PDA

View Full Version : A Brown/Orange Evening Fight!


biglurr54
03/26/2013, 06:49 AM
Im having trouble with my tank. Its 6 months old and i have not had any swings in chemistry and no case of the uglies. I have a very strict schedule that I abide by to try to prevent anything getting out of hand. My fight right now is with this brown/orange algae that is growing on the sand bed. In the Morning the sand is bright white. By the time the lights turn off (7 hours and 30 mins) the sand is brown orange. I first contributed it to my water source. I got RODI water for top offs from LFS. Water change water is premixed at the LFS as well. I asked them how old their filters were and it turns out the last batch of water i got was right before they changed the filters and they were spilling 10 tds. I got new water at 0 TDS and did a large water change a few times then back to my normal small daily water changes. The brown/orange stuff is still coming back every day. Is it Diatoms? That was my first thought but once the bad water was removed the diatoms should disappear I thought.

Here's my parameters:
temp: 77.3
Salinity: 1.024
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Calcium: 420
Alk: 7
Phosphate: 0

worm5406
03/26/2013, 07:12 AM
Yes it is diatoms. Do you have any CUC and also HOW is the flow over the surface of the substrate?

Sounds like it is cycling perfectly.

I thought the same from my LFS when I was having a problem on my old 120. I did daily 35g water changes then after the 5 day I was like... WAIT... Maybe it is the LFS... I went up there and we tested ALL the water... OK... the RODI had TDS OF.... 1....

Hummm... Well that was not it... granted it was 1... but they sell prob about 200+gal of ro and 200 g of salt a day. I have been in there before and watched people walk in with the 5g buckets. They are making it all day/night and still have a hard time keeping up.

Funny that sometimes they have a sign up stating the current amount. They almost need a gauge on the wall like they have for water towers FULL.........EMPTY

biglurr54
03/26/2013, 08:53 AM
It has good flow nothing accumulates at the bottom. My clean up crew was large but a few hitch hikers have me limited to one snail and three hermits, One red, two blue. I have 8 snails to begin with. I think I got all the pests out except for a few worms that I can't tell if they are good or bad. I pulled two fuzzy crabs, a mantis shrimp, and ton of Cirolanid Isopods. Thats a lot from 9 lbs of live rock!. What will do a number on the diatoms?

JohnV8r
03/26/2013, 10:48 AM
Yes it is diatoms.

+1 It will go away.

worm5406
03/26/2013, 11:45 AM
Snails are perfect for it. The Nassarius Vibex are real good for taking care of it, in my tank.

The worms are most likely good. Take a pic before you snag any of them out.

biglurr54
03/27/2013, 08:02 AM
Ive tried to get a pic of them. They dont look like your typical orange/red worm. They look and move like millipedes. I have pics but the worms are small and the pics are blurry. Ill post them and you can see if you can tell.

worm5406
03/27/2013, 08:03 AM
Sometimes a video shows the image better than an actual picture.

worm5406
03/27/2013, 08:05 AM
Like this?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--UjyjiD1Tus/US1qbf407YI/AAAAAAAA8vI/SpApCgD-o20/s800/20130226_210659.jpg

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/j7wbHMrJlJsoS0RhIY49gtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pHuxs40fBvI/T-bN47pvgRI/AAAAAAAA0rY/uwUpzNe6d8M/s800/2012-06-23_21-35-51_566.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>

biglurr54
03/27/2013, 08:08 AM
Here's the pics. They are long and quick. They have a head with antennae. They have bristles that fold under them and they use them like legs to walk about the substrate. They look different then your typical bristle worm which I have and know what they are. I'll keep trying to get a better pic.

10reefman
03/27/2013, 09:25 AM
get a diamond goby