At My Wits End!

Breakthecycle2 · Jun 17, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, 0.03 ppm phosphate is enough to support cyano. You might try driving it a bit lower, coupled with manual removal and reducing organics.

How do recommend bringing them down? Because of all the chemiclean, I've changed all the water in my 250 gallon system at least once over in the last two weeks or so...maybe more. ROWAPHOS since day 1, jusy changed the chemipure elite, I only feed once a day, mysis cubes or bloodworm cubes, sometimes Elos pellets. My skimmer is rated for a 500 gallon, 300 heavily stocvked which I am not yet.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 17, 2015

Water changes are not typically the best way because phosphate can be bound to the rock too. So a 100% change won't drop it to zero the way it would with nitrate.

More Rowaphos, or changing it more often, or increasing the flow through it may help.

miller175 · Jun 17, 2015

Try changing the flow in the tank.

squillaempusa · Jun 18, 2015

don_chuwish said:
I have the same brown ugliness for months now. Since I'm getting close to a tank move (upgrade 36G to 120G) I may not take much dramatic action, but I do wish we could get a positive ID. Diatoms don't make sense given tank age, it's not cyano and definitely not dinos - I've had and dealt with all of those. This is different. If I was better at tank logging I might be able to jump on the ReefCrystals blame wagon because I have been using it for a while. I just can't remember if the timing matches up to when the brown uglies started.

did you recently start stirring your sand, or stir deeper than usual? move some rock around? i'm not sure if all silicate deep in the sand bed is used up by diatoms or water changes or not. i can say that i had a diatom bloom in a 5+ year old tank , many years ago. i assume i stirred/disturbed an area that i didn't get good or deep enough before, and released some fresh silicate into the water column. the "uglies" came and went pretty quick (2+ weeks) without doing anything except a 10-15% water change or two. good luck, i hope i'm right.

that Reef Guy · Jun 18, 2015

navillusii said:
Just as a heads up. Used it worked great, but be aware that youll have a minicycle. I lost a fish. :-( Nd it still came back. Im running just blues for a couple days and built a co2 reactor.

Its not from a Mini-Cycle.

It is from a lack of oxygen.

You have to use Air Stones when using Chemi-Clean as it Really Really Strips Oxygen out of the Water..

Lynn52 · Jun 18, 2015

Have had the same issue since I upgraded from a 55 to a 125. All the same rocks sand and livestock. I just dosed the second dose of chemiclean. It appears to be working. The crap is still on my sand bed but appears to be less every day. I did notice it isn't receding at night any more and is kind of peeling up off the sand. If other 20% water change today. I hope that it is a good sign.

navillusii · Jun 18, 2015

that Reef Guy said:
Its not from a Mini-Cycle.

It is from a lack of oxygen.

You have to use Air Stones when using Chemi-Clean as it Really Really Strips Oxygen out of the Water..

I did use a Stone, although at the time it didn't have the co2 scrubber.

Is it ok to use chemiclean again? My LFS said that it strips the good and bad? If I use it again, should I use a reduced lighting times?

NanaReefer · Jun 18, 2015

Well the ChemiClean didn't touch this stuff-ugh!! Now I get to deal with a messed up skimmer for the next week or two <sigh>
So now I've ordered a DI resin with silica buster. A TLF 150 Phosban reactor, still not sure what to put in it, definitely something that removes silicates.
My po4 and no3 are as low as I'm wanting them. Don't want to strip my tank entirely as ALL my SPS are doing wonderful along with all my other corals.
After 6yrs of trying I'm even keeping Zoa's alive and thriving [emoji122][emoji122]

Nano sapiens · Jun 18, 2015

This particular organism thrives in conditions that are conducive to coral health, unfortunately. Reducing nutrients can reduce the bloom to some extent, but there comes a point where the corals will lighten up, too, due to the nutrient reduction (not good). I've tried various lighting schemes over the months and haven't noticed any significant differences.

If the organism is indeed a diatom, then reducing the silica concentration should help. If it's something else, then it may be sustained by certain elements in the food and/or salt mix.

that Reef Guy · Jun 19, 2015

navillusii said:
I did use a Stone, although at the time it didn't have the co2 scrubber.

Is it ok to use chemiclean again? My LFS said that it strips the good and bad? If I use it again, should I use a reduced lighting times?

You sure they are not confusing Chemi-Clean with Carbon?

Carbon takes out the Good and the Bad.

I have never heard that about Chemi-Clean though.

I know people that use CC as a Coral Dip too.

A lot of people Dose their Tanks with it on a Regular Basis Claiming it makes their Zoanthids Look Better.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 19, 2015

Yes, don't confuse chemi-clean (antibiotic that kills cyano) with chemi pure (granular activated carbon, with some ridiculous claims).

that Reef Guy · Jun 19, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes, don't confuse chemi-clean (antibiotic that kills cyano) with chemi pure (granular activated carbon, with some ridiculous claims).

Sorry I worded that wrong.

They said it "takes the good out with the bad'.

The Only thing I know of that Does that is Carbon which is why I said that.

I didn't realize at the time that people might then confuse Chemi-Clean and Chemi-Pure.

That was not my intention.