...

[Subsea]

If you do not want fish,
Remove carbon and use the bacteria we talked about once a month.
Its bit our of my experince I have never had a system without a fish.
Bacteria need source of food which usually come from fish food and waste. I do not want to recommend put food just to creat access nutrients because you will add all sort of other unwanted nutrients.
My understanding is the biological filtration adjust to your system and eventually reach a balance of sustaining enough bacteria that the nutrients in the system can sustain, ither bacteria die and what left is usually what nutrients can sustain.
Bacteria needs carbon, phosphorus and other nutrient sources.

So, I can only imagin that you need to add these food sources one way or another...
For now pets remove the carbon and reduce water changes to twice a week or even more and see if you can creat a balance. If this is diatom, once balance is achieved it should turn in to green algae.

Couple of question:
- When you first started your system did you go through a brown algae phase followed by green algae phase?
- what's your equipment exactly? Do you run skimmer?
- can you take coule of pictures of the system and post it?
- what else do you dose?

Kudos to the exchange of information I am reading in this thread.

I run many systems fishless. Get some interesting shrimps and/orCrabs.

 

[SMSREEF]

If you do not want fish,
Remove carbon and use the bacteria we talked about once a month.
Its bit our of my experince I have never had a system without a fish.
Bacteria need source of food which usually come from fish food and waste. I do not want to recommend put food just to creat access nutrients because you will add all sort of other unwanted nutrients.
My understanding is the biological filtration adjust to your system and eventually reach a balance of sustaining enough bacteria that the nutrients in the system can sustain, ither bacteria die and what left is usually what nutrients can sustain.
Bacteria needs carbon, phosphorus and other nutrient sources.

So, I can only imagin that you need to add these food sources one way or another...
For now pets remove the carbon and reduce water changes to twice a week or even more and see if you can creat a balance. If this is diatom, once balance is achieved it should turn in to green algae.


Couple of question:
- When you first started your system did you go through a brown algae phase followed by green algae phase?
- what's your equipment exactly? Do you run skimmer?
- can you take coule of pictures of the system and post it?
- what else do you dose?

Hi Ohashisz, answering your questions
- When you first started your system did you go through a brown algae phase followed by green algae phase?
Never really brown algae, started with green and hair as I remember. I used dead rock and I think it was leaching phosphates but I don’t know for sure because I never tested. I replaced dead rock with live piece by piece because bubble Agra came in too on a drag. Got emerald and he took care of bubble and this is when I got a fish in that brought Ich, I had clown and clown goby. I brought both fish to store to be treated and let tank go fallow for a while. Low nutrients helped tank look best it’s ever looked, but I think it tipped over the edge to too clean now... 8 gallons is so hard to keep stable.

- what's your equipment exactly? Do you run skimmer?
No skimmer. It’s an all in one.
Overflow with filter sock (I put a piece of floss over it to catch larger particles and it can be changed more frequently.
Ceramic bio balls in next part
Return pump area (with bag of carbon hung with suction cup- carbon removed last night)
That’s it... I rely on water changes for export. I do 20 to 50% water changes.
(2 gallon to 4 gallon) every week or every other...

- can you take coule of pictures of the system and post it?
Sure. I’ll post more tonight when I get home and lights are on.

- what else do you dose?
Kalk from BRS dosing pump multiple times during night (was using vinegar to increase potency of Kalk but stopped because I think it was decreasing nutrients even more)
Calcium - b ionic via BRS dosing pump (timer 7 times during day)
Alk - b ionic via BRS dosing pump (timer 7 times during day)
Mag- only enough to keep mag at 1400 when I do water changes
I try to make sure water going into tank is close to current water in parameters (or a little higher on something if that parameter needs to go up a little)
My tank burns through alk (less calcium). 1 gallon of Kalk lasts about 10 days. Had to start dosing a lot of extra with pumps because the swings in the morning from adding once a day with syringe were too much... my Alk would drop 2-3 Kh a day...

