand was in and about a month with rock and sand I thought everything was good to go so bought 2 ocellarius, a GBT annenome (clowns refuse to go near it but thats another thread) and a couple frags from a guy that lives by me. I started running the lights 12 hours and in addition to testing nitrate and ammonia started testing calcium and alkalinity. I've been doing weekly 15% water changes with kent reef salt and RO water from a water store that i tested and it doesnt have any nitrates. As far as tank setup I have a 20 gallon sump with probably ten gallons of water, a reef octopus skimmer and a sock for the drain pipe that I change weekly. the return pump pumps about 600 gallons and have two korlia powerheads so total hourly cycling is about 25 times which is what i was going for as i want a primarly SPS tank.
the clowns are healthy as heck, the annonome has settled down and looks great and is accepting krill and the frag polyps are totally open and look great.
after the first week with lights on and inhabitants in the tank I experienced and huge diatom bloom. After reading on this site it sounded like that is typical for a new tank and it would clear up in only a few days which it did. After a few days with everything looking good three types of green algae started growing like crazy. Its weird because the glass doesnt get a lot on it and the sand its totally clean but the rocks are almost 100% covered. One type looks kinda like fuzz/hair, one has branch like strands and actually is kinda cool looking and the other is like bunches. the corals seem to be still doing good and dont have any growing on them.
It's been a good week and it seems to be getting worse. I've continued testing nearly daily because I am a nerd and nitrates are zero and havn't been detectable for about 3 weeks now. I've also read that during algae growth that the algae consumes the nitrate before it gets in the water column so can give you "false" zeros but i doubt this since it was undectable before the algae growth or my test is bad.
As far as water parameters they are what you are going for as far as what i have learned so far
8.3-8.5 ph
1.023-1.025-salinity
0 nitrate
0 ammonia
9 dkh
500 calcium. some think this is high but a lot of salts these days seem to be going for around 500 and not sure if this could be the problem.
I am really confused especially that the tank is new, water seems to be right, only two fish, and i don't overfeed them. I can't figure out what the algae could possibly be living off or what to do.
Its starting to drive me nuts because it looks like its getting worse and dont know what else to do.
what am I missing?
thanks!!!
I recently setup a 60 gallon reef tank. I bought 60 pounds of live rock that was already cured but wanted to be safe so let the tank cycle for about 3 weeks with nothing but rock. I tested nitrate and ammonia throughout the cycle. Ammonia was never present and nitrates were really low the entire time and eventually went to zero a few days after adding 60 pounds of cultured live sand. I only had the lights on for an hour or so a day just to check it out. I have 4 39 watt T5's. one blue, one purple and two white. after about a week after the sand was in and about a month with rock and sand I thought everything was good to go so bought 2 ocellarius, a GBT annenome (clowns refuse to go near it but thats another thread) and a couple frags from a guy that lives by me. I started running the lights 12 hours and in addition to testing nitrate and ammonia started testing calcium and alkalinity. I've been doing weekly 15% water changes with kent reef salt and RO water from a water store that i tested and it doesnt have any nitrates. As far as tank setup I have a 20 gallon sump with probably ten gallons of water, a reef octopus skimmer and a sock for the drain pipe that I change weekly. the return pump pumps about 600 gallons and have two korlia powerheads so total hourly cycling is about 25 times which is what i was going for as i want a primarly SPS tank.
the clowns are healthy as heck, the annonome has settled down and looks great and is accepting krill and the frag polyps are totally open and look great.
after the first week with lights on and inhabitants in the tank I experienced and huge diatom bloom. After reading on this site it sounded like that is typical for a new tank and it would clear up in only a few days which it did. After a few days with everything looking good three types of green algae started growing like crazy. Its weird because the glass doesnt get a lot on it and the sand its totally clean but the rocks are almost 100% covered. One type looks kinda like fuzz/hair, one has branch like strands and actually is kinda cool looking and the other is like bunches. the corals seem to be still doing good and dont have any growing on them.
It's been a good week and it seems to be getting worse. I've continued testing nearly daily because I am a nerd and nitrates are zero and havn't been detectable for about 3 weeks now. I've also read that during algae growth that the algae consumes the nitrate before it gets in the water column so can give you "false" zeros but i doubt this since it was undectable before the algae growth or my test is bad.
As far as water parameters they are what you are going for as far as what i have learned so far
8.3-8.5 ph
1.023-1.025-salinity
0 nitrate
0 ammonia
9 dkh
500 calcium. some think this is high but a lot of salts these days seem to be going for around 500 and not sure if this could be the problem.
I am really confused especially that the tank is new, water seems to be right, only two fish, and i don't overfeed them. I can't figure out what the algae could possibly be living off or what to do.
Its starting to drive me nuts because it looks like its getting worse and dont know what else to do.
what am I missing?
thanks!!!