The Cause of my problems?

[Oldreefer44]

8 times a day is a lot of food. I have 18 fish and feed 1 to 2 times a day and they are all healthy.

 

[MSB123]

8 times a day is a lot of food. I have 18 fish and feed 1 to 2 times a day and they are all healthy.

Its the clownfish. They need to be fed very often otherwise they get agressive with each other.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yeah- that picture is about 2 months old (I just couldn’t find any good ones from recently)
I suspect that is because for a while I didn’t do water changes very often and didn’t dose at all. (I have started dosing two part in the last few months)

I didn’t dose or do regular wc for years and had thick purple corraline.
Stupid high numbers when I remembered to test. Natural sea water too. So the alk was about 7.

Isn’t have to agree though. That seems like a lot of food and bioload. Lots of Ammona being produced.

I’d have to go with not enough biodiversity including corraline coral macros etc to keep up.
Odd that the auto wc isn’t making a dent.

I suppose you could try pro and pre biotic treatments. Dump bottles of dr tims in there and a tiny amount of vinegar or vitamin c.

What’s the return rate on the system?

Do you run a fuge or algae scrubber ?

 

[marlinmon]

The room that my tank is in has windows all along the top of the left wall. They never get direct sun, but I suspect that they get very powerful indirect sunlight 6-8 hours a day. Could this be the root of my issues?
It could be, and if not the root, at least a contributor. You say you have hairy algae issues as well bur a lawnmower Blenny takes care of that. That suggests to me that you have issues with nitrates, phosphates and possibly even ammonia, but they don't show up in parameter tests because the algae and diatoms have already taken them out of the water.

Would adding curtains help?
It could. I'd use ones that REALLY block the light. You could also try dark tint on the windows. My tank is along a north wall (no direct sunlight) with 3 big sliding doors. They are tinted, but no curtains and I have very little algae or diatom issues.

Hopefully others will add their ideas and thoughts.

Good luck.

I'm a +1 on the ammonia. I'm dealing with similar issues right now and I believe the root cause is ammonia, albeit undetectable levels. I had an old filter on my skimmer that could have been a contributor and I haven't cleaned my chaeto reactor in some time. I also think I'm going to add more live rock to the sump area to help.

 

[Brew12]

How long is your peak photo period for your DT lights?

 

[cmcimino]

I was in the same boat as you. Back glass covered in hair algae, had to clean my front glass daily, some cyano on the rocks, etc. My parameters seemed fine, but my corals were lacking color. I changed a multitude of things so I can't pin point what it was.

First I started on improving my aquarium husbandry. I made a note to do a water change once a week. Just 5 gallons on an 80 gallon system, so like 6% per week. I change my filter socks every 4 days, before I was letting them sit in there for 2 weeks at a time. Added a nice CUC to my tank, 2 turbos, 10 trochus, 10 ceriths, 10 nassarius, 4 emerald crabs, and 1 peppermint shrimp. I also started dosing amino acids. I have notice a huge change since starting this 1 month ago. My overflow is no longer covered in hair algae, coralline algae is taking off, corals have really colored up and no longer look translucent, etc. I can't say it is one thing or the other, but I think a nice maintenance schedule really helps your tank. The extra time you spend on your tank also really makes you appreciate it more. I use my apex to set reminders so I know when to dose what, when to change water, when to change filter socks, etc. My tank is around 8 months old, so it may just be getting over the beginners hump, but I would like to think that my increase in success is coming from my increase in care and maintenance.

 

[MSB123]

I didn’t dose or do regular wc for years and had thick purple corraline.
Stupid high numbers when I remembered to test. Natural sea water too. So the alk was about 7.

Isn’t have to agree though. That seems like a lot of food and bioload. Lots of Ammona being produced.

I’d have to go with not enough biodiversity including corraline coral macros etc to keep up.
Odd that the auto wc isn’t making a dent.

I suppose you could try pro and pre biotic treatments. Dump bottles of dr tims in there and a tiny amount of vinegar or vitamin c.

What’s the return rate on the system?

Do you run a fuge or algae scrubber ?

Yes. Fuge. No scrubber. How much dr Tim’s and where should I get it?

How long is your peak photo period for your DT lights?

Noon to 6

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes. Fuge. No scrubber. How much dr Tim’s and where should I get it?


