EMERGENCY

fluffyhobo · Dec 10, 2020

iamacat said:
I see no power heads for flow. Sounds like oxygen depletion if the clowns are at the surface

IslandLifeReef said:
The bacteria is causing the lack of oxygen. You need to get rid of the bacteria bloom. Lack of flow in the tank will cause a lack of oxygen and possible die off that is feeding the bacteria. Get flow in the tank ASAP.

On your guys' note about lack of flow, when you say "flow" does the flow need to be coming from the bottom towards the top of the tank? Like a power head near the bottom pointed upwards? Or do you just literally mean water moving throughout the tank. I ask this because I am currently running the Sicce Syncra 1.0 that moves 251 gph. When I first put the nem in the tank he moved around for hours all over the tank and finally settled on a spot in the back behind some rocks where the flow was much lower, sometimes I will turn the pump off for a few mins to feed and he will stretch his tentacles further to where when the pump comes back on I can see the flow is too much and it waves the long stretched tentacles everywhere and he will shrink back up a bit. So moving forward I'll have the addition of a UV sterilizer and a skimmer, what else do you suggest/ thoughts about power head placements.

Thanks for the help

IslandLifeReef · Dec 11, 2020

fluffyhobo said:
On your guys' note about lack of flow, when you say "flow" does the flow need to be coming from the bottom towards the top of the tank? Like a power head near the bottom pointed upwards? Or do you just literally mean water moving throughout the tank. I ask this because I am currently running the Sicce Syncra 1.0 that moves 251 gph. When I first put the nem in the tank he moved around for hours all over the tank and finally settled on a spot in the back behind some rocks where the flow was much lower, sometimes I will turn the pump off for a few mins to feed and he will stretch his tentacles further to where when the pump comes back on I can see the flow is too much and it waves the long stretched tentacles everywhere and he will shrink back up a bit. So moving forward I'll have the addition of a UV sterilizer and a skimmer, what else do you suggest/ thoughts about power head placements.

Thanks for the help

It’s more water moving around the tank and causing surface agitation. So, yes, you need to have the power head pointed towards the surface, but not at the bottom pointed up. You could put it 1/3 down from the top with a slight upward tilt. Look for the surface to show turbulence. You should have at least 20 times your tank volume for flow.

attiland · Dec 11, 2020

fluffyhobo said:
Do diatoms not eat silicate? Or is there something else they east, I ask because there were more diatoms on the rocks than the sand so it makes me believe they were eating something in the water as well and the bloom happened right after a big water change. Also did not see any kind of other algae, the diatoms were brown and when I used a turkey baster would blow off like dust so pretty positive they were diatoms.

Sorry comma was missing. Yes they do. They eat nitrate but use silicates too to build their body and the way you control them is control silicate.
Some dinos reduce if diatoms present so in that case you dose silicates to increase their numbers which is than kills this type of dinos.
Diatoms use up silicates quickly so there usually no need to do anything to get rid of diatoms. The trouble is if there is constant silicates sources. (E.g.: RODI filter failed)