Hey everyone, i'm new to this forum and have been looking for a forum lately to ask some questions on. (sorry if they seem dumb)
Well first I started with a 10 gallon reef tank and under a coralife 50/50 PC light I really didn't see much growth and instead of spending more money on a little tank I waited until I could find something a bit bigger. I then found a 75 gallon tank with, what I think is, a 20-25 gallon sump with a nice reef octopus skimmer and some nice Acquaticlife T5's. It came with about an inch or so of sand (which the previous owner did not rinse :debi
so I bought and additional 40 pounds and thoroughly rinsed it so there wouldn't be any fine dusty sand left. Then finally I got a gyre power head that will hopefully last the life of my tank.
I feel I research a lot. like way too much sometimes about reef tanks and different types of problems people have been facing and with some that i have been as well. And sometimes you find your answer and sometimes you don't but I thought I could write, in detail, my situation and hopefully get answered personally.
After my tank cycled, which took about 4ish weeks with the bacteria that already started to grow in when it was up and running in the fish store. My moms boyfriends friend had about 50lb of dried live rock so I guess dead rock and we added it to the tank as well as my two little clown fish I had previously had in my 10 gallon. everything went great and I got my expected brown diatom bloom and then green algae appeared.. like a lot.. its real dusty and comes off with a turkey baster or rubbing it with my finger but it shows up and I clean the glass once everyday. My lights were set to 12 hours a day for some reason and now I lowered them to 8. That helped but I cant find much on green diatoms.. It turned alot of my sand bed green and I dont know what to do. My torch coral finally is used to my tank and looks good and all of my other corals look great too. There is some hair algae in my sand but its very little and on some rocks.
I tested my phosphate levels and they tested 0. I'm sure my test isn't 100% accurate, it being the API test. Would running a carbon and GFO reactor clean up the water column and clear up my water and green diatom algae problem? I saw the dual BRS reactor for a decent price and was thinking about it.
I just really want a nice looking tank that doesn't look terrible from algae when I come home from school. I'm hoping that this is just a phase.
If you read till the end, thank you. I love the fish tank and coral hobby but man it keeps me up looking up things sometimes.
Fish - 2 ocellaris clownfish
Corals - Hammer coral, Frogspawn, Torch coral, teal mushrooms, orange mushroom, pulsing xenia, green star polyps, some zoas, red Acan, candy cane coral, and green hynophora.
CUC - 5 red legged hermits, emerald crab, a nassarius snail, 3 margarita snails, and 2 turbos.
Water Parameters
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - >5
Phosphate -0
Thanks Everyone
Well first I started with a 10 gallon reef tank and under a coralife 50/50 PC light I really didn't see much growth and instead of spending more money on a little tank I waited until I could find something a bit bigger. I then found a 75 gallon tank with, what I think is, a 20-25 gallon sump with a nice reef octopus skimmer and some nice Acquaticlife T5's. It came with about an inch or so of sand (which the previous owner did not rinse :debi
so I bought and additional 40 pounds and thoroughly rinsed it so there wouldn't be any fine dusty sand left. Then finally I got a gyre power head that will hopefully last the life of my tank.I feel I research a lot. like way too much sometimes about reef tanks and different types of problems people have been facing and with some that i have been as well. And sometimes you find your answer and sometimes you don't but I thought I could write, in detail, my situation and hopefully get answered personally.
After my tank cycled, which took about 4ish weeks with the bacteria that already started to grow in when it was up and running in the fish store. My moms boyfriends friend had about 50lb of dried live rock so I guess dead rock and we added it to the tank as well as my two little clown fish I had previously had in my 10 gallon. everything went great and I got my expected brown diatom bloom and then green algae appeared.. like a lot.. its real dusty and comes off with a turkey baster or rubbing it with my finger but it shows up and I clean the glass once everyday. My lights were set to 12 hours a day for some reason and now I lowered them to 8. That helped but I cant find much on green diatoms.. It turned alot of my sand bed green and I dont know what to do. My torch coral finally is used to my tank and looks good and all of my other corals look great too. There is some hair algae in my sand but its very little and on some rocks.
I tested my phosphate levels and they tested 0. I'm sure my test isn't 100% accurate, it being the API test. Would running a carbon and GFO reactor clean up the water column and clear up my water and green diatom algae problem? I saw the dual BRS reactor for a decent price and was thinking about it.
I just really want a nice looking tank that doesn't look terrible from algae when I come home from school. I'm hoping that this is just a phase.
If you read till the end, thank you. I love the fish tank and coral hobby but man it keeps me up looking up things sometimes.
Fish - 2 ocellaris clownfish
Corals - Hammer coral, Frogspawn, Torch coral, teal mushrooms, orange mushroom, pulsing xenia, green star polyps, some zoas, red Acan, candy cane coral, and green hynophora.
CUC - 5 red legged hermits, emerald crab, a nassarius snail, 3 margarita snails, and 2 turbos.
Water Parameters
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - >5
Phosphate -0
Thanks Everyone
