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Hair pulling frustration! (1 Viewer)

You do seem to have a lot of extra nutrients in your system if none of the things you've tried in the past have worked. I am surprised you've run as much GFO as you have and made no progress. Even my tank with hundreds of pounds of curing dry rock with no skimmer as of yet was cleared up with just a couple of cups of GFO.

I had that same brown looking build up I believe to be Diatoms clear up pretty quickly. You have snails in your tank now I believe and they're not dying. I would add the Ceriths and see how they fare.
 
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I thought it was at first some sort of red slime. Its been in the tank since the tank has been cycling last April. just seems to be getting worse and worse. I used to siphon out the sand bed every week, only to have it start reapearing the next day. I started using GFO thinking it was some sort of P04 leaching into system, kept increasing and increasing up to a cup every other week. still nothing, so after "throwing money" at it GFO wise, I quit, and started looking at red slime remover. I was told to get turbos and I did. Most died off but a few even though an abundant of algae/ diatoms exist.

I will have to look at ceriths and see if they can even eat diatoms/ dino, etc... whatever this may be. I have skimmer rated for 3 times the size of my tank. I can't imagine I'm putting too many nutrients in the water with 1/2 a cube a day of food.
 
I have a feeling it's diatoms and/or Dinos. It doesnt get stringy/ snotty for a number of days and more of a mat as shown in my pic, so I'm leaning more towards a form of diatoms. Just not sure why I would have cyano since day 1. I know they're very common in the first year, and they come and go with nutrients leaching from something, but I've had them every day for a year now. I think I'll look into some dwarf or florida ceriths. just seems like I'm throwing money at a problem that I can't seem to tackle. no matter how many water changes and amount of filtration I've thrown at it. My UV sterilizer can't even tackle it.

I'm fairly certain this was all caused by something in my live sand when I bought it because it's only forming on the sand. For that reason, my 180 will NOT have live sand. I'm buying dry EVERYTHING and seed with bacteria. This is such a joke!
 
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I'll be picking up a dozen ceriths tomm morning. they should be more than enough to keep the sand tidy, and I know they aren't gonna be starving anytime soon. Just not happy about a year of an Ugly (and not a rays reef ugly) tank. Certainly makes having family get togethers not as much fun.... :angryfire:
 
Myclang said:
I'm fairly certain this was all caused by something in my live sand when I bought it because it's only forming on the sand.
Click to expand...

I don't really buy this logic. Sand will trap detritus and other nutrients that will need to be either exported or processed. This accumulates quickly if not enough mechanisms in place ( ie: manual extrations, processed by bacteria and/or critters ). Just like any ecosystem, stuff is going to want to grow where the food is. As things get broken down to dissolved, algaes would want to be nearby to consume.

Remove the nutrient sink in the sand and the algae will go away ( at least from that location ).
 
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I understand your logic, but this problem has been there since i put the sand in the tank. It was there before I put fish, inverts, and coral in. slowly leaching out everyday. I siphon the tank once a week. I do between 10-15 gallon water changes each week, all of which include a siphon. I've always siphoned the sand. Anything that Has died, I've removed immediately and then did a 10% water change. I've fed no more than a cube a day of high quality frozen food, all the while of running GFO,carbon and a super sized skimmer on a 54 gallon tank. If this problem popped up weeks, or months down the road I'd think it was my fault, but these silicates have been leaching from the sand the moment I cut open the bag to put it in my tank.
 
I've thought about it, but I have nausarius and 5 brittle stars. figure it would be best to keep it in for them. Hopefully I'm not coming off as belligerent. I'm simply frustrated that I've been dealing with this for so long. I'm going to go get a handful of ceriths tomm. I know they'll take care of this eyesore. I'll probably get a couple of hermits too. Thanks for all the input guys. I swear I'll win this battle, even if it drives me to the looney bin!
 
imo the sand is the source of the problem. if this has been going on since the beginning nutrient build up in the sand is not the issue. the sand itself is leaching po4 and silicates and whatever else it feels like. i ran into a similar prob when using play sand from menards in a reef tank. imo id pull it. difficult but doable. i dont think snails, conchs or sand sifting stars will do a good enough job. good luck tank looks great despite the algae.
 
Thanks! This is my last ditch effort. If this doesn't work, I'll be pulling my sand and go BB for a while.

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I ran into this issue a couple years back when I switched from TM salt to IO

I know im going to get some peeps stating this is not the issue but all I am saying is when DA was bought out a while back- they didnt have TM salt in for awhile so I switched to IO and with a week started getting this same issue.

I switched back to TM a couple months later and the issue went away with a week or so

Take it FWIW - only experience I have had with this
 
I've heard about mixing salts and outbreaks. I've never strayed to another because of that. ;)

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
 
Maybe a bad batch of salt?

I finally found the thread where we talked about it:

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44120

Not much info but was killing me I couldnt find the thread so....lol


Just another thing to think about amongst the many - welcome to saltwater frustrations.

LMK if I can help dude!
 
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I was hoping it was but I've moved on to other boxes of salt, bought at another lfs. I see the world of frustrations have greeted me with open arms! :D

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You were looking for the tds meter. Did you test your water? I had the same problem after month #3 and started to change water weekly, add gfo and lights out. 6 weeks later is disappear.

Before you go on and on about the sand. I think You need to test your water. Just my 2 cents worth while waiting for my flight.
 
I will be looking into getting a tds meter here shortly. for now I bought a couple hermits, and about a dozen cerith snails to keep things tidy.
 
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