# Frustrated



## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

Ok so I have had my system up and running for just over 2 years now. I have been through Cyano outbreak forever. Just got that under control. And now I have Brown Algae outbreak. I have had issues with keeping these thing under wraps from day one. I can not put ANY Coral in the system as it will only last about 3 weeks B4 it ALL dies. The strangest thing is that my Parameters are ALL fine. "To my knowledge" 
The Cyano was to say the least, very difficult to deal with. For about a year I had researched and tried SO MANY different solutions and there was only one that actually worked. ( Chemiclean Aquarium Treatment" USE IT! 
Now its Brown Algae that plagues my MD. 
It is ALL over the Rock and sand bed. This is getting very tiresome to have to deal with this for over 2 years and counting.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated as I am ready to throw in the towel on Saltwater aquariums and go back to fresh.

Parameters are:
ca- 360-380
dkh- 7 or 125.3
phos- 0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0
These are the only tests I have.

Main Display is a 75 Gallon FOWLR
Sump is 40 Gallon
Coralife Cone 75 Skimmer
Media Reactor running GFO
JNS Fluidized Internal Biopellet Reactor Omega 1 (Running NPX Bioplastics)
Turbo Twist 9w UV 
HOB Overflow
2 Jebo WP40 Power Heads.
I have Plenty of Flow across the entire system. This is what a lot of people have told me in the past, is that I do not have enough flow. Believe me I DO.

Please Help........


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

what type of lights are you running and for how long?

how much water do you change a week?

what fish do you have in the tank and how many?

how much are you feeding? 

do you have a clear up crew?


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

Like to also know what you are using for your source of water.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

When's the last time that you replaced your RO filters ?


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## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

+1 on all the above. 

Chemiclean might have gotten rid of the cyano, but not the cause of the cyano, which is probably why the 'brown' algae has now taken over.

What sort of sand and rock did you use in the system?


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## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

TBemba said:


> what type of lights are you running and for how long? 2 MarsAqua Dimmable 165W 300W LED On at 2PM Off at 9PM
> 
> how much water do you change a week? 20% Every Week
> 
> ...


 Yes Many Snails, Crabs.


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## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

darkangel66n said:


> Like to also know what you are using for your source of water.


RODI System. Al filters I change very often. TDS Meter on the out side and always reads 0. in is about 125 ppm


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## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

duckhams said:


> +1 on all the above.
> 
> Chemiclean might have gotten rid of the cyano, but not the cause of the cyano, which is probably why the 'brown' algae has now taken over.
> 
> What sort of sand and rock did you use in the system?


Carib Sea
Super Reef Aragonite Sand


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## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

Thats on the high end of a bioload for a 75 gallon, but certainly not a direct cause of your issues. Id look into getting a better skimmer and increase the size of your water changes before anything else. Id also reduce the red/green/white spectrum on your LED's and narrow the photoperiod down while you get the algae under control. Up your calcium a little and check your magnesium. Work on manual removal, turkey bast the rocks as often as you do water changes and things should settle in. You could also try a higher quality food, definitely avoid flake foods completely until the algae is gone. Things don't look too bad, don't lose hope. You're almost there!


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## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

duckhams said:


> Thats on the high end of a bioload for a 75 gallon, but certainly not a direct cause of your issues. Id look into getting a better skimmer and increase the size of your water changes before anything else. Id also reduce the red/green/white spectrum on your LED's and narrow the photoperiod down while you get the algae under control. Up your calcium a little and check your magnesium. Work on manual removal, turkey bast the rocks as often as you do water changes and things should settle in. You could also try a higher quality food, definitely avoid flake foods completely until the algae is gone. Things don't look too bad, don't lose hope. You're almost there!


TY. I will try these suggestions.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

More thoughts and suggestions:
1. Make sure your protein skimmer is working correctly. 
2. Make sure your protein skimmer is large enough. 
3. Decrease lighting. cut lighting down to five hours a day 
4. Stop adding any trace elements or supplements. 
5. Perform regular water changes. Regular water changes will decrease the level of wastes and nutrients in the water. 
6. Make sure makeup water is pure. Algae love the phosphates and nitrates often found in tap water. 
7. Introduce additional herbivores. As mentioned above in the brown diatom algae control section, introduce additional herbivores to control the algae in the tank. Trochus, Astraea and Nerite snails all help to control the algae film.
8.Introduce additional detritivores. If excess food isn't eaten, it will decay and add to the nutrients and waste in the tank. Addition of bristle stars, bristleworms, hermit crabs, Nassarius snails and sea cucumbers will help control the excess food that a reeftank's primary fish don't consume 
9. Introduce macroalgae. 
10. Chemical controls. Poly Filter and carbon can help remove the nutrients that nuisance algae needs. 
11. Controlled addition of food to tank. If the tank inhabitants can handle it, feed small amounts of food every other day or even longer intervals. 
12. Physically remove excess algae. Sometimes, the nuisance algae growth is overwhelming for the herbivores in the reeftank. This is when human hands must physically pull out and scrub the nuisance algae. The herbivores then have a chance to control any new growth.


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## ReefABCs (Nov 10, 2012)

Check your salinity and calibration assuming you are using a refractometer. 

I had similar issues a year ago and its been a long year getting things under control. Don't give up, your not the only one that runs into difficulties.

I started loosing Coral and didn't understand why as things were doing well and all other parameters were in check like yourself.

Then a month later Fish got sick (I added that one fish without QT just before the Christmas holidays because it was cool and I wanted to show it off on the holiday). Most of the fish died and disappeared. Tank broke out in Cynao, I used Red Cyano RX one dose after trying to suck it up weekly for a while. Then the tank got Brown Diatoms. 

