Problem! HELP

[Fish_man]

i have a problem with my new 45 gallon reef, i have a large quantity of diatoms all over the rock, and substrate, i know it is a new tank, and only being set-up for a week this should happen, but it seems worse in this tank than any of the other 4 i have cycled, i have a protein skimmer that came with the tank, running, and it isnt pulling anything out yet, but every time i see diatoms start growing in a new tank, thats when i fire up the skimmer, and this just doesnt seem to be working right... any ideas? i look at it, and it is almost covering many of the rocks, and getting worse by the day, so i am at a loss, and the filter, is so sensetive, i cant really get in there and work on it, because the filter may overflow, and i dont want that

 

[Reef Guy11]

Try to use a Phosphate sponge or a pad that should help also how long has the tank been up for. cause if it has been up for 3 weeks you can add hermit crabs and snail they will take care of that also. When we setup tanks in customers home we let the tank get as ugly as it can with algea ,then we add snail and hermit crabs , so that when the tank is ready everything is gone. the only thing we do is wipe the algea off the glass.

Hope this helps.
Darrell

 

[grav]

The idea of letting the alge soak up all the bad stuff durring cycle, then cleaning it out later is an interesting one... perhaps leading to a quicker cycle I guess?

However, IMHO I wouldn't want to lose any good stuff on the LR to being coverd in alge.

I'd say get some clean up crew in there as soon as water conditions will allow, and if the skimmer isn't doing it's job, as the boss, you gotta get in there and drive some motivation. If you can't, get it going... fire it.

Did you use tap water or RO/DI? Is this cured LR?

I just cycled a new 30g with 50#s of LR and had snails and crabs from day one... but my skimmer was kicking pretty good.