questions questions question

[skyhawk8519]

hey guys,
the 12g aquapod is up and running. 2 new inhabatants, a pair of black and white clowns.

I have currently about 16# of various live rock purchased in store already cured, as well as 2 lb of rubble in the back chambers. Im using chemipure in one chamber, and doing weekly 1-2 gallon water chages. Im using ro/di water for the makeup/topoff water.

My question is...
my rock, and the substrate gets the diatom algae everywhere on it. I have my lights on for about 10 - 12 hours a day, and my temp is running around 80.
How can i slow this down, i feel like all the color on all my rock is just GONE!!

I need to do a water test to see whats going on, but ill post results here when i do.


other thing is, has anyone had sucess in closing off the bottom intake for the aquapod? I was thinking of doing this, but i dont know exactly how to do it!

thanks guys!!

 

[Sk8r]

The color is still there, but is being covered up by the diatoms. Increase flow---the diatoms don't thrive in turbulence. Also be sure you're not accumulating phosphate from fishfood.

 

[Henry22]

And, I dont know if this will help, but 10-12 hour light cycle is way too long. Mine is around 6-7 and I killed my hair algae that way along with scrubbing the rocks, nothing else.

 

[july865]

i didnt see how old the tank is... 10-12 is not long at all for an established tank......key word... established...... but for a new tank diatoms are expected and light reduction is a good start. Sk8r has a good begining. . you didnt list water perameters. that would help. be patiant. read some articles on here regarding the cycle process

 

[kass03]

If you mean closing off the vents on the left to make it surface skim I posted this in the DIY thread on top of this forum.

Scroll down for my name towards the bottom

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=883771&perpage=25&pagenumber=3

Diatoms/brown algae are normal for a new tank. I waited about 3 weeks to be sure my tank did'nt cycle and then added a clean up crew. I had brown algae all over and still ran my lights for 14 hours (14 actinic 12 daylight). In about a week all the algae was gone. Astrea snails cleaned it off the rocks and hermits and nassarius cleaned the sand.

kass

 

[NUBIANTANGLOVER]

To eliminate the same algae/diatom problems I just cut back on my lighting. I only ran the actinics in my Aquapod 24 and di so for about 6 hours instead of 10-12. It worked too. I also refused to add any coral or fish until the problem was fixed. I went to the store and purchased about 5-6 crabs/snails for them to go to work too.