55G after 4 months

[michaeljr10wv]

Well the 55 is coming along pretty well I think! I returned the scooter bleemy, because he was getting to thin. Everything else seems to be doing OK!

My toadstool is open, my star polys are totally open and have began to spread unto the LR! My feather duster is still alive and FULL looking. My zoas look smaller to me but are always open. I see variuos sized tubes forming on many of the LR which I think and hope are feather dusters.

My kenya tree has grown quite alot. My nitrates average out around 15 when I do my weekly WC's. I believe that is because I havn't removed the HOB filters. I do clean them when I'm doing my WC's. I plan on adding a sump in the next month or so.

I have two T5's and 2 30w anctic and two 10k daylight bulbs. I do still have some algae on my sides and back. as you can see from my pics I have some kind of red algae growing on the sand and rock.

Well enough here are a few pics! sorry about the bad but my camera batteries were dead and I used my cell!

[/URL][URL]http://cid-46efb60a6c9ac494.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/tank%201-9-08 (http://cid-46efb60a6c9ac494.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/tank%201-9-08)

Michael

[Ace25]

Holy Cyano batman.. I am guessing you don't have a phosphate reactor? Get some Red Slime Remover and get rid of that stuff. It works great, but doesn't address the source of the problem so it will come back if the source isn't resolved.

[michaeljr10wv]

Already taken care of! I put phosban in my HOB's and have been using the slime remover for a few days, and been buying water from the LFS(which I hope will solve the phosphat problem! I was using tap for WC's). I was cleaning the front every morning and evening just to see inside the tank :(

Is the red really that bad? Its the brown I don't like...

Michael

[Ace25]

Red is a much more serious problem than brown. They are completely different things. Diatoms vs Cyanobacteria.

This is what I would do right now, get a turkey baster and a container to hold water in, and get in their and suck out as much of the red slime as you can. Be very careful squeezing the baster in order to not blow it around the tank. Just get about 1/4" above it and gently vaccuum it up with the baster and squirt it out in a container you have ready. With any problem algae in a tank it is always a good idea to not let it settle and take hold. With diatoms you can simply stir the sand on a shallow sand bed and blow out the rocks with a baster when you do waterchanges, with cyano you don't want to break it up and stir it around or it will just spread faster. You want to get as much of it out by hand as you can without making the problem worse, and also use the medicine as directed.

Sounds like you have taken the right steps to resolve the problem, only thing I would add other than getting out as much by hand is to also get a little jar of Seachem Phosguard. It is like supercharged Rowaphos media, will make your phosphates and silicates zero in just a couple days. I have personally used it and it does work great as advertised. It is a short term media (only lasts 4 days) that will solve those 2 problems in your tank very fast, but it is up to you to not continue the problem, which you have by switching water source.

[michaeljr10wv]

Thanks for the info. I will be cleaning it all out ASAP!

Michael

[ToeJam]

I can't see your pic but judging by reaction it must be bad. The thing is here now you have a bigger problem than you think.

I would like to add to the Cyano control.

Slime remover is a bandaid...and I have used it but it does NOT take care of the root problem of why it showed up in the first place.

And Cyano needs Nitrates and Phosphates to start growing... Low flow areas in your tank will allow it to settle also. More flow in the tank can help with that low flow if you have it.

The cleaning steps I did:
1. Siphon out every piece you can find
2. Siphon out the top layer of sand in your tank most likely detritus is soaked into the top layer at this point.
3. Do a huge water change...like 30% or greater...
4. Cut down photo times a little..if you have it on 8 drop it down to like 5.
5. Use Chemiclean red slime remover... follow its directions

At next water change when you are done with Chemiclean... Do one more huge water change...

By this point it should be dead and gone and not spreading. If you still see signs of it, Nuke it again...and do another huge change... by second treatment it should not be there at all...

If it is...the Root of the problem never was found out yet and you gota nail that down.
For me it was Phosphate and a sand bed with detritus build up.... Once I sucked out a lot of my sand and used a phos reactor did my headaches stop.

PS> Your nitrate readings will be false in the presence of hair algae, cyano blooms..etc... These things feed on nitrates ...so if your readings said 15 nitrates ...i bet it was much higher than 15.... its just the cyano was feeding on it...i imagine your levels were over 20 at the least.

ACK PS Again> using Phosguard or Phosban or anything like it =) remember ...It will affect your PH so have a buffer on hand for the first two weeks of firing up the reactor.