Emergency... Pls Help!!!

[playstation2]

Hi Bros & Sis,

I had some problems with my tank but I cannot really figure out whats wrong.

Presently, there's tis DIATOMS outbreak in my 3ft main tank & almost 3/4 of the sand is BROWN. Last week I change the water & top up with 2 pails of NSW but after 2 days the sand bed starts to turn brown again. Not only my sand! even my LR also turn brown & alot of bubbles can be seen on some of the LR. My corals & fishes are healthy, juz now I even saw one portion of my suncoral's tissue started to grow back after it melt off last week.

Advise from bros here is to get some TURBO Snails but ALAS, dun know why they cannot survive more than 1 week??? not sure why like tat.

I bot a Fluid reactor & put ROWAPhos in it but the main tank condition did not improve!!

I suspect that there is something wrong my sump tank connection but couldn't figure out whats the problem

Heres the connection :-

pump 1,2500lph to chiller, CL300 - chiller to FR, FBF-1000 - FR back to sump - pump 2, 3200lph to main tank.

Note : pump 1 & 2 are in the last compartment of the sump tank & the water from FR will also go back to the last compartment of my Sump tank.

I also connect a controller to control my FR flow becos the ROWAPHOS will float up to the top of the FR if I don't do that.

I hope bro & sis here can help me & advise me where has it gone wrong.

Thanks.............

[KennethK]

Add pumps into the main tank. From wat u mention like do not have pumps in ur main tank other then the return. If sandbed i usually add a white goby.

[Achilles Tang]

Sandgobies do nothing for diatoms. They need a matured sandbed with enough microlife on them.

Can you pls tell us how old is your tank? I'm assuming its new?

Your NSW probably has lots of pollutants in them eg fertilizer runoffs. It's the rainy season now, local NSW is not recommended as it is high in nutrients, poor in calcium and KH, low in salinity.

This is contributing to your outbreak of diatoms and cyanobacteria.

[augustine]

Hi

Keep cool....don't panic.....

Let me share my experience on this issue.

Its seems like this is something common to all new setups (<1yr) using NSW. I'm also using NSW for years already.

This has happened to me on all my new setups, (not a lot la, so far 6 only), usually on its 6th to 8th month.

But as in all cases, no serious damage is done. The surge in diatom growth will subside after a month or so and all will be back to normal. It'll all disappear by itself, just like the way it appeared.

In the mean time, do water change more regularly.

The good news is..... It doesn't comes back and haunt you again and your sand bed will be as white as ever.

Take care and be patient.

[FuEl]

Don't get too worried as diatoms are not really harmful to fish. They might get harmful to corals if they can grow enough to actually prevent the coral from expanding normally. If it's only a light growth it might actually be good as it will support a healthy copepod population.

If you really can't stand the look of diatoms, top off your water with distilled/deionised/reverse osmosis water. One of the major fuels needed for diatom growth is silicates, which is apparently present in water taken straight from the tap. Eliminate silicate introduction and your diatoms should die off.

As why your snails die before a week is up, I presume it's due to the lack of acclimatization to salinity. It's one of the major contributing factors to premature snail death.

[playstation2]

Hi Bro & Sis,

My tank is abt 1yr & 4mths old.

I dun usually get NSW to top up my tank, I usually use NSW when I suspect there's something wrong.

In my tank, I had a SEIO 820.

I had taken some pics of the tank which may help u guys better to advise me.

By the way, can any of you guys advise me the proper sump tank connections ( Pump, chiller, FR etc )?.

By the way, thanks to those bros & sis who had post their advise.

I really cannot tahan how my tank looks!

[playstation2]

Another side of the sand bed in my tank.

[playstation2]

My full tank view.

[bluewind79]

Heres the connection :-

pump 1,2500lph to chiller, CL300 - chiller to FR, FBF-1000 - FR back to sump - pump 2, 3200lph to main tank.

Note : pump 1 & 2 are in the last compartment of the sump tank & the water from FR will also go back to the last compartment of my Sump tank.

I also connect a controller to control my FR flow becos the ROWAPHOS will float up to the top of the FR if I don't do that.

IMO, try to place ur pump 1 in the 2nd compartment & the return of the FR to the last compartment.

Might be ur pump 1 to strong & caused the rowaphos to float up in the FR, perhaps u can try a lower rating pump instead of a control valve? I've a similar setup as urs but 2000l/hr pump at 2nd compartment > CL-280 > FBF-1000(1/4 full of purephos) return to last compartment.

Hope it helps

[shoelevy]

hm...what did you do at the time just before the very first initial outbreak started?

[lightbolt75]

Get a black sea cuke. They will get ur sand super clean in no time at all.

[patrick123]

Your tank will not be flourish with nuisance algae if you don't have high nitrate, phosphate and silicate. If you get rid of these elements, the algae will be gone in no time. So try to fix the rootcause instead of buying more gobie or cuke as they will not eliminate the rootcause and possibly make it worse in the long run.

For rowaphos, it only get rid of phosphat and silicate. What you use to top up also makes a big difference as tap water contains a lot of silicate. For Nitrate, you need to have DSB, macroalgae, or de-nitrator. The only way to know what is your problem is to test the water with test kit.

[huanjie]

it might be part of the cycling process...

many approached you can take to adjust, just don't do anything too drastic as for every actions , there often other effects which might be undesirable.

black Seacuke can definately help to turn the topl ayer of the sand overs...

diatoms eating tangs might helps

increase flow, and skimmer capacity.

Reducing the light cycle

whichever fits you, try it