Frustration with solutions

[JT101]

Hey all,

I just wanted to say that I really love this site and all the assistance I have gotten. I truly hope that the little help I was able to offer to others was of some assistance as well.

I think my two BIGGEST problems with my reef tank right now are the following:

1. A very thin coating of green algae on all surfaces of LR that are in full light. Any surface that is under something is bare. I recently got a full CUC from reefcleaners.org and I noticed that it's VERRRRRRRYYYYY SLOWWWWWWLLLLLLY getting better but it will take months at this rate.

2. Diatoms! My tank is 11 months old and I seem to have the brown stuff come and go on my sandbed but it seems to be more on the come than the go.

Now, here's what I meant by frustration. Everytime someone asks about diatoms the same questions get asked and it seems that even when someone slowly responds to these questions with GOOD answers, eventually the thread goes dead. In other words, people will ask "are you using RO/DI"? A: yes. "Are you doing weekly water changes?" A: yes. "Are you cutting back on feedings?" A: Yes. "Is your tank new?" A: No, it's over a year old. And so on and so on...

So when all the "smoking gun" questions get asked, and it turns out that the victim of diatoms or film algae seems to be doing proper husbandry, it just stops. In other words, there is no solution for these people.

I have seen these threads over and over again and it's always the same.

I guess my question is:

If your water parameters, lighting, CUC, WC regimen, choice of top off water (RO/DI), infrequent feedings etc are all "good" then what other causes could there be to diatoms and green film algae?

Air quality issues?
Silicates in the RO/DI water?
Something in the LR or sand that is leaching out nutrients?

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Have you researched these? May be Dinos instead of diatoms since the tank is established:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoflagellate

If it is dinos:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1620464

The answer to your question is there is no miracle cure so I think people don't want to give advice sometimes to not have it work for you and have you feel it wasn't what they said or they gave you bad info.

Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help but this is the only thing I can give other than an it may be diatoms answer.

 

[JT101]

Have you researched these? May be Dinos instead of diatoms since the tank is established:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoflagellate

If it is dinos:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1620464

The answer to your question is there is no miracle cure so I think people don't want to give advice sometimes to not have it work for you and have you feel it wasn't what they said or they gave you bad info.

Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help but this is the only thing I can give other than an it may be diatoms answer.

Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for chiming in. It's never gotten to the "stringy/bubbly" phase. It's almost like a light brown dusting. If I just take a plastic stick and move the very top layer of sand it goes away for a day but then it comes back.

 

[duke62]

First your skimmer is horrible. if you are getting serious in the hobby get a better skimmer. also do you have a tds meter on your ro/di. how old are the cartridges and membrane. is your tank getting direct sunlight on any part of the tank. do you have fish that are digging alot in the sand. there are many things we dont know what you are doing or whats going on with the tank so without every detail its hard for people to try and help and we get frustrated just like the person who owns the setup

 

[JimmyR1rider]

No problem- have you tried a diatom filter? They're touchy to get running. I didn't have success in getting mine going but I heard that if you can get it up and going it will take care of it.

http://www.diatomfilter.com/

Also if it is diatoms I would treat it like you did with the original bloom and it should go away with normal water changes. Like duke said though there are A LOT of variables that none of us are aware of so helping is very difficult -it's kind of like a whim and a prayer

 

[JT101]

First your skimmer is horrible. if you are getting serious in the hobby get a better skimmer. also do you have a tds meter on your ro/di. how old are the cartridges and membrane. is your tank getting direct sunlight on any part of the tank. do you have fish that are digging alot in the sand. there are many things we dont know what you are doing or whats going on with the tank so without every detail its hard for people to try and help and we get frustrated just like the person who owns the setup

Sorry, my signature is not 100% complete. In it, I do indicate that I change the resin every 6 months and the other components (membrane and the 3 other filter elements) yearly. I just changed everything in January, and in July I will change the resin in all 3 resin chambers. In January 2013 I will change everything again. I have been doing this for a few years. I have a professional HM Digital TDS meter on my RO/DI system, just rechecked cal in January. I get about 36-45ppm in, and 0ppm out. I have not seen 1ppm ever.

My tank does not get any direct sunlight.

I agree my skimmer is crap! I am getting a Super Reef Octopus within the next few days.

