How to Prevent the Tank From Looking Yellow?

[Sir Alex]

I had always though that my lights where a bit on the white side... I have a radion in my house since it'll be going on my grandfather's cube, which has been running on the eel tank for the last couple days. They seemed REALLY nice and blue. Today I tested the unit over my reef, and too my great surprise, even at 14k the radion didn't look as blue as mine. At 10k which was surprising blue on the eel tank, it looked fairly yellow on my tank. So I'm thinking it's actually my tank that's white/yellow not the lights. All the rocks started as dry rock 4 months ago and hardly have an corralin. I think I might have some minor diatoms (I've had no algae problems whatsoever), which are making the rocks a little bleehhh. Nitrates > 2 ppm and phosphates are about 0.1.


I'm thinking a few different solutions... All I have for a cuc is a turbo snail and 7 hermit crabs. Maybe it's time for me to actually get a cuc?? And maybe a phosban reactor, since I was thinking about getting one anyway to run carbon..? And something else that would REALLY help the looks of my tank is if I had more corallin!! I put three small corallin covered rocks from the eel tank in there. All the corallin disappeared off those rocks after being in the tank for a couple weeks. Could it have something to do with my magnesium level? With the red sea test kit it reads 1600 ppm+. But it also gets that reading the eel tank which has decent corallin growth.


Help appreciated!

 

[Cheeser]

i think when ur water looks yellow it usually is a sign of high ammonia.
have u checked ur ammonia levels?
i would test for that and do small daily water changes for a few days and then test again for ammonia.

 

[Sir Alex]

i think when ur water looks yellow it usually is a sign of high ammonia.
have u checked ur ammonia levels?
i would test for that and do small daily water changes for a few days and then test again for ammonia.

I've been testing ammonia quite frequently and the tests always come out 0...

 

[parrotchute]

You could always run UV - I do, and my water is crystal clear.

 

[Sir Alex]

You could always run UV - I do, and my water is crystal clear.

Would that be a lot better than carbon?

 

[Sir Alex]

I think it's mostly the rocks. The water isn't perfectly clear but it's not that bad...

 

[valasaraptor]

did you acclimate the coraline covered rocks to the light? if its to much of a change it will bleach....and they yellow look happened to my tank but only lasted about a few wks and went away...i assumed a small
algae bloom

 

[parrotchute]

UV is waaaay more effective than carbon. It has it's pros and cons. It eliminates algae spores very effectively, which is the main reason the water looks cleared. But it also can eliminate other positive free floating things. Like carbon, however, if can conceal the actual root of the problem, like no/pho excess...it's good as a water "polisher" but not to reduce nutrients.

 

[snyderju]

UV is waaaay more effective than carbon. It has it's pros and cons. It eliminates algae spores very effectively, which is the main reason the water looks cleared. But it also can eliminate other positive free floating things. Like carbon, however, if can conceal the actual root of the problem, like no/pho excess...it's good as a water "polisher" but not to reduce nutrients.

+1 I just started using one as a preventative measure. I like it and it hasn't been in my system for long. I run a UV sterilizer, Protein skimmer, HOB fuge with chaeto, live sand and live rock, and a HOB filter with carbon and phosphate reducer. I admit it is a bit overkill but II test virtually 0 for nitrates and phosphates in my water. It is a lot of stuff hanging on my 29 gallon since I don't have a sump but it seems to keep the water nice. In my short experience with the UV sterilizer they work very well especially if it is more as a preventative measure.