Diatoms on sand, what to do?

Hmmmm, inetmug, what are you feeding, are you rinsing the food, and how are you feeding? IE are you doing one lump sum, squirt a bit, let the fish eat, then add more, etc?

Now to start working the less likely sources. Something that MAY be hurting the skimming is the turnover rate from sump to tank. From what I've seen, the optimum (in opinions) is 3-5X-ish. The statements are that your skimmer will run more efficiently. Here is a link showing why:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2230911
 
Bertoni: No bio ball, just about 10-15# rock in the sump, with a good sized media bag of charcoal. That is it. I had the chaeto setup in there, but since it did not work twice, I removed it. By setup I mean a pond basket with chaeto, and a 120W bulb over it, on with an overlapping cycle for 10 hours. Both attempts failed oddly.

Wcarteh: I am feeding formula 1 small pellets, occasionally with a dash of garlic guard. I try to feed just enough where the fish are getting it, with some falling to the bottom for the dwellers. I had feed the lobster about two pencil eraser size of squid/shrimp every other day. I was doing the frozen "mesh ball" of fish/squid/clams that was grinded up and frozen and used via a grater, but I stopped. I occasionally feed a half strip of the little fishies seaweed. I was big on the varied diet, and the fish look AWESOME, and are very happy. I think I overfed previously trying to keep the angles happy from the corals I mentioned. At first I started this as a FOWLR, but wifey like the blowey pretty things, which is why the angels are looking for a new home...

Regading the turnover, no telling. I will read the article. I have talked to many many people over time that tell me no matter what they do, they can not get the nitrate below some level. If I got a pocket of bad stuff, that will really suck.
 
yeah I saw that, one man's poison is another man's wine.... or something like that... LOL.

It will sort itself out. I am restarting the GFO in the AM, a small amount of rowaphos.

That Marine pure block looks almost too good to be true....

I was told 2# of rock per gallon, and 1# of sand, that is what my 55G had, and it was happy.
 
Laughs, very true.

I'm curious about it. I've never ran into it before. I've seen Red Sea NO3 PO4x, but no the pure block. I need to do more research on it to see how it works. I would've thought it was like bioballs, therefore a nitrate factory. Hey if it works, put in 3! :D

That's what I was following when I did mine. Though I need to do some rearranging in mine. I need better ledges and such for the corals. Though the fish love their caves.
 
Whether the fish eat the food or not isn't very important, because what goes in mostly comes out. I might give the changes already made some time to solve the problem before doing much more, though.
 
Jonathan, what do you think the average time for the carbon dosing to start to see effects.

I agree, I will hold for a bit. Lower feeding, more flow, week three of carbon, hopefully nature will take its course.

On a side note, any info on the marine block? Never heard of it till now...
 
I've never been able to get a good estimate of how long carbon dosing takes to start making a noticeable result. I think it varies from system to system.
 
Oops, I meant to add that the marine blocks seem interesting, but I'm not sure about the safety yet.
 
bertoni said:
Oops, I meant to add that the marine blocks seem interesting, but I'm not sure about the safety yet.
Click to expand...

What are you meaning by safety?

Cheapest I can find the blocks are $45, so I will wait to see what you are thinking first.

I did find some stuff out when I called them, posted in the low phosphate thread, but I never asked about compatibility with anything, which is what you mean by safety perhaps?
 
I think some of the products that go by that name are made of alumina, which might leach aluminum into the water column.
 
Also, it seems these blocks would really be for nitrate, not phosphate? So one would probably still need to use GFO?
 
GFO might be needed. That depends on exactly what the blocks are doing, but I suspect they are reducing nitrate to nitrogen gas, and so might not remove much phosphate from the water column.
 
Bertoni, what is the question to the manufacturer for the AM regarding safety, what do you need to make the call?

GFO/Rowa started back up in reactor. A local reefer things also my lighting could be an issue. Regardless of the fact the light are new, and supposedly very good, he point was at 30" deep, I might not be getting the right light... leading to diatoms. Just a thought.

Regardless, the nitrate reduction mission in in full swing! I am looking at adding another external skimmer if I can fit it under the stand. 100-150G skimmers are easy to come by, and cheap. Say I got to 300G capacity... is bigger/more better... si there a way to overskim?
 
Not really. The skimmer only makes bubbles that helps pull out the bad stuff. Though you may want to watch your pH. It could add too much CO2 causing it to raise (more acidic).
 
Chuckles. 16 hour work day I was trying to think of which it was considered and didn't google it. That's why I made sure to say more acidic, laughs. Thanks for the correction bertoni.
 
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