Damaba's 17 Gallon Journal

[damaba]

I'm sorry, didn't realize you tried a blackout already. It might need to be a complete blackout though, as in tank covered and everything. Most likely though there are others here who can offer a much better insight. Hopefully you get this taken care of soon - best of luck!

 

Thanks Hinnenkm, Tonight I'll be wrapping the tank in black plastic and doing a complete blackout till sat morning almost 4 days. Im also going to raise my PH to 8.5 with soda ash. I think that this is dinoflagulates.

[damaba]

Tank update,

So after a 72 hour black out and raising the PH to 8.5 this is how the tank looks. I'v given the rocks another light scrubbing with a toothbrush and set my lighting to 1/2 intensity and for 7 hours, also I'm continuing to dose micro7 . I'm pleased but still dreading that nasty stuff coming back.

 

 

 

Tank Stats

Ph: 8.0
Temperature: 78°
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm

Phosphate: 0 ppm

Calcium: 400 ppm

KH: 161.1 ppm

Maintenance:

1 gallons added to ATO reservoir

Brushed rocks

​Replaced lime wood airstone on skimmer

[damaba]

Update:

 

So I' started the tank over, I nuked everything with hydrogen peroxide and changed out all the tubing and stirred the sand bed to make sure the hydrogen peroxide killed everything. All this about a month ago.

 

I then cycled my tank with 1 raw shrimp and seeded with some quality live rock and even some live sand from a fellow reefers tank. Everything has been going well and parameters are all where there supposed to be. I had the basic diatom bloom that wasn't to bad and thats when I added 3 astraea snails and 2 conch snails.

Tank Stats

Ph: 7.5
Temperature: 76°
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm

Phosphate: 0 ppm

Calcium: 400 ppm

 

KH: 161.1 ppm

I'v introduce some macro algae, pulsing xenia and a mushroom in the last week and they all have done well..... until this last week.... the brown is back

 

Heres a quick visual journey of the tank since it was nuked

[damaba]

Before Nuking(after served scrubbings and 3 day complete black outs this stuff just keeps coming back)

 

The bomb dropped

 

Tank finishing cycle with diatom bloom

 

CUC added and live rock seeded also added a bit of micro bacter 7 for good measure

[Pyremind]

Could there be an animal that eats the brown stuff?

[damaba]

Now this bring me to today. For the last 2 weeks I have begun to see a brown covering the sand bed and some glass walls and glass tubing I have in the tank. It is defiantly photosynthetic as it dose not appear in the shade. Also It seams to stay only on the and beed and on the glass walls and tubing.

 

Steps I'v taken to combat this thinking it was diatoms fuled by scilates.

 

Switched to store bought distilled water for 2 weeks

Two 20% water changes

Let it run with light to exhaust itself for a week then do a deep clean on the tank

 

It has only gotten worse heres and example this weekend i did a 20% water change and cleaned everything.

I have begun to dose a small amount of Hydrogen peroxide incase this is dinos. I also just placed an order for kalkwaser. the snails don't seem to like to eat it and it does not seam to be slowing then down. what is this stuff?

 

The following morning

 

 

That afternoon

 

Close up

 

[Elizabeth94]

Stop fighting the ugly stage. This tank is a very new set up. This is completely normal, my rock always looks all brown and ugly when I start new tanks. Add a clean up crew and just start doing normal weekly water changes. The diatoms will go away on their own, you just have to stop messing with the tank.

 

As long as your ammonia and nitrites are zero, you can add your first fish. Feed lightly, do regular water changes and the tank will mature. Your rockscape is really neat, it'll be interesting how it comes together when you add corals.

 

Just relax and enjoy

 

Edit: Dinos has lots of air bubbles that get created by the algae, yours looks like normal diatoms as of right now

 

Steps I'v taken to combat this thinking it was diatoms filed by scilates.

 

Switched to store bought distilled water for 2 weeks

Two 20% water changes

Let it run with light to exhaust itself for a week then do a deep clean on the tank

 

It has only gotten worse

[sam_the_reefer]

^ this. I had a really bad diatom bloom a few months ago after a major rescape and it took 2 months for it to clear up. You may want to use some phosguard (just use the recommended amount) to help a little. It still took 2 months for me though, even with the phosguard.

[damaba]

Update of what the tank looks like.

 

I'v seen some odd bubbles coming out of the brown. Also on the front of the glass one of my conchs must have rubbed a sheet of the brown loseI tried to capture it in the picture. also at the end of the day the snails have lots of bubbles on their shells. This does not look like diatoms to me but cyano. I going to be patient but to tell the truth I've already been researching planted freshwater aquariums.

 

 

 

Would chemiclean be a good option? Im going to let the tank run for another month and see how things go.

[thedon986]

Your tank looks the same as mine does right now. I set mine up in January, transferred from a tank established a little over a year. In my opinion that is cyano and no longer diatoms. It's too slimy to be diatoms. I would say you could try chemiclean if you want. I just ordered some. I have been fighting this for over a month with weekly 25% water changes and in some places I am close to bare bottom from siphoning so much. I have been very heavily skimming for the past three weeks with an Aquamaxx HOB on a 22g tank and have been feeding 3x a week and it is still growing strong. Cyano is kind of a monster all its own, that said, chemiclean will likely knock it out. I would also say you need to get some real livestock in there. I don't think a fish or two will make a difference in the cyano one way or another. Like I said, cyano defies common reefing logic. Get a couple fish and enjoy the tank while you work on your issues. Eventually you will win and will be the better for it. Don't give up, you've come too far.

[damaba]

Hey guys sorry for no update for a while, my tank has not been looking good I'v keeps up with water changes and cleaning but what ever this thing is that I'm battling will not give up. I took everyones advice stopped moving the hardscape around and add fish and some plants.

Quick run down on what I have tried:

I'm onay using distilled water from the grocery store( didn't make a difference) also I'm using a brand new rodi buddy

Chemiclean (did not work)

Hydrogen peroxide dosed 5 ml for 2 weeks (tank looked better but the brown came back)

3 day black outs (tank looked better but the brown came back)

7 day black outs (tank looked better but the brown came back)

3 day black out with hydrogen peroxide (tank looked better but the brown came back)

Added kalkwaser to ATO to raise PH

Gone through huge amounts of carbon and GFO

lastly I thought what the hell I'll just let it run for a while and see what it does.

 

I am so close to tearing down the tank and bleaching everything and starting over again. Please help

 

Tank this morning

 

Tank this afternoon

 

Stringy brown stuff

 

 

 

[damaba]

Any thoughts?

[dpoltsdsu]

You're using rodi right? Maybe it's something with the water you are using. The tank is also new; sone tanks take longer to mature compared to others. As long as your parameters are ok, the stuff will eventually mature as the tanks parameters start to level out

Didn't see the last post when you said you were doing rodi. At this point it is probably just a waiting game. With that said, I had a similar issue to you and I used hydrogen peroxide for about a month and that did the trick. I had dinos though and your tank looks like it has diatoms, (a normal stage in the maturation of a tank).

[damaba]

Sad news guys, I need up taking the fish and snails back to my LFS and nuked the tank. I'll be starting a a new thread for the stank and trying something slightly different.