algae
Getting a brown algae bloom, but can't identify anything which could be feeding it.
Any suggestions?
Ammonia - zero
Nitrite - zero
Nitrate - near zero
Phosphate - near zero
ph - 8.5 <- need to drop this a little to 8.2ish
Alkalinity 100ppm CaCO3 <- need to raise this target 125-200
Calcium 60 ppm <- target 380!! long way to go
Salinity 1.026
10gal water changes done twice this week - with RO/DI water, so shouldn't be introducing new nutrients
Any suggestions as to what other params to check?
4ft 55gal
5gal sump (small)
Deltec mte 600 skimmer on sump
1 tunze 6000 stream + 1 6055 nanostream
2x 250w MH pendants.
running activated carbon and phosphate scrubber in hang on power filter for now - no other filtration
30Kg Fiji cured premium LR,
30Kg Aragonite sand bed 3-4" deep seeded with 2 bags live sand.
3 turbo snails
1 cleaner shrimp
3 red legged hermits
yes..
your po4 isnt really 0 really.. its just being used at a rate that your kit cant detect...(dont know if that came out right)
but what ever the case is.... your tank is new and you will have meny meny diffrent out brakes of different algae blooms.... let the tank do its thing.
your newly made water is clean and fresh so over time... (b4 you add fish) at some point the algea will reside.
Im gonna use this time right... 2 suggest something above all others.
keep your hand outta the tank unless you need to do something useful like flip a snail or something... get your self a long poker so you can flip and move stuff with out your hands in the tank... (good habit to learn early)
the main point is DONT mess with the algae untill your confirmed on its id.
I had (and still have) bryposis that was this cute little patch of algae....
and i sounded much like you did in the post above "help i have algae" "dont know what to do"
well i went and did the fist thing someone told me to do (pull it out)
was happy it was gone... little did i know that i had just started the end of my tank. what im trying to say
is time is your best friend, you see something in your tank you dont know what it is... wait.. it will be there tomarrow and the day after and the day after..
dont take it to heart im not saying dont help a sick fish or a traped something..... thats you job to save life...
but the aglae i picked (knowing what i know now) at that time, if i would have just shut the power heads off... and mixed a new bucket of water. doing a water change and sucking the spores outta the tank as i pulled it easily from the rock....
i could have ended it right then and there.... so if i where in your shoes again, i would wait it out... keep your hand out, and figure out what it is...
brown algae
red algae
diatoms
all part of the new tank...
cyano
bryposis
(very very very bad algae)