The tank was a mess. I decided to check the calibration of the refractometer and found it was reading three points low. 

Water changes, blowing off the brown stuff and trying to suck it up , wet skimming, eventually got rid of it. It took about 4 months or so. I still have a small Cyano issue but its under control and I am doing 3 days black out monthly. 2 treatments so far I think its working. 

Its been a long year bringing things back and I only finished having the tank fallow without fish this Nov. 

The angels can pick on corals as well so look out for that when adding them.


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## CanadaCorals.com (May 12, 2013)

Do you carbon dose? (vodka, sugar, vinegar, no3op-x).

If so, I would stop until the cyano goes away. 

Keep in mind that cyano is a bacteria and adding a carbon source will feed it.


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## vegs (May 6, 2014)

I had a similar problem, in your first post you say you have 0 nitrate/phosphate, probably because the algae is using it to grow. I started to vacuum my sand more and I added an algae scrubber to out compete with the algae in the display, IMO it worked much better than my chaeto. It has made a large difference, algae growth has decreased tremendously.


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## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

Thanx for all the replies. I will consider all of them and see what happens.

Cheers and happy Hollidays.........


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DONT GO BACK TO FRESSSSHHHHHHH

LOL..

hey there .. all advice above is great , what test kits are u using ... saliferts are one of the best and most accurate test kits out there ...

I agree with above stop adding things to solve problem go to basics as stated above and it may be a long road but certainly doable ....
lots of great reefers have chimed in 
there advice is golden


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

turn down the lights and get some real powerheads.

Freshwater guys always make the mistake of thinking "well if it works for freshwater it'll work for saltwater"

That maxijett isn't a powerhead so take it out and replace it with a proper powerhead. This will help with some of the problems. 

The lights....really bright!! Turn em down!


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## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

+1 on all the suggestions so far.

IMO, Bio-pellets + UV Sterilizers don't go well together. One of them increases the amount of bacteria, the other one kills them. But for a start, I would stop both bio-pellets and UV until algae is under control.

I would also recommend a better skimmer. I used to run this skimmer in a 46 gallon with less fish, and it was not enough


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

altcharacter said:


> turn down the lights and get some real powerheads.
> 
> Freshwater guys always make the mistake of thinking "well if it works for freshwater it'll work for saltwater"
> 
> ...


The maxi jet is a three in one convertible pump that is most certainly perfectly suited to saltwater tanks. Thats a mistake too many saltwater people think that if it is used for freshwater it must be crap. A power head is a very poor choice in any tank without a pre filter or something plugged into the intake. A circulation pump is what you want.


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## 2isted (Feb 2, 2012)

altcharacter said:


> turn down the lights and get some real powerheads.
> 
> Freshwater guys always make the mistake of thinking "well if it works for freshwater it'll work for saltwater"
> 
> ...


If you look on the other side, I have a REAL Power Head. MP40. I also have another one for the other side which I was cleaning at the time of the pic. And if you had read my post, my system has been Saltwater for over 2 Years now. Not a "Freshwater Guy" as you say.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Lots of good suggestions above - plenty to digest for your system.

As for flow, while you might have "enough" flow, it's also important to consider how the water is going throughout the tank. While the combined GPH of your powerheads might add up to a fair amount, if there's not a lot going through all the rocks, you're going to get a lot of detritus building up within the rock and behind it in dead flow zones. With your rock arrangement, it's easy to build up a lot of crap if the flow isn't directed well. Also, two powerheads facing each other might actually result in lack of circulation throughout the whole tank, so it's important to consider where the flow is going as well as how much you have. 

Also, I saw the suggestion to cut carbon dosing, but you also have a relatively underpowered skimmer for your system. With carbon dosing, you're trying to actively encourage bacterial growth that will consume NOx and PO4 in your system - but the key piece of equipment to go with this is the ability to them remove the organics/bacterial growth from your system: a strong skimmer. With your skimmer, you might not be pulling enough gunk out of your system, and so all that extra carbon you're putting into the system isn't getting efficiently removed. The result is that your carbon dosing is actually leaving a lot of organic matter in the tank and that's actually exacerbating your algae problem.

If possible, I'd step up your water change regime and also get a stronger skimmer if possible. Also, if you change up your flow and you're getting more of the detritus suspended in the water, you'll be able to skim it out, removing it from the system, leading to cleaner water that way as well.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

Here is a great series from BRS they are walking through the process of setting up a tank and explains everything very well here is carbon, GFO and other media.
But states water changes are the key


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

1) you just think you have enough flow
2) your sump is a dirt storage and phosphate factory
3) this skimmer is not enough for this system

good luck and do not give up

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## jd81 (Dec 16, 2011)

I noticed your fuge only has rocks. I think some cheato will help. You need nutrient export.


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## Jmbret (Nov 6, 2010)

I noticed I could further decrease my nitrate ppm around 10ppm by simply siphoning the dirty water in each chamber of my sump along with the gravel from the display during my water changes. Sig is absolutely correct in saying sumps are nitrate factories. Simply switch off the return and then use your hand or turkey baster to bring all the nasties up into the water column and siphon out!


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Jmbret said:


> . Sig is absolutely correct in saying sumps are nitrate factories.


I did not say " ALL sumps are nitrate factories" 

His sump is nitrate factory. Even when I had LR in my sump, it was always elevated from the bottom, so I can vacuum all dirt from the sump.

In m my humble opinion, we can not store enough chaeto and LR in our sump in order to make any good affect on the chemistry in the tank.
smallest amount of GFO will do much more

this is a 8 months old sump from my previous set up. very easy to clean and no dirt stored

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