I had a sand sifting goby but he made a complete mess out of my tank and I have seen many tanks that don't have them with perfect clean sand and rock.

Thank you for your post, I didn't mean to come off nasty, I'm just upset :headache:

 

[JT101]

No problem- have you tried a diatom filter? They're touchy to get running. I didn't have success in getting mine going but I heard that if you can get it up and going it will take care of it.

http://www.diatomfilter.com/

Also if it is diatoms I would treat it like you did with the original bloom and it should go away with normal water changes. Like duke said though there are A LOT of variables that none of us are aware of so helping is very difficult -it's kind of like a whim and a prayer

Have had the original Vortex for years. What happens is, after you run one of these it looks like there's no water in your tank - it really gets that clean! AND, algae disappears as well as any diatoms OR dinos. Unfortunately, eventually they return.

What a DE filter does is temporarily remove like 99.99999% of this stuff from your tank, but the 0.000001% that remains gets a start a few days later.

 

[duke62]

just looked at some of your old threads and not even a month ago you said you have been traveling alot and your husbandtry hasnt been great and you may have overdosed so in a 46 gallon tank you have very little room for not doing proper care if your not around so this may be the cause of all your problems. you really cant fix things in 2 or 3 weeks if you havent been on top of everything week in and week out.it took my 92 gallon at least a month in a half after i slowed down on the hobby. i wasnt doing water changes and not changing out carbon and rowaphos and my tank was hit hard with diatoms and cyano. do your weekely or bi weekly water chages stay on top of changing your media and dont dose ANYTHING except your alk and calcium and mag. im sure in a month with doing all this and upgrading your skimmer your tank will clear up in a month or so.also if you are storing water make sure you have a powerhead in your water container and premix your water change water 24 hrs before you do water changes.this is the best advise i can give. you can roll with it or not. im out of ideas and probably wont post again LMAO

 

[JT101]

just looked at some of your old threads and not even a month ago you said you have been traveling alot and your husbandtry hasnt been great and you may have overdosed so in a 46 gallon tank you have very little room for not doing proper care if your not around so this may be the cause of all your problems. you really cant fix things in 2 or 3 weeks if you havent been on top of everything week in and week out.it took my 92 gallon at least a month in a half after i slowed down on the hobby. i wasnt doing water changes and not changing out carbon and rowaphos and my tank was hit hard with diatoms and cyano. do your weekely or bi weekly water chages stay on top of changing your media and dont dose ANYTHING except your alk and calcium and mag. im sure in a month with doing all this and upgrading your skimmer your tank will clear up in a month or so.also if you are storing water make sure you have a powerhead in your water container and premix your water change water 24 hrs before you do water changes.this is the best advise i can give. you can roll with it or not. im out of ideas and probably wont post again LMAO

NnnnnnnoOOOOOO DON'T GO!! LOL!!

Seriously, thanks much. I know, I got a little lazy for a while but I got on the ball again. I guess what happens is when you DO neglect things even when you get back into proper husbandry there is a lag effect so things go bad slowly and you think it's due to a much more recent reason. Wow, it took that long for your tank to turn around? I guess there is hope for me after all...!

I can't wait to put the new skimmer in as soon as I get it - I'm about to plunk down about $300 and it's hard to part with the cash. I have it, I just have to somehow convince myself that a $300 skimmer really is that much better than a $129 skimmer. I really don't know why, but it is what it is...

Thanks
John

 

[JimmyR1rider]

What I would do at this point is do heavy maintenance and take a picture(s) every week. Seeing the tank everyday you may not notice slight changes as it starts to get better which will keep you frustrated. Just like when you lose 10 pounds over time you don't notice it in the mirror but people that haven't seen you since you were heavier notice right away when you compare the photos from previous weeks you'll actually notice if it starts to get better.

 

[Arati]

Like I said before it's 80/20 , u can get the tank the a point of 80% good in 20% of the time, but the last 20% of the way will take 80% of the time so be patient get the new skimmer an do somextra water changes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I can see pictures^^

 

[rookie07]

I stopped reading about half way through thread, but:
Have you ver syphoned out your sand bed (assuming you dont have a DSB)?
When i would get lazy and not syphon out my sand bed i would get diatoms.