Its turned into war!

[NewbsReef]

Alright, I've been battling this for a few weeks now. I believe its Cyano and diatom algae and I'm starting to get green hair algae on tops of my rocks. my tanks been up and running since the beginning of June 2016, Bio Cube 29. removed the bio balls and use filter floss, original pump. has LEDs for lighting (blue,white) from Rapid LED. white lights are on 8hrs a day. (on timer) I do weekely water changes 5-8 Gallons using RO DI water with Red Sea salt. after water changes and sand sifting this stuff comes back quick. here are my tank parameters as of yesterday morning 9/22

Ph 8.0 Salinity 1.027 (lowered to 1.026 after testing)
Nitrite 0 ppm Phosphate 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm Magnesium 1600 ppm (I cant get it to lower down any)
Ammonia 0 ppm Calcium 450 ppm
Alkalinity 4.3 Meq/L 12.0 dKH

should I cut the lights off a few days? This picture was taken this morning 9/23

 

[bios]

Too much light also corals be not well

 

[bios]

The rocks at the corner are not god change it with fresh live rocks

 

[NewbsReef]

The rocks at the corner are not god change it with fresh live rocks

Talking about the 2 on the left and the 1 on the right?

 

[bios]

Boths

 

[NewbsReef]

Al

Boths

Alright, I get some new ones next weekend when I go back to the reef store.

 

[bios]

Its important for your tank to have a god quality of rocks thats to have equilibrium and to reduce inquinants so the condition you have now will not give stability to your tank also in the future

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Dont think of it as a battle. Its the natural phase all tanks go through. Its the ugly phase. The building of the bio filter. It will pass. the more you do for the bio the happier you'll be.
Anything you do will be a band aid. Bandaids are a good thing too though. lowering the lights will help a bit on the appearance of the cyano.
@bios the rock look uncured, is that what you mean?

You dont have to change them IMO, me i like that scape. but it does mean the bio will take longer to establish.

its not a battle, its birth.

 

[bios]

Ciao salty
Like his reef but thats 3 rocks no
I will change them:-!:-!
Other is perfect
@saltyfilmfolks Help him with lights

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ciao salty
Like his reef but thats 3 rocks no
I will change them:-!:-!
Other is perfect
@saltyfilmfolks Help him with lights

yea, dont look like aragonite do they. looks like stone.

 

[BlueDevil]

yea, dont look like aragonite do they. looks like stone.

They almost look like dense river rock. They don't appear to be porous at all and will likely add very little to the bio filtration IMHO.

 

[stevo01]

Good call on the rocks @bios

 

[Empress]

Your tank is only 3 months old! Give it time. Don't rush things. So far you're going thru what you're supposed to go thru. Your next step is to get a cuc to eat the GHA. Leave the rocks alone. If you're patient enough the cycling will take care of all your problems in another month or two. Cut back a little on the lights and feeding. Too many water changes at this point might make the cyano worse because every time you change the water you're also removing good bacteria and you don't want to do that. Patience. [emoji225]

 

[NewbsReef]

They are a river rock and I'm going to take them out this weekend when I do a water change. I definitely learned something new today.

 

[Heather w]

Alright, I've been battling this for a few weeks now. I believe its Cyano and diatom algae and I'm starting to get green hair algae on tops of my rocks. my tanks been up and running since the beginning of June 2016, Bio Cube 29. removed the bio balls and use filter floss, original pump. has LEDs for lighting (blue,white) from Rapid LED. white lights are on 8hrs a day. (on timer) I do weekely water changes 5-8 Gallons using RO DI water with Red Sea salt. after water changes and sand sifting this stuff comes back quick. here are my tank parameters as of yesterday morning 9/22

Ph 8.0 Salinity 1.027 (lowered to 1.026 after testing)
Nitrite 0 ppm Phosphate 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm Magnesium 1600 ppm (I cant get it to lower down any)
Ammonia 0 ppm Calcium 450 ppm
Alkalinity 4.3 Meq/L 12.0 dKH

should I cut the lights off a few days? This picture was taken this morning 9/23

There is an article in
There is an article in Coral magazine march/April this year. Look it up. It was very informative. The green hair algae is going to have to be manually scrubbed off with hydrogen peroxide I tried to shortcut it and it just didn't go away.

 

[Empress]

They are a river rock and I'm going to take them out this weekend when I do a water change. I definitely learned something new today.

River Rock???! No wonder. Ya I would throw those in your river and order some nice Pukani rock from BRS.

 

[NewbsReef]

River Rock???! No wonder. Ya I would throw those in your river and order some nice Pukani rock from BRS.

Yeah river rock lol. I had no idea rock would make a difference in the tanks. They'll be tomorrow afternoon. What would be the best approach to getting the coral off that's glued on the right rock?

 

[BlueDevil]

Yeah river rock lol. I had no idea rock would make a difference in the tanks. They'll be tomorrow afternoon. What would be the best approach to getting the coral off that's glued on the right rock?

Your torch coral seems to be on a plug so you should be able to pull it off gently. If it's stuck tight you can take a scalpel and get under the plug to loosen it up.

I can't tell how the other one is mounted but a similar approach should work.

 

[NewbsReef]

Your torch coral seems to be on a plug so you should be able to pull it off gently. If it's stuck tight you can take a scalpel and get under the plug to loosen it up.

I can't tell how the other one is mounted but a similar approach should work.

I'm keeping the torch coal on that rock. It the other one that has me wondering. I need to figure out what my own corals are. I'm bad with remembering that. The "white" isn't on a plug so I assume I'll just have to be careful when trying to separate it.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

you can use river rock in the tank. you need to make sure you have enough live rock first.