What am I doing wrong?

[Schwartzy]

Yea dosing is because you need minerals and your water changes cannot keep up within the week to two weeks.

So as a new hobbiest and so you don’t kill your motivation with ugly stages and new theories. Just keep it simple, feed your fish and do your water changes and test once to twice a week. This will help you be more in tune with your tank since you’ll be performing water changes.

So stop dosing everything and keep it simple until you actually need to dose. Anyone who tells you that you need to dose in the beginning is 100% wrong

Especially aminos. I've seen sooo many issues caused by this.

We have a lot of sps dominant systems and only things we do are 2 part and weekly water changes.

 

[Double monti 61]

Looks like you should start cleaning the system scraping the algae off the glass and syphon it out during water changes.

 

[Yamaha1634]

Especially aminos. I've seen sooo many issues caused by this.

We have a lot of sps dominant systems and only things we do are 2 part and weekly water changes.

Amino dosing pump is off then!

 

[Double monti 61]

Looks like you should start cleaning the system scraping the algae off the glass and syphon it out during water changes

 

[Yamaha1634]

Looks like you should start cleaning the system scraping the algae off the glass and syphon it out during water changes.

I syphon as much as I can from the sand but it clumps and brings the same up with it so it’s difficult to do. I also clean the rear of the tank and as much of the rock as I can each week and it’s back within a day!

 

[Double monti 61]

Maybe more little life that lives in the rocks and sand will help balance things out those critters that people hate are not always bad.

 

[TokenReefer]

One day you say... My approach would be to clean it all up and then before it gets the way it looks now clean it again and repeat. Unless you're looking for a chemical suggestion, ya just gotta remove it. Things will (should) balance out Good luck!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I know the OP already found one, but a tip for anyone else needing to use a microscope, try contacting a high school; especially if they have a marine science class. You might have to talk directly with the teacher, and may need to agree to do a little show and tell for the class, but that's a win-win in my book

 

[Yamaha1634]

Ideally something that can do 80-100x or more. I've used a cheapo $15 one on amazon before and it did the job (pain in the butt to use though). You just need to figure out what you are battling first so you know how to take action against it.

I've seen dinos a lot, and like I said, it appears similar based on the photos. But it's important to know what it is because battling dinos and algae are two very different approaches.

So I’ve got a microscope that does 25 50 and 100x. Two photos are of 25 and 100, best I could do but not great. If I look for long enough in 100x I can see small round looking objects which appear to move ever so slightly….. any ideas what that is?

 

[Schwartzy]

So I’ve got a microscope that does 25 50 and 100x. Two photos are of 25 and 100, best I could do but not great. If I look for long enough in 100x I can see small round looking objects which appear to move ever so slightly….. any ideas what that is?

That would be dinos.