yellow rock and brown sand bed

[hdevils]

what is the cause of my LR being yellow?? also why is my sand bed getting brown diatoms all over it.. just tested my water for sal= 1.021 ph= 8.2 am= 0 nitrite= 0 nitrate= 0

[Maxxumless]

Is the tank less than six months old? If that is the case then no worries, it is perfectly normal. Its diatoms and Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and a normal progression for saltwater tanks. If you have been using RO or RO/DI water, use a quality skimmer and do regular partial water changes they should burn themselves out in no time. During your next scheduled water change, blow off the rocks with a baster and siphon the substrate. Other ideas would be to use Chemi-Pure in combination with PhosBan until the algae is gone. Feed sparingly if you have fish and if you don’t have one yet, get a cleanup crew.

[hdevils]

the tank has been up for 3months, only use RO/DI water, have a skimmer working away, have cleanup crew, running carbon, no fish due to ICH.

i wanted color to my yellow rock so sper of the moment i bouth something called C-BALANCE, its a liquid sourse of calcium and buffer, with strontium, magnesium, and trac elemnts. whatever that mean....

i do have some purple coralline in spots but want lots more..

[hdevils]

think i may have to give up, cant quite grasp whats happening there always seems to be something wrong. and its taking too much of my time.

[weimluv1]

well if you only have live rock and a clean up crew it shouldn't take up that much time...

corraline takes a long time to grow.

are you testing for alkilinity or calcium? when i started testing for these and corrected my probs my corraline started growing like mad. also, are you doing weekly water changes? if so, your salt should add enough trace elements, IMO, for live rock.

and as for the algae on your sand bed, it's going to happen. how long are you lights on for? cutting back the lighting will go a long way to keeping algae in check. do you have hermits with your clean up crew? i have like 7 in my 37g and they comb the sand constantly cleaning it. they help a lot, although they like to eat my snails, and then steal there shells.

what is your lighting for this tank? corraline algae doesn't need, nor desire, strong lighting, so if you are using MH don't expect your corraline to go crazy. i read somewhere like 4w per gallon is best if you want a lot of corraline growth.

if i were you i wouldn't be discouraged, this is all a part of the hobby...so it's supposed to be fun, right?

[weimluv1]

sorry for the double post, but i forgot to ask you if your purple corraline areas have white outlines? if so, it is in fact growing and you are doing good. might check your alk and calcium to grow it faster, though.