help please.

[stephen sykes]

due to my second dia-tom outbreak i've cut the lighting down to 5 hours a day. will my pulsing xenia, toadstool mushrooms and fish be ok??

 

[sir_dudeguy]

yes, they'll be fine. Personally though, i doubt thats gonna really help anything. How old is the tank? I'm gonna assume its been cycled already since you've got corals in there...at which point the second diatom would either just be another normal algae phase which you shouldnt worry about, or you have nitrates/phosphates/TDS.

Test your water for those...test your top off/water change water for the TDS since you cant test the tank water i dont think...salt is a dissolved solid lol.

What clean up crew do you have?

 

[coralnut99]

As suggested, don't panic. Most probably a spike in Nitrates or Phosphates. The down-side to smaller tanks is that things happen faster than they do with bigger systems. Have you done any sort of tests? Are you using RO water for your water changes and topping off?

 

[stephen sykes]

i use r.o water, i change 20% every 2 weeks. i've had the tank since last october. i have some astrea snails, hermits and 2 cleaner shrimp.

 

[coralnut99]

Astreas are a temperate water creature and as your water temp creeps up in summer, they slow down. They really don't tolerate temps in the mid 80's for very long periods. Higher temps can also speed up an algae bloom. Fwiw, the cleaner shrimp won't help your algae situation

 

[stephen sykes]

but the temp in the tank is always 23/24????????

what can i do to stop the algae or will it pass like it did before?
thanks.
steve.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

should pass like it did before if you keep all your levels in check and get a decent cleanup crew. Astreas dont clean sand to begin with...you'll need ceriths for that.

 

[stephen sykes]

my orange spot goby was ment to do that. he dosnt do a bit of sand sifting. lazy so & so...