 

[SMSREEF]

Kudos to the exchange of information I am reading in this thread.

I run many systems fishless. Get some interesting shrimps and/orCrabs.

I am going to look for some other cool stuff to add. Right now I have 3 snails and banded shrimp. I got an emerald again thinking I had hair algae but I guess he didn’t like the diatoms and I think starved... I did not figure this out until I found him one morning... always looked like he was eating something though.
Maybe I will get a brittle star. This would be good for the bigger tank I’m setting up too. Gonna be a 60 gallon cube. That one I will have fish and can’t wait to have more water for stability of parameters.
I don’t really like hermit crabs... maybe in a sump, but I don’t have one...
Do you have any suggestions for my current 10 gallon tank thinking about my current inverts and corals?

 

[Subsea]

Peppermint Shrimp are neat to see eating. Coral Banded Shrimp may eat them. I collect grass shrimp/ghost shrimp from fresh water as well as marsh/brackish. When feeding, I always found it neat to see food go down their intestines. When feed well, they will carry green egg mass and often spawn in tank.

 

[road_runner]

Hi Ohashisz, answering your questions
- When you first started your system did you go through a brown algae phase followed by green algae phase?
Never really brown algae, started with green and hair as I remember. I used dead rock and I think it was leaching phosphates but I don’t know for sure because I never tested. I replaced dead rock with live piece by piece because bubble Agra came in too on a drag. Got emerald and he took care of bubble and this is when I got a fish in that brought Ich, I had clown and clown goby. I brought both fish to store to be treated and let tank go fallow for a while. Low nutrients helped tank look best it’s ever looked, but I think it tipped over the edge to too clean now... 8 gallons is so hard to keep stable.

- what's your equipment exactly? Do you run skimmer?
No skimmer. It’s an all in one.
Overflow with filter sock (I put a piece of floss over it to catch larger particles and it can be changed more frequently.
Ceramic bio balls in next part
Return pump area (with bag of carbon hung with suction cup- carbon removed last night)
That’s it... I rely on water changes for export. I do 20 to 50% water changes.
(2 gallon to 4 gallon) every week or every other...

- can you take coule of pictures of the system and post it?
Sure. I’ll post more tonight when I get home and lights are on.

- what else do you dose?
Kalk from BRS dosing pump multiple times during night (was using vinegar to increase potency of Kalk but stopped because I think it was decreasing nutrients even more)
Calcium - b ionic via BRS dosing pump (timer 7 times during day)
Alk - b ionic via BRS dosing pump (timer 7 times during day)
Mag- only enough to keep mag at 1400 when I do water changes
I try to make sure water going into tank is close to current water in parameters (or a little higher on something if that parameter needs to go up a little)
My tank burns through alk (less calcium). 1 gallon of Kalk lasts about 10 days. Had to start dosing a lot of extra with pumps because the swings in the morning from adding once a day with syringe were too much... my Alk would drop 2-3 Kh a day...

Ok let's try the earlier routes I described and see where we go.

 

[road_runner]

Btw scooter blennys are nice addition to small systems. They have cool personalities and do not require alot of space. They are also not that active.

 

[SMSREEF]

Btw scooter blennys are nice addition to small systems. They have cool personalities and do not require alot of space. They are also not that active.

Do they need sandbed or ok without?

 

[road_runner]

Do they need sandbed or ok without?

No, they have similar personalities to shrimp. Thwy hang around rocks and graz off it.

 

[road_runner]

Btw I also think your water change is bit aggressive. 50% weekly will not give breathing room for nutrients. I would advice you reduce its frequency or its volume

 

[SMSREEF]

Btw I also think your water change is bit aggressive. 50% weekly will not give breathing room for nutrients. I would advice you reduce its frequency or its volume

Agreed. I was doing larger when I thought it may be algae or due to something built up like silica or aluminum. I will definitely do less now.