THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!

[Dj City]

Ok. I'm going to try to address everything asked

Sand...
Caribsea arag-alive argonite sand (5 years ago)
Rock...
Various rocks (check my pic)
The following is from icp test (ATI) and is broken down like this...
1st number is my test result.
2nd number is natural sea water value.
3rd number is the difference between my level and natural sea water followed by a
Green check mark for good level
Straight down red arrow for low level
Angled orange arrow for slightly low.

Silicates...
Silicon ...189.5 µg/l ...90.44 µg/l ....+99.06 µg/l

Nitrates and phosphates...
Nitrate ...8.98 mg/l...2.00 mg/l .....+6.98 mg/l

Phosphorus ...2.69 µg/l ....7.24 µg/l ..4.54 µg/l

Phosphate ..0.01 mg/l ...0.02 mg/l ..-0.01 mg/l

Water flow...
Maxspect gyre fx250, jeabo crossflow, 2 jebao wavemakers, 1 vortex mp10 and a jebao dcp 10000 return pump.

I dose Triton core7 with a fuge full of cheato.
My carbon block is good as well as my sediment filter, ro membrane and di resin.
I have various snails and crabs in addition to my extremely large turbo.

I've had sand sifting starfish in the past. They did not help and eventually died somewhere under the sand.

 

[johnthehermit]

I have some diatoms and an icp test on my RODI showed quite high levels of silicon. A company over here in the UK sells a silicon removing resin that is installed after the DI pod and lasts for a long time. My diatoms are receding slowly since adding one.
https://www.osmotics.co.uk/products/Silicate-Specific-Contaminant-Filter.html

 

[Hockeypunk1]

First thing I would do is get positive ID to know for sure what you're fighting. Diatoms are very easy to ID under microscope.
I had something very similar (chrysophytes) on my sand that finally went away. I replaced all my rodi cartridges and got a pressure pump for my rodi system. I also dosed nitrate and po4 to have testable results. This all led to cyano outbreak then I dosed chemiclean and now my sand sparkles.
Good luck. I know how bad it sucks to look at your aquarium and have the sand look terrible

 

[Flippers4pups]

It looks to me to be diatoms. Most likely you source water has high silicates. Diatoms are fueled by them. The Icp results show that you have high silicates.

When was the last time you changed your RO/DI cartridges? How long does your DI last and what is your incoming TDS?

See if you can obtain a local water company water report and see if it shows elevated silicates.

 

[Dj City]

Silicates..... Value N.S.W. Value Variance Good/Bad
Silicon ...189.5 µg/l .........90.44 µg/l .............+99.06 µg/l..............

This is high silicates?

I might have to dose nitrate and po4 cause my levels are low according to the test.
Could this help fuel diatoms?

I have taken Rox8 carbon offline and replaced with Purigen. I don't think i'm ever going back to carbon. The only thing carbon does that purigen does not is remove heavy metals and I don't have that problem so I might as well use the more effective product (purigen). It can be recharged, you can SEE when it's exhausted, it does a much better job of filtering the water and lasts much longer.
I cleaned out my sump which was not in bad shape but since I was down there I figures...what the heck. Might as well.
I added seachem pristine and turned the skimmer off overnight.
I will be doing Dr. Tim's Re-Fresh and Waste-Away once they arrive.

If this does not work, I will probably try Vibrant.

I'm going to get reinforcements for my CUC too.

If I buy a cheapo microscope and look at this stuff, I still would not know what i'm looking at. Besides, How would I get it for examination since it disappears as soon as it's touched?

 

[RudyB]

By the way Bullet Goby's are far better at cleaning sand than Dimond Goby's. By the way just get one. They are very efficient and run out of food really fast. Mine now eats when I feed the tank as well not just from the sand. Just make sure that your protein skimmer is working good. At first it will kick into over drive from all the stuff theat it stirs from the sand. It will stir a lot of stuff from your sand and make your tank look cloudy for a few days. The only down side is that you will need to blow the sand from corals and rock every so often. Trust me, my problem went away in under a week and has never come back. My 150 gal with my one bullet goby has been running now for more than 3 years. Good Luck.

