HELP!!!

[reena]

Hi guys,

Had my tank water tested by my LFS today and it turned out that my Nitrate and Phosphate was high :S. Hence I have a diatom bloom in my tank. MY LFS advised me to buy the Red Sea NO3O4 -X to reduce the nitrate and phosphate. Apart from these rest of the results were fine. I have also got rid if the Api test kit and switched to the Profi test kits. Hopefully I should be able to get everything under control. Also I just figure out today that my skimmer wasn't working properly so had that sorted out to.

Thanks for the link IPisces. I will give it a read later on today

Will keep you guys updated on the results in a weeks time.

Regards,

Reena

 

[TJL]

Good to hear Reena, hope all goes well and ya know the old saying about "lessons learned hard are lessons learned well" Once everything has cycled and balanced out you will be back in the hunt for livestock to fill your privite lil reef once more. Take advantage of this time to really research what you want to have in your system and what special requirements if any they may have. Not sure as to the effectiveness of the Red Sea product to reduce Nitrate/Phosphate levels, a large water change and time to complete its cycle would be my suggestion. For continued use of a Phosphate control look into getting a GFO reactor like a Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor-150 fairly inexpensive and easy to use/setup.

Cheers, Todd

 

[leebca]

NO reena,

Your LFS recommendations should not be followed until you check them out. The LFS is wrong.

A diatom bloom (the brown 'algae') is not because of nitrates nor phosphates. It's because of silica and organics. This is a normal event for a new aquarium. Once the diatoms have depleted their source of silica AND you don't introduce new silica they will diminish in numbers and eventully become unnoticeable. They will never be totally gone since there is always a tiny source of silica coming into the system. If you want to control this in the meantime, there are different snails which will eat diatoms and although they will not be able to control the initial bloom, when the numbers receed, they will keep them out of sight.

Good luck!

 

[IPisces]

Water changes will help reduce both nitrates and phosphates. Check what you are feeding and make sure it does not contain phosphates. Dont feed too much. Two little fishies phosban reactor is a great, inexpensive piece of equipment that, IMO also, works great.
Diatoms is a normal process of a new tank cycle like Lee said. There will probably be another type of algae bloom shortly to arive. Just keep up the water changes weekly. Everything will settle in and be ready for stocking very soon.
I would get some Astraea and turbo snails now if you dont already have some. They do a great job.