the cause of my diatoms...

[bwaller76]

Ok wasnt sure where to put this thread so I thought in the new to reefing would be a good choice. So at the beginning of my saltwater tank hobby I had a 20 gallon tank while I got my other tank set up. I decided to get some lace rock as a cheap alternative to buying live rock! These pieces were fabulous and looked sooo good in the tank. In the 20, the rocks were quite well, I did large water changes and had a bloom that was always there but my two snails and algae grazers kept up on it very easily.

The next part is where everything went awry. I got my 55 gallon tank setup and cycled it and everything was stable. So I then decided to tear the 20 gallon down and use the lace rocks in my 55. This was quite possibly the worst error of my saltwater career! Soon after doing this my tank turned so brown I almost quit the hobby. Nothing I tried would remedy this problem...new sand...lights out with garbage bag cover, five snails... So finally me and the wife sat down and brainstormed about what could be the cause then it struck us.

The one variable that I had not changed was the lace rock. We decided to try taking it out and seeing what happened. Needless to say my tank went from dark dark brown to the picture below. This saved me from quitting the hobby and now everyone oogles at my tank when they come over. (I even have a bucket so that ppl can just sit and watch it). So word to the newbies, dont make the mistake of skimping.

 

[Wes888]

Very nice! Looking very nice now.

If you need more rocks, get those dry rocks. Lot cheaper.

 

[yote]

You may have some rock that had a high silicate content.
But however bad it was before.It sure looks great now.:D

 

[bwaller76]

Oh it was that lace rock for sure... Immediate clear up... Polyps sprouting new heads already! And yeah I used a lot of the dry rock my local fish guy sells it for 75cents a pound

 

[saltywaters]

If I continue to use lace rock. In time will the amonia deplete, and with water changes weekly will I be able to continue to keep this rock in here. I have a bout 55 pounds of rock in my aquarium. Rock was completly dry and white with no life when I bought it.

 

[Dakwan]

forgive me if i'm wrong but i believe lace rock is volcanic rock? which I believe can cause phosphate issues and other problems with minerals leaching out into the tank.

What you have sounds like base rock which is limestone which is perfect for use in a saltwater aquarium

 

[saltywaters]

I am having a lot of green hazing on the glass, alot of brown dust building up in the sump. what can i do to remove this. is it the rock that is causing it.

 

[Dakwan]

how old is your tank?

You'll always have algae build up on your glass so you'll simply need to clean it with something like a magfloat. You can help reduce this by growing some form of macro algae like cheato in your sump

 

[Dakwan]

several members of this site swear by algae scrubbers as well

 

[saltywaters]

10 months, I have some in macro in there, Handfull or so, no light on it though. Rocks are turning green, with purple dots all over it. I know that is probably corraline, but the green is that corraline as well? Purple up was constantly used, what about the dust in the sump, anyway to keep that from happening. have not done a water change in a few weeks.

 

[Dakwan]

Buy a cheap clip on light from home hardware and run it on the opposite time of day to your main lights in your sump. Letting that algae grow will pull nutrients out of the water which should help cut down on algae in your DT. Do you use RO/DI water? How many fish do you have? What kind of food do you feed?

I'm not sure what the "dust" is coming from? is it covering sand/rock in your sump? It may be diatoms but if you arn't getting any diatoms in your DT then i'm not too sure. I would suck out as much as you can during your next water change. Is it detritus settling in the sump? do you have a protein skimmer in your sump? how fast and turbulent is the flow? maybe try a filter sock on the intake to the sump .

 

[saltywaters]

could my dying open brain coral be causing amonia and nitrite and phosphate spikes?
If so should I remove it

 

[bwaller76]

if the color of your rocks is a neon green color... it would most likely be corraline algae and will eventually turn purple

 

[Dakwan]

What you should really do is test your water and then you'll know. There is a reason why your brain coral is dying in the first place and testing your water will help determine that.

 

[saltywaters]

here is some more info on my aquarium.
55 gallon
Do/Ri water
Started with tap water. (I know this will really take time to pull out all with water changes)
55-60 pounds of rock
2 clowns
1 kole tang
1 peppermint shrimp
1 emerald crab
1 sand sifter
1 small sun coral
1 small purple gorgonia
1 dead torch coral 2 head
1 dying small open brain coral
2 small frags.
skimmer
phosphate reactor
bio balls
1 power head
1 overflow box

 

[Dakwan]

How often do you clean out the bioballs? they can trap detritus and cause nitrate spikes. you should do a test for nitrates

 

[saltywaters]

never have cleaned them.

 

[bwaller76]

you should clean them but slowly... take a few out at a time otherwise you could do some real damage

 

[saltywaters]

when you say slowly. can you explain this process. I dont want to mess anything up.

 

[BL1]

Do you have a test kit? If so post your waters parameters, if nit you need to get one so you can know what your water is like. Also, definitely remove the bioballs (slowly) they can definitely lead to high nitrates which are not good for hard corals. Next, you should be doing water changes every 1-2 weeks especially on a newer tank. What size powerhead do you have running? And finally, you need to find out what kind of rocks you have in your tank because if it is lava rock it could leach metals and other minerals into your water which could kill the livestock in your tank over time.