Diatom Bloom....HELP!!!

[Zeus30]

I switched over from a 55 gallon to a 65RR about a month ago. I transferred almost all of the water from my 55, (about 100lbs) LR, old LS and fish. The LS (ddep sand bed) had not been setup for more than 2 weeks when I transferred over to the 65 so it was safe for me to transfer over.

August 12th was the day I did the switch over. About 2 weeks ago my live sand started turning brown and then crept up to my LR. Now it's at full force and my tank looks like caca...:sad1:....the LR is building up this brown hairy stuff and waves around when the mp10 is at full speed and I've noticed a lot of bubbles forming on the sand and rock as well.

I run my lights from 1pm to 9pm. My skimmate is very dark and brown in the collection cup as well.

Setup: 1 mp10w, Koralia Evo 3 (550gph), wet/dry filter (no bio-balls) converted to sump with coralife 65 super skimmer, (2) 120 watt LED pendants.

Livestock: 2 clowns, coral beauty, algae blenny, bartlett anthius(sp?), green chromis, cleaner shrimp, diamond goby, fighting conch, (10) hermit crabs.



Any help/suggestions would be appreciated?

 

[Pittsburgh]

Your nitrates and most likely phosphates are way too high. Test for both and treat accordingly. There are several techniques out there.

For me, being lazy, doing several large WCs and a GFO reactor did the trick.
Once you lower your nitrates and phosphate, the algae will eventually starve.
Of course, you can go all out, do siphoning, get an appropriate cleanup crew, do a lights out for several days. All this will help, but the root cause is the quality of your water.

 

[Zeus30]

Your nitrates and most likely phosphates are way too high. Test for both and treat accordingly. There are several techniques out there.

For me, being lazy, doing several large WCs and a GFO reactor did the trick.
Once you lower your nitrates and phosphate, the algae will eventually starve.
Of course, you can go all out, do siphoning, get an appropriate cleanup crew, do a lights out for several days. All this will help, but the root cause is the quality of your water.

Thanks :beer:. I'm due for a water change this weekend. I did have a Mealnurus Wrasse (got rid of it) in there and it would whip its tail and the sand around and within a day, the nice white sand turned brown immediately.

I forgot to mention, I use RO/DI water when topping off my water from a fellow friend and he has a tds meter and makes sure his water is perfect as well so I know it isn't the water I'm using.

Also, I have corals in there such as, frogspawn, zoas, duncan, polyps, huge leather coral, and small kenya tree. They all seem to be branching off and doing fine although some diatom is starting to bother some but I blow if off.

 

[pktech]

I recently moved my tank residents to a bigger set up & the same thing is happening to me. I bought 2 turbo snails & they're in heaven taking care of the lovely shade of brown. I've began to cut back on my lighting as well. In my other tanks I had the same issue & the diatoms went away.

 

[worm5406]

YES.. Cut back on lights... maybe make it 2 days of no lights...

Water change does not always really help with this... it is part of the cycle... Is the RO/DI?

What are the readings? I am just curious... not blasting... Just wondering where you are in the cycle. Of course all tanks are different and cycle differently.

 

[Zeus30]

I recently moved my tank residents to a bigger set up & the same thing is happening to me. I bought 2 turbo snails & they're in heaven taking care of the lovely shade of brown. I've began to cut back on my lighting as well. In my other tanks I had the same issue & the diatoms went away.

I'm going bald from all the frustrations and seeing this brown tank....it also worries me because of my fish. They have been hitting up the cleaner shrimp more often and has been working overtime but I don't see any ich on them.

YES.. Cut back on lights... maybe make it 2 days of no lights...

Water change does not always really help with this... it is part of the cycle... Is the RO/DI?

What are the readings? I am just curious... not blasting... Just wondering where you are in the cycle. Of course all tanks are different and cycle differently.

:lol: at blasting me for water parameters. I don't take any offense like I've seen others. It's all a part of a learning process which I'm still learning a lot and take every suggestion/feedback into consideration. I will do another water test tonight and post up my numbers.

 

[xmen0075]

+1 on what 'Pitt' said...

