New Tank

[Raymond Sassu]

Hi, please could someone assist me I set up a new Red Sea Max 170, with a Deltec 1455 internal skimmer, MP40, 2 stage RO/DI unit and a Halea chiller as it is extremely hot where I live.

I went through the cycling of the tank and my parameters are as follows, ph8.2, KH 9, magnesium 1520, Calcium 450, salinity 1.25, nitrate Red Sea pro test 0 and Phophate 0. I now have a second brown diatom bloom and some long hair brown algae, I am dosing NopoX as well but nothing is helping, I have done a 5% water change twice a week as well.

I don't have a TDS meter however and think that my RO/DI unit is not doing its job properly, 2 weeks ago I got a small piece of live rock with some very small Zoa polyps on it that are growing and seem extremely happy.
Can someone assist me

 

[Raymond Sassu]

 

[tdunmore2]

I really dig that hardscape! I have no clue how that tall piece is held up.
Do you have any snails or any other CUC in there? That will help get rid of most algae, and are also a great addition to a normal ecosystem. When adding a CUC, start small and expand. I see a lot of CUC packs sold with 50+ critters. While this will clean up your tank fast, in a month or so you will also end up starving a large portion of the cirtters, thus adding ammonia and other nasties to the water and possibly creating a bigger issue.

 

[jsker]

Welcome to R2R, I really like the tank and scape

Newer system will have bloom throughout the first year as changes are made. Look at the setup it look like you have a good start, once you start adding CUC (clean up crew) as @tdunmore2 suggested, fish, and corals they will help balance the systems nutrients and the diatom will start fading. A source for diatom to feed on are phosphates and silica. Silica can come from the water that is use and most use RO/DI system to clean there water.

 

[Maritimer]

Hi Raymond, and welcome to Reef2Reef!

Your tank looks great so far, if new. That's OK, because _every_ tank was new - and looked it - at one time!

If your nitrates and phosphates are both zero, then No3-Po4-X isn't going to help too much. It's a carbon source for the bacteria which process nitrates and phosphates - and you haven't got much for them to process!

You could add a cleanup crew, a few hardier corals (already started, I see!) and one or two gentle, mellow fish - and feed them - to bring nutrient up a bit. Nerite snails are pretty fond of diatoms...

Diatoms (the brown algae) consume silica as well as nitrate & phosphate, but when the silica is used up, they'll fade away to be replaced with green film algae and hair algae. All of this is normal in a new system, as Jsker pointed out.

Good luck, and above all ... enjoy!

~Bruce

 

[Raymond Sassu]

I really dig that hardscape! I have no clue how that tall piece is held up.
Do you have any snails or any other CUC in there? That will help get rid of most algae, and are also a great addition to a normal ecosystem. When adding a CUC, start small and expand. I see a lot of CUC packs sold with 50+ critters. While this will clean up your tank fast, in a month or so you will also end up starving a large portion of the cirtters, thus adding ammonia and other nasties to the water and possibly creating a bigger issue.

Well as I suspected my real issue was the RO/DI unit that my local store sold me, I took a sample of the water after the DI as I didn't have a TDS meter, the result was atrocious 268ppm, so they replaced my unit and gave me some medium to place in my sump to remove the silicates as I don't have the patience or the resources to recycle the whole tank from the beginning. I have now added a TDS meter to monitor the in and out and the new unit is working properly. I did a 10% water change as well

I also took all the advice from all you helpful people and bought 1 large turbo snail, 4 small blue legged hermit crabs, two small emerald crabs, another nice piece of live rock with some very pretty zoanthids on it (dipped them before I put them in) one spotted blenny, one smaller lawnmower blenny, 1 small platinum clown and an African flame back pigmy angel. These guys have polished off most of the algae already, now I am really concerned as to how I can feed them I bought some frozen brine shrimp and spirulina as the store didn't have anything else, should I get some algae sheets for the fish and emerald crabs, will the turbo snail manage?

 

[Maritimer]

The turbo may appreciate the nori sheets as well. You can use them in a clip, but might be better off rubber-banding them to a piece of liverock.

~Bruce

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Very nice rock work, I love the vertical look, like someone else said, hard to figure out how you are keeping it in place.

 

[Salty1962]

Welcome to R2R! Love the aquascaping.

 

[flowflezy]

Welcome to the club. Have the same tank as you do. How is the livestock doing?

 

[Raymond Sassu]

Welcome to the club. Have the same tank as you do. How is the livestock doing?

I have had some strange issues mainly with the fish, my spotted blenny murdered my lawnmower blenny I was pretty upset with the store owner for not advising me to not get both, my african flame angel suddenly stopped eating and died, I also got 2 Banghai Cardinals one died as he refused to eat the other one is very happy my Zoas, cleaner shrimps are great my emerald crabs are doing very well and my platinum clown is great as well.
However I found this little critter and no one can identify him either, maybe you can assist