Everything must go !!!

[S!mon]

If my tank is not beautiful again by July, my wife says its got to go. I've been fighting diatoms for almost two years now and have seen little progress in this time. I've been using RO\DI for six months now and I've been rinsing all food (frozen) before feeding. I have tried running Kent phos sponge (also removes silicats) but I have never tried carbon. Here are my params:
pH- 8.32
dKH- 7
Ca- 400
PO4- 0
NO3- 1ppm
Here is a pic of tank, just did a 10gal water change yesterday and totally cleaned the sand...it was completly white everywhere. The tank is 4.5 years old. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Eboman]

Ever tried a "cleanup-crew"?? Snails love to eat algae / diatoms....

It will take them some time to get all of the "gunk" cleaned up....but once it's gone, they do pretty good at keeping up with the housework.

 

[S!mon]

Thanks for the reply . I have about 6-8 astrea snails and about that many hermits. Should I get diffrent types of snails? This is a thirty gallon tank, so in my current situation would a snail\gallon be too much. I'm ready to try anything.

 

[Len]

Try a fighting conch for every ~30 gallons.

I can't quite tell from the photo, but is the algae film-like? It looks like it may be dinoflagellates and not diatoms, but it's hard to tell. If it's dinos, direct more flow at that area and increase your alk. Changing bulbs sometimes helps too.

 

[Len]

Ah. Yeah, try a Tongan Fighting conch or even two. They are hardy and do excellent work cleaning the sand.

 

[S!mon]

So I just read up on dinos, and it seems that keeping the tank completly dark for 48hrs and increasing pH to 8.4-8.5 may do the trick. I'm going to give this a try, but will this method kill my clam and torch coral? Thanks for your help Len.

 

[bleedingthought]

Your lights can stay off for 2 days no problem. But working on your flow, bulbs, and feeding regimen will keep it away for good.

Along with the fighting conchs like Len suggested (I like them a lot too!), try some nassarius snails and maybe some cerith too! They do a pretty good job turning the sand and all.

 

[S!mon]

All the bulbs where replaced in January (150w HQI 14,000k and two 65w attenic) As far as feeding, I feed twice a week. The only fish in the tank is 1.5 inch maroon clown. As far as flow, I have my 3/4" overflow handeling all it can and I also have 3 450gph powerheads chugging away. Thanks for all the ideas guys.

 

[_Adrian_]

is the tank by any chance near a window ???
and have you tried a UV light ???

 

[Len]

Dripping kalkwasser and increased flow to the sand (esp problem areas) could do the trick. I still would get a conch

 

[S!mon]

I can never find conchs in Denver, so I will have to order some online. It kinda sucks paying $40 in shipping for a $10 conch. So is the elevated pH and darkness method not worth going for ?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm ready to try anything.

I'd tell her to go find her own hobby to manage. For crying out loud, it's a 30 gallon...not like it's taking over the house. :?

How deep is your sand bed? How much do you feed? How often do you do water changes? How big are your water changes?

If it was my tank, and it had a DSB, I'd remove it. I'd also follow advice already given.

 

[S!mon]

My sand bed is 1.5"-2" deep. I feed 1/3 of a cube frozen twice weekly (my clown has not grown much at all it the 6 months I've had him ). I have been doing weekly 10gal water changes using Kent salt. I've tried directing current to the sand, but in order to keep whatever this is from growing, the sand is blown all the way to bare glass. I'm thinking of getting a silicate test kit, but it sounds like silicates are very difficult to remove from a tank. I have started dripping kalk at 1 gal/day over the last 3 weeks, and still struggle to keep my pH at 8.2. I'm going to LFS today to get a better diversity of snails and hopefully a fighting conch. Thanks again everyone!

 

[Anonymous]

That looks like cyano to me.

Is it like a blanket? Snot-like texture? You scoop it up and by the next morning it's back?

 

[S!mon]

I'd have to say its more like snot but its brown/rust colored. I've seen cyno in my tank before and I don't think its cyno but I'm not sure. I tried chemi-clean in the past with no results. It starts to come back hours after I clean the sand. Keep'em commin guys !!!

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... ight=cyano

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... ight=cyano

Check the second link first.

 

[pcardone]

I would scoop that stuff out with a net. Its feeding on something. increase the water flow to those areas.

 

[S!mon]

I have my return close to 900gph and three 450 ghp powerheads, should this be ample flow, or should I buy more powerheads? I don't see how my problem could be due to excess feeding since I only feed a 1/4" cube of frozen food twcie weekly. I rarely see ANY food get past the clown.

 

[Anonymous]

Decrease your photo period. That helped me. I think it feeds alot on lighting.

 

[S!mon]

I ran a 10 hour photo period for years, but I recently backed that off to 7 hours daily. Is this short enough, or should I back off to 4 hours daily? Thanks for your input Crissy.