Noon to 6

Amazon. Tims website or BRS.
May as well put it all in really.

What’s the return rate?

 

[MSB123]

Amazon. Tims website or BRS.
May as well put it all in really.

What’s the return rate?

2000 GPH(COR20)
But flow meter shows 1475 pretty constantly

 

[Brew12]

Noon to 6

I would consider cutting this back to 4 hours. Well, cut it back to 5 and then to 4 after a week or two. Especially with that much indirect sunlight you may be putting more energy into the tank than your coral needs but which faster growing algae can take advantage of.

 

[MSB123]

Do you have any pics of what it looks like right after you do the glass, 6 hours after, 2 days after? I had a similar question last night about the tank receiving sunlight outside of the tanks lights photoperiod and it’s effect on corals.

Green is just cleaned
Yellow is 6 hours
Red is 2 days (36 hours)

 

[MSB123]

Green is just cleaned
Yellow is 6 hours
Red is 2 days (36 hours)

Yellow is 6 hours
Green is just cleaned

 

[vetteguy53081]

At or near a window does not help as strong UV will reach the tank, not to mention the thermal effect from winter cold and summer heat from windows.
It is typical to get a film on the glass and it is due in part to bacteria, lighting strength, feeding frozen foods and Not straining the liquid, and overfeeding. Lack of skim and filtration as well as inadequate water flow are contributors.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Green is just cleaned
Yellow is 6 hours
Red is 2 days (36 hours)

Good illustration. My main tank is every 2-3 days and smaller drop off tank, every 2 days.

 

[Hemmdog]

Oh I see. Yea I get that film to, it takes mine about 5 days though to look like your 2 day. Do you have trochus snails?

Yellow is 6 hours
Green is just cleaned

 

[Urbanknight]

I'll share my "DUH" moment with you. I had the same issue. I could clean the glass and 4-6 hours later, I had to clean it again. My WAV pumps would also get covered with what looked like a heavy film of brown colored dust. This went on for about 10 days before I figured out the cause. Ten days earlier, I installed a kalk reactor because I was having problems keeping my PH at prescribed levels. Well, dumb me checked my params daily EXCEPT ALK! It had gone from 9.0 to 16.9! It took five days of partial water changes to get it back down (slowly). My glass cleared up and the dust on my WAV pumps went away. You can bet I won't make that mistake again! As I stated earlier...DUH!

 

[Alexreefer]

I'll share my "DUH" moment with you. I had the same issue. I could clean the glass and 4-6 hours later, I had to clean it again. My WAV pumps would also get covered with what looked like a heavy film of brown colored dust. This went on for about 10 days before I figured out the cause. Ten days earlier, I installed a kalk reactor because I was having problems keeping my PH at prescribed levels. Well, dumb me checked my params daily EXCEPT ALK! It had gone from 9.0 to 16.9! It took five days of partial water changes to get it back down (slowly). My glass cleared up and the dust on my WAV pumps went away. You can bet I won't make that mistake again! As I stated earlier...DUH!

You're saying you alk was high and that fixed it. Interesting. I have had high dkh and I'm slowly bringing it down. Wonder if this will work for me too

 

[Urbanknight]

You're saying you alk was high and that fixed it. Interesting. I have had high dkh and I'm slowly bringing it down. Wonder if this will work for me too

Yep. That's the only change I made to the system and it cleared it up.

 

[Marie7]

I must agree

The room that my tank is in has windows all along the top of the left wall. They never get direct sun, but I suspect that they get very powerful indirect sunlight 6-8 hours a day. Could this be the root of my issues?
It could be, and if not the root, at least a contributor. You say you have hairy algae issues as well bur a lawnmower Blenny takes care of that. That suggests to me that you have issues with nitrates, phosphates and possibly even ammonia, but they don't show up in parameter tests because the algae and diatoms have already taken them out of the water.

Would adding curtains help?
It could. I'd use ones that REALLY block the light. You could also try dark tint on the windows. My tank is along a north wall (no direct sunlight) with 3 big sliding doors. They are tinted, but no curtains and I have very little algae or diatom issues.

Hopefully others will add their ideas and thoughts.

Good luck.

With u on the phos and nitrates I have the same issue and my tank a 92 gallons are in my main family room but does not get direct sun light neither is close to a windows it's in a corner as the tank is a corner one but I do have issues with phos and nitrates