 

[BigJim]

I had a similar issue and similar silica levels on my ICP test. The mixed resin DI cartidges most of us use lose the ability to remove silica quickly and silica does register on a TDI meter. I added a second DI canister and use the Spectrapure Silica Buster cartridge linked below. I am using their Maxcap cartridge in the first DI canister. It took several water changes, but eventually the diatoms went away.

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/h...ca-buster-di-filter-cartridge-10-spectrapure/

 

[timnem70]

Me too, and once in a while, I will get a bacterial bloom(cloudy water) but it only lasts a day or two at most until bio filter can adjust amd only after feeding (dirtier foods like clams on half shell or similar) and other than cleaning glass every few days no other algel issues. Looks like you're getting there. Time, leaving tank alone and a smart, frequent, non invasive husbandry schedule will be all you can do. Don't add a bunch of stuff, just leave the Biology to run it's course.
Best of Luck and happy reefing. Keep us posted please.

Looks like you're doing everything you should, although if you're running a macro in the fuge I'd probably try to wean off the GFO. I run Chaeto and a good skimmer (no GFO or carbon dosing) and feed a lot and actually dose both Nitrates and Phosphate in my ATO water so they are fed continuously to the tank to keep the levels off the floor. If I didn't, the fuge just sucks them up.

I've heard doing a thorough remove and wash of the gravel is supposed to help keep the cruds off.

I have a few fighting Conchs to keep the gravel turned as well.

 

[pdisner]

Get some copepods. They love them!! Hey ahold of me. I have a ton.

 

[Servillius]

You have to account for the GFO you’re using which removes silicates rather effectively. In my tank my silicates are only a bit lower than yours, but I am not removing any with GFO and diatoms are not slurping them up. The fact that your number is higher than mine even though it is being exported heavily is what’s indicative of the problem.

Your argalive is fine, though I’d bet it’s got some waste nutrients trapped.

After looking carefully at the pic it appears you have some artificial rock in there. I’d give it at least a chance some or all of those are leeching way too much of the stuff into the water. If you can remove the artificial rock and replace it with dry rock that’s been soaked in fresh water for a few weeks (change the water every two or three days), I bet you’ll start seeing an improvement.

I also think more GFO may prove useful. You’re not seeing signs of coral starvation because while your level is low, I suspect it’s low because the GFO gets some, your rock and sand gets some and your diatoms get the rest. Your equilibrium point is low but your available nutrients are still high.

 

[Rick Krejci]

The difference in answers here really shows the diversity in our tanks!

You're nitrates are fine to a little high, indicating your chaeto growth may be phosphate limited. If they are in balance, then they should both be lowish. I aim to keep nitrates in the 2-4 range and phosphates in the 0.02-0.05 range. Stopping GFO for a while and measuring the effect could be useful.

Do you have a good grow light on the fuge? I had the Kessil H380, which was overkill for my reefer 250, and just picked up the H160, which is great. Just that and skimming takes care of my nutrients.

Bactria boost could be helpful. The more boidiversity the better to enhance the natural processes which compete with the simpler forms that are more durable and able to survive.

 

[Dj City]

I have a pretty good light over my fuge. I'm using the growstar UFO 150w.

Something is out of balance and o plan to find out.
Cheeto growth is usually good but takes dips from time to time.
I'm hoping that taking the GFO offline along with the Dr. Tim's helps.
My nitrates are just a hair high but well within acceptable levels.
Phosphate is low.
Hopefully I can get it all worked out.
I'm sure trying to!

 

[Cory]

Its silicate. Its coming from your rodi most likely and is being consumed fast enough to be low icp test.

That it grows on rock suggests its not coming from the sand but has more nutrients from the sand so it grows thicker there as opposed to the rocks.

That it grows on rock and sand suggests its in the water colum.thus:

It can only come from either ro unit or the food. Id get some sponges in there they will outcompete the diatoms. Or ise spectrapures silicabuster.

