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Help please!!

M

MU8ST7ANG

I have tested my tank for everything and all comes back normal. The diatoms or dinoslag whatever its called wont go away. When the t5's are on its minumal if any at all but when I turn the Mh's up about 2 hours later its everywhere. Why is this below are my paramaters

Temp 79.4-80.2
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Amm 0
Ph 8.4
ALk 9.6
Cal 520
Mag 1470
Phosphate 0

Im getting a little frustrated
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
How long have you been vodka dosing? Did you cut back your vodka dosing when the "stuff" started to appear? Are you at your maintanence level or still looking for that amount?
 
M

MU8ST7ANG

I am also going to keep the metal halides off for a few days just putting the t-5's on for maybe 6 hours a day hopefully this starves the diatoms enough so they go away.
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Those OTC phosphate test kits are never accurate. You need to get a colorimeter (sp?) for accurate readings. I think a few people in the club may have one.

Also, are you sure that your test kits are all new? I'm always cautious when I get a nitrate reading of absolute zero. I find no matter how many water changes I do, I always hover around 5ppm. Which is considered pretty darn low.(especially with my fish load)

Good luck, just be patient...I think I've recovered from almost every type of algae...it's frustrating and takes a long time, but it can be done!
 
panmanmatt

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Have you tested your source water for nitrates and phosphates? Also may wanna test your new saltwater for the same. It isn't uncommon for some salts to contain nitrates. The reason you won't see them when you test the tank water is that the diatoms and algae is using it up before you can test for it. It is just possible that if you have nitrates in either your source water or newly made saltwater you are only fueling the algae bloom by doing water changes. Sometimes one of the best treatments for algae, especially diatoms, is to stop doing water changes and leave the lights off on the tank for 2-3 days. This will let the algae use up all available food and starve itself out.
 
M

MU8ST7ANG

Good idea!! I will test it tonight. Also I am goin got leave the lights off for 2-3 days. Hope nothing dies. My duncans and brains should be ok right?
 
panmanmatt

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Leaving the lights off for 2-3 days won't harm healthy corals. The sun doesn't shine every day on the ocean's reefs.
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Not that I am recommending this, but I had such a terrible algae problem that I shut my lights off on my tank for about 4 months. I just gave up.

When I turned them back on, the algae was almost gone and most of my corals (and a clam!) survived. So, a few days really won't matter.
 
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