Big problem Need Help

[piratefish]

Sooo, I was gone for four days and had a friend feed my tank (1 cube a day is what I told him). Don't these stories always start off like this? Well any way my tank has this brownish stringy algae every where.

WTF?? Diatoms? Dinos? I cleaned the ATS today and most of the algae was yellow? The water smells, not normal. Going to do a 25 gal water change ( my tank is a 55g) in 2 days cause I don't have any SW mixed up.

What is this stuff? and how did it take over the tank so fast? ANd what should I do?

[SantaMonica]

Sounds like the scrubber lights were never turned off. Clean off the screen completely and check the timer.

Tank water should be fine... more algae = no nutrients.

[piratefish]

We had a storm up here while i was gone maybe the power went out? Would that cause it? All fish and coral seem fine.

[SantaMonica]

If it was out for a day, probably.

[piratefish]

So I tested my water for silicates and got a reading of .25 Is this a problem? And I don't know where its coming from. I will test my RODI water tomorrow. But other than that I don't know where it could come from.

[SantaMonica]

Don't know

[Aeros]

This article was very informative re: silicates.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... eature.htm (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm)

[piratefish]

This article was very informative re: silicates.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... eature.htm (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm)


Thanks !! That was an interesting read.

UPDATE I did a water change a several days ago. sucking out as much brown slime as possible. I does seem to be coming back though.

I am going to have to clean my screen every 3 days cause of the brown algae. I am getting some green growth under it. I have tested the water everything is still at 0 Alk is 9dkh Ca420 Ph 8.4 Mag 1350. Fish and shrimp seem fine and all SPS are still growing. One of my candy canes shows some receding, Don't know what that means?

[mrbncal]

Sounds a lot like what happened to me after a recent power stoppage. The pump i use did not restart after the outage and the screen dried up. I was busy with things and didnt check the tank for a couple days. The lights dried the algae on the screen to the point that I was basically starting from scratch. I am having some coral throw tantrums and I have had a resurgence in bubble algae, but the screen is coming back...slowly. Mostly brown slimy gunk vs nice green stuff. Its a bummer but not the end of the world. Just a little more work than normal (cleaning more frequently). Good luck !
Mike

[SantaMonica]

This is the reason that larger tanks with more expensive livestock should have multiple smaller scrubbers, instead of one bigger one. Separate pumps, separate circuit breakers, and separate plumbing, so that one scrubber can operate no matter what happens to the other. Best would be for one of them to be on a UPS.

[mrbncal]

I have kind of changed my mind on this also. I am thinking about changing from one normal size to two smaller screens rated at 2/3 of capacity each. This way I can use the same pumps I already have but I will have independantly operated screens. Have definately gone back to the drawing board on what to do now. (a skimmer is still not on the list of directions to go. . . lol) :twisted: sorry had to do it. . . . .
Mike

[piratefish]

I have kind of changed my mind on this also. I am thinking about changing from one normal size to two smaller screens rated at 2/3 of capacity each. This way I can use the same pumps I already have but I will have independantly operated screens. Have definately gone back to the drawing board on what to do now. (a skimmer is still not on the list of directions to go. . . lol) :twisted: sorry had to do it. . . . .
Mike

Did you post this in the right thread? Cause I not sure what your talking about.

[piratefish]

Update

So I did another water change about 15g in my 55g tank. Been cleaning the brown slime off the screen every 3 days and things are looking a little better. There is less brown slime growing on the rocks and sand and more growing on the screen. After 3 days the screen is heavy with the slime. I am thinking that this is going to work but will take a couple of weeks. I am OK with that as long as things are improving.

[piratefish]

UPDATE: Brown slime better but still there. Have been cleaning the screen every three days so light can get to the greener algae. I did a cleaning today and YES lots of bright green growth!!! About half of one screen was green and not the yellow crap I have been dealing with. And about a third of the other screen was bright green as well. The screen on the end where the drain is was much thicker than the one where the water enters. Sorry no pics cause camera died. Will post new pics after 7 days. If the brown slime doesn't come back.

I am also 2 days into a blackout to try and kill off the remaining brown slime which I think are Dinos and diatoms.

Tested water for silicates again after several large water changes and the reading was 0. Also tested my top off water 0 as well.

Water params are 0 0 0 0 alk 7dkh mag 1250 ca 380 ph 8.4 This is much lower than my last post. I do dose randy's 2 part recipe #2 including Mag all from Bulk reef supply.