Everything must go !!!
- Thread starter S!mon
- Start date
What do you have in your tank? Any corals? You don't want to harm your corals but you do want to get rid of the cyano and the same time. I would back off to 4 hrs. Make sure your flow is at all levels of your tank not just top. I think you are doing fine on the feeding.
Do a few water changes. Test water too. You may have phosphates present in your system. Do you have your own RO/DI unit? If so, when's the last time you changed your cartridges?
Do a few water changes. Test water too. You may have phosphates present in your system. Do you have your own RO/DI unit? If so, when's the last time you changed your cartridges?
I've got one 1.5 inch maroon clown, 6-8 astrea snails, 8 or so hermits. I do have a torch coral, 5 inch clam and various zoos. My P04 has been undetctable for several weeks now (I started dripping kalk and I think this reduced them), but I bet some P04 is being used so my test indicates 0. My RO/DI unit is about six moths old and the resign color still looks good. I've showed better pics to LFS and they all agreed that diatoms are to blame, but I don't have a silicate test kit to confirm this. Thanks EVERYONE. I wish I could buy all of you a beer for the help :lol:
OK! Iv bin looking allot at salts (you said you use Kent)...
Kent has good Phosphate levels but is the second highest in Silicates (Brown diatoms thrive on Silicates).
I would switch to Instant Ocean or red sea (I use red sea).
These are some of the top brands out there this is what I was comparing Kent to.
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=103132
Kent has good Phosphate levels but is the second highest in Silicates (Brown diatoms thrive on Silicates).
I would switch to Instant Ocean or red sea (I use red sea).
These are some of the top brands out there this is what I was comparing Kent to.
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=103132
I do have a skimmer, but its not great. Though I would think that this skimmer is good enough for a thirty gallon tank. I have tried Kent phos remover in the past but didn't see any results. I just switched salts because Tropic Marin pro was getting expensive with all the water changes I am doing. Should I buy a silicate test kit even though silicates are almost impossible to remove?
What water were you using before RO? If you were using tap previously, silicates and/or phosphates could be in your sand and rocks, slowly leaching out.
It could take some time of using RO and doing water changes before you really notice a difference.
Also, do you ever polish the water (blast the rocks and use a hang-on filter for a few hours to remove some of the detritus) - this stuff can really build up in all the little nooks in the rocks.
Don't give up, I recently won a battle of red cyano that I fought for well over six months; but now the tank looks incredible.
Oh yeah, I haven't seen any mention of macro algae; which could use up some of the nutrients in the water too.
Good Luck!
It could take some time of using RO and doing water changes before you really notice a difference.
Also, do you ever polish the water (blast the rocks and use a hang-on filter for a few hours to remove some of the detritus) - this stuff can really build up in all the little nooks in the rocks.
Don't give up, I recently won a battle of red cyano that I fought for well over six months; but now the tank looks incredible.
Oh yeah, I haven't seen any mention of macro algae; which could use up some of the nutrients in the water too.
Good Luck!
So I turned the lights off for 48hrs and bumped the pH up to 8.6 with kalk. I'm very happy with the results!!! Not all the diatoms are gone, but most are. I'm going to keep a 2hr photoperiod for a week or two and see how this goes. I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions and ideas. Cheers.
BTW, be careful with kalk. 8.6 is pretty much at (some would say above) the limit you want your pH to be out. Things can start getting kind of wacky if it goes much higher. You might want to slow down the drip rate a bit and level the pH off at 8.4-8.5. The algae will slowly all go away. Siphoning what you can out in the next water change is a good idea too.
what about testing for silicates? Have you changed your RO/DI membrane(s) when spent?
Do you ever stir up your sand bed or have animals that do it for you? A bed that deep may be just deep enough to be problematic if not cultivated regularly...a brittle or serpent star to turnover the bed and the cowry to mow the lawn.
Do you ever stir up your sand bed or have animals that do it for you? A bed that deep may be just deep enough to be problematic if not cultivated regularly...a brittle or serpent star to turnover the bed and the cowry to mow the lawn.
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