So, I have my species specific xenia tank going and its working a charm.
Seriously haven't done a water change in weeks, all looks good, fish are happy, tank is a gyroscope of motion as its filled with a weed that eats crap.
But my 25g shallow reef (a separate tank) is experiencing the brown diatome/red algae thing.
I had cycled it for a few weeks using dry rock. All seemed good.
Went through a massive diatome cycle and cleared.
All levels still good and stable for a week (after 5 week total cycle on 20g of water).
Did another 50% change, let sit for a day, and added some livestock (2 clowns, 1 shrimp).
All gone to crap since.
I'm using about 25# of dry rock (in a 25g tank) with a good amount of MarinePure Media sufficient for an additional 50g in the sump, also dosing Chempure (recently) with each water change (10% week).
Using a ghost skimmer, running wet, emptying every 2 days. Using floss, which I'm changing every 1-2 days as required (and its a mess).
Now I'm pulling and scrubbing rock or red algae and have been replacing filter floss floss daily.
Ghost skimmer is filling faster than my bladder.
Yet, RODI unit is reading Zeroppm, feeding is minimal (2 clowns), maybe 1/8 of a cube. Rest of parameters well in normal range.
I've been cycling my lights from (softie based) 8 hours a day and dropped to 6 hours a day.
Using a AI Hydra26 12" off the water, researched numbers should be good and zoas seem happy.
I'm running an external fuge growing cheato and have an algae scrubber running for past 2 weeks (which I haven't checked yet). But the cheato is growing well, as are the diatomes.
Dropped an adequate amount of chempure in there 3 days ag0 for a 25g tank.
I did a 50% water change last week, scrubbed and preoxided (and rinsed) all rock, removed a few pieces of rock I thought suspect, and all was going great.
Past 6 days I now have snails trailing red slime (looks cool though), and brown diatomes on almost all surfaces.
Any advice? I'm reading Zero ppm from my monitor, and I'm using a RODI buddy system.
This is the same concern I had with my 90 and my previous 35g build.
Is there anyone having concern with Brick/Point Pleasant water, or might this be a RODI susytem concern?
Thoughts, opinions, speculations, or insults are all welcome at this point.
Seriously haven't done a water change in weeks, all looks good, fish are happy, tank is a gyroscope of motion as its filled with a weed that eats crap.
But my 25g shallow reef (a separate tank) is experiencing the brown diatome/red algae thing.
I had cycled it for a few weeks using dry rock. All seemed good.
Went through a massive diatome cycle and cleared.
All levels still good and stable for a week (after 5 week total cycle on 20g of water).
Did another 50% change, let sit for a day, and added some livestock (2 clowns, 1 shrimp).
All gone to crap since.
I'm using about 25# of dry rock (in a 25g tank) with a good amount of MarinePure Media sufficient for an additional 50g in the sump, also dosing Chempure (recently) with each water change (10% week).
Using a ghost skimmer, running wet, emptying every 2 days. Using floss, which I'm changing every 1-2 days as required (and its a mess).
Now I'm pulling and scrubbing rock or red algae and have been replacing filter floss floss daily.
Ghost skimmer is filling faster than my bladder.
Yet, RODI unit is reading Zeroppm, feeding is minimal (2 clowns), maybe 1/8 of a cube. Rest of parameters well in normal range.
I've been cycling my lights from (softie based) 8 hours a day and dropped to 6 hours a day.
Using a AI Hydra26 12" off the water, researched numbers should be good and zoas seem happy.
I'm running an external fuge growing cheato and have an algae scrubber running for past 2 weeks (which I haven't checked yet). But the cheato is growing well, as are the diatomes.
Dropped an adequate amount of chempure in there 3 days ag0 for a 25g tank.
I did a 50% water change last week, scrubbed and preoxided (and rinsed) all rock, removed a few pieces of rock I thought suspect, and all was going great.
Past 6 days I now have snails trailing red slime (looks cool though), and brown diatomes on almost all surfaces.
Any advice? I'm reading Zero ppm from my monitor, and I'm using a RODI buddy system.
This is the same concern I had with my 90 and my previous 35g build.
Is there anyone having concern with Brick/Point Pleasant water, or might this be a RODI susytem concern?
Thoughts, opinions, speculations, or insults are all welcome at this point.
