Hello, my name is Nicolae ,i am from Romania, and i want to present my tank.
I started the tank in february 2009 with 5 kg of live rock, now is 10kg.

Tank:40 gallons
Sump:12 gallons
Light: metal halide lamp(150watts,10000k, and 2x24W T5-14000K)
Cooling: Hailea Chiller 150 A
Wave makers: 2x3000 SUN-SUN
Filtration:at first i had a small skimmer( Boyu, with a 120 liters pe hour), and now i use a Bubble Manus NAC5A, with 2500 liters per hours.
The recirculation pump is a Eheim 1000 liters/ hours

This is the start.




After a month



I added the cleanig crew: 1 diadema setosum, 2 hermit crabs, 2 turbo snail










After 2 months





June 2009








And today



I have diatom algae, and i dont have any ideea why

test:

nh4=0
no2=0
no3=10mg/l
ph=8,3
kh=10
temp=26
salinity= 1024
po4=0

to nano-reef.com

Did something die?

Just a few aiptasia, with Joe Juice.

Also, are you using filtered water? Distilled or RO/DI (reverse-osmosis/deionized) water are two good choices. That will help remove some nutrients that are feeding the diatoms. Also, you may check if the light bulb needs to be replaced.

your tap water may have silicates, in that case the diatoms will starve out. (usually)

I use RO water, and i change weekly about 10 gallons.

How to check if the bulb need to be replaced? The bulb have 8 months old...

Your tank has gone quite a long way. It looks nice.

I don't understad what did you say, could you be more explicit?
Thanks.


I

Today tests:
No2=0
No3=under 5mg/l
Po4=0
Ph=8,3
Kh=10
Ca=325mg/l
Mg=1000mg/l
Salinity=1024
Temp=26,6 Celsius

Today i started calcium addition and magnezium.
The algae is still resisting and develops fast.
Also i;ve been adding in the tank: live phytoplankton, strontium,iodine, Color elements( oligoelements from OCEAN LIVE) and bacteries( Biodegrader from AQUARIUM SYSTEM).

I hope i gave you enough informations so you can help me with some advices. Thanks.

The diatoms are still here.

It went from being a small pile of rocks to the nice reef setup you have minus the algae and i noticed significant growth in your sessile invertebrates

Any ideea? thanks.

i don't see any sessile invertebrates..

I think if a blackout time period will help..........

No help the blackout light.

I know some people advise switching out bulbs every 9-12 months. Apparently as the bulb ages the light spectrum changes. Waiting too long to replace your bulb could harm corals, because they are not getting the proper spectrum of light. I plan to change mine (Metal Halide and Actinics) once a year.

Also, I like what you did in your sump. It looks like you have your drainage hose going directly into a bottle of chemipure? Explain that to me.

This is a picture taken today. Now I only use a filter bag for diatoms, and in the other compartiment i had live rock but i moved it in the tank.The bulb was replaced last week.