 

[BigJim]

I had a similar issue and similar silica levels on my ICP test. The mixed resin DI cartidges most of us use lose the ability to remove silica quickly and silica does register on a TDI meter. I added a second DI canister and use the Spectrapure Silica Buster cartridge linked below. I am using their Maxcap cartridge in the first DI canister. It took several water changes, but eventually the diatoms went away.

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/h...ca-buster-di-filter-cartridge-10-spectrapure/

I just realized I made a typo. I intended to say that silica does not measure on a TDS meter.

 

[ajm83]

Looking at the left side of the pic in your post, does it look like this close up?

If so it might be the same as what I had here.
Numerous people identified it in person and online as diatoms and cyano. Microscope revealed the truth - dinoflagellates.

Note: no bubbles!

 

[Servillius]

Looking at the left side of the pic in your post, does it look like this close up?

If so it might be the same as what I had here.
Numerous people identified it in person and online as diatoms and cyano. Microscope revealed the truth - dinoflagellates.

Note: no bubbles!

Unless you put it under a microscope you can’t be sure. I didn’t believe that for the longest time and just got frustrated. Then I got a microscope for $20 on Amazon and saved myself a lot of annoyance.

 

[Quinnchero]

Unless you put it under a microscope you can’t be sure. I didn’t believe that for the longest time and just got frustrated. Then I got a microscope for $20 on Amazon and saved myself a lot of annoyance.

What magnification are you using with a $20 microscope to see dinos vs diatoms? I only ask because I just purchased one for same price and was concerned it would be too weak to really see that small.

 

[chinw76]

I had dinos on my sand bed and I thought they were diatoms. I was running gfo and biopellets. I made my tank too clean. My phosphates went to 0 using hanna ultra low checker. My nitrates were at 1-3 pmm. I rarely had to clean my glass. That being said, there is a thread for what is called the dirty method, it has worked so far for me. You want to add phosphate and nitrate to your tank. You do this because when phosphate or nitrate or both hit zero or close to zero, the dino goes into survival mode and will then consume bacteria for their nitrogen source. Bacteria holds nitrates inside them. You want to dose phophates to .1pmm and nitrates to 5-10 pmm. Buy doing this you will start to have more biodiversity in your tank to out compete the dinos. By running a low nutrient system, you kill off the biodiversity that keeps dinos in check. I would not worry about cyano for now, when the dinos die off and there is no cyano, then cyano will appear as the dinos go away because of the higher nutrients. Also by having higher nutrients you are welcoming other algae to grow in the system to out competed the dinos. You can not starve out the dinos like you can with other algae. Keep dosing both nitrate and phosphate daily until you can maintain the levels of nutrients I said above. Use a UV sterilizer on your tank also, any dinos that go into the water will then die off from the UV. Once the dino is gone, then dose chemi clean to your tank to kill off the cyano bacteria. Do not add any supplement to your tank, no water change until dinos are killed off, and also no carbon dosing. Dino need carbon too, and will compete for carbon. Once the dinos are dead, and you treated for cyano bacteria, then do a 20% water change and turn on your skimmer. Also, do not add snails or any CUC until they dinos are gone. If they eat the dinos, they will die. This method has worked so far for me. I have now taken my biopellets off line, and will not use gfo again. If you dose bacteria to the tank, you don't want any bacteria to have a source of carbon, the carbon will feed the dinos.

Here is the thread about the dirty method that has worked for myself.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

[ajm83]

What magnification are you using with a $20 microscope to see dinos vs diatoms? I only ask because I just purchased one for same price and was concerned it would be too weak to really see that small.

Mine has 100, 400 1200x, cost me about £20

 

[Nicolo]

I had the same problem,tried every thing recommended by lfs, then just by accident I purchased some Dubla Marin Siliphos but it in a sock and put it in sump and also dosed Dunlap Marin Spurenelementemix , as it was going out cheap at lfs and in no time it was gone, worked a treat