I had a similar situation last year. I added phosphate & silica remover (ferrous oxide granules) to my sump. I stopped feeding my fish frozen food and switched to pellets for a while. My parameters eventually dropped and the algae starved to death. I did a nice water change and siphoned out the algae. No issues since then - knock on wood.:thumbsup:

Good Luck!

 

[Zeus30]

Just a little update:

Did a HUGE water change last weekend and also toothbrushed the live rock while siphoning out with a vaccuum hose. My fish seem happier as well as some of my corals which were being taken over by the brown hairy stuff. I'm dedicating myself to do 5 gallons every Sunday before the Packer Games...:dance:

 

[andy2966]

The Brown algae loves the light. I turned my lights off for 48 hours and it all went away. Good Luck

 

[worm5406]

So what are your parameters?? hahaha

Any pictures?

 

[Zeus30]

The Brown algae loves the light. I turned my lights off for 48 hours and it all went away. Good Luck

DOH!!!!....:headwally:....I forgot about that. I will do that tonight and turn my timers off for tomorrow.

So what are your parameters?? hahaha

Any pictures?

:lol:....I knew that question was coming. They were bad so I don't want to post them...lol. I'm due for testing tonight though.

 

[worm5406]

Believe me... they are not bad....

When you are cycling your tank... leave for a weekend come back and you cant see through the front glass and running at 82 degrees (on purpose)....

Then I'd say close to bad... hahahaha

I did not take pics though... I was scared and embarrassed... but now I wish I had...

Took me a while to clean it and turn all the sand... And add some LR...

So yeah... nothing is as bad as......


OHHH MY!!!

 

[Zeus30]

Believe me... they are not bad....

When you are cycling your tank... leave for a weekend come back and you cant see through the front glass and running at 82 degrees (on purpose)....

Then I'd say close to bad... hahahaha

I did not take pics though... I was scared and embarrassed... but now I wish I had...

Took me a while to clean it and turn all the sand... And add some LR...

So yeah... nothing is as bad as......


OHHH MY!!!

:hmm2:...that's scary.

I have to clean my glass daily as well. I also finished building my 20 gallon sump/refugium so that will be my weekend project as well...:spin1:

 

[worm5406]

Ohhh mine is good now... but a cycle from the start (and I used TAP water when I first started) (oops.. I learned though to NEVER use tap water... espc mine because of the extra stuff in it.. I have cycled it all out now though...

 

[Zeus30]

I'm also starting to notice that the brown stuff is turning into purpleish chunks on the sandbed....GRRR!!

 

[worm5406]

I'm also starting to notice that the brown stuff is turning into purpleish chunks on the sandbed....GRRR!!

Not enough flow in/near that area. That is a dead spot... you need to modify your flow.

Syphon only that dark stuff out (leave the sand below it) and deff move your power heads.

 

[Zeus30]

Not enough flow in/near that area. That is a dead spot... you need to modify your flow.

Syphon only that dark stuff out (leave the sand below it) and deff move your power heads.

Well I did mywater change last night but spent 2 hours before the actual water change, toothbrushing all the hairy stuff off the rocks once section at a time. I also used my net to pick up some of the "mat stuff" off the sandbed.

Concerning the dead spots, I have an MP10 placed on the left side in the middle of the tank at almost full speed and it moves the sandbed around and I can see flow throughout the tank. I also have a Koralive Evo at 550gph on the right side but on the back of the tank faced to the front on an angle so it clashes with the mp10 creating a swirly type of thing.



Edit: I'm also buying a Foxface today to add color to my tank as well as trying to control any bubble/hair algae. The LFS I go to had the foxface in a tank with hair and bubble algae and it eliminated it so hopefully it will do the same in my tank.

 

[worm5406]

Just remember you should always QT each addition. Don't want to make the DT infected by accident or anything.

I off set mine at one point... That way the streams went by each other with just a bit in the center of each stream crossing. This made a lot of turblance in the middle. Made the flow better at times. It took me a bit of time to get the flow good. But now that I have aquscaped some... I need to adjust again.

 

[Zeus30]

Very good idea. I never thought of making them cross that way and will try that.

 

[stingythingy45]

It sounds like you have diatoms and a bit of cyano as well.
It's not really all too surprising to have some issues after a move.
Do you use ro/di water?
Diatoms=silicates and silicates can come in with top off/mix water as well.