help with brown algea and corals dying

[hndakd]

I have been having numerous algea problems with my tank. Right now it is a bunch of muddled brown rocks with bleaching and dying corals and a sebea anemone. ~4months ago i had a huge hair algea bloom. the entire tank and glass got covered in it in matter of days. after a purchase of an RODI that has subsided only to be replaced by the brown algea and coral deaths. here is a list of what i have
tank age is 2.5 years
90 gallons
8x54 nova extreme with brand new set of bulbs ~2months old
35 gallon fuge with cheato (lots of it that i continually throw in the trash)
Aqua Euro 250 recirculating skimmer
maxi jets all over place
ammonia is 0
nitrite is 0
nitrate is 0
phosphate is 0 (by my test kit)
ph is 8.2
specific gravity is 1.026

new notes as im finishin this post the girlfriend says "the whole house smells like skimmer juice"

[jgrantham7]

Cyano?
Does it cover your sand bed too?

And that's the same statement my wife made during my last cyano bloom. :-(

[hndakd]

no its definitely not cyano i have had that before its not slimey at all. its like a brown dusting over everything even the sand. when i do water changes i get out as much as i can, and it seems to comeback in a day or so

[drillsar]

Brown Slime? Can you get a pic? Is it like crusty?

[hndakd]

its like dust if i point a powerhead at it, it will blow right off.

[ricks]

What are the TDS of your RO water????

[Mavrk]

Brown dust usually = diatoms. Do you have any snails?

What are your alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium levels? What is the temperature? Is your anemone eating?

[Agu]

Irregardless of what it is, you need to go into treatment mode.

Set your skimmer to take out a wet skimmate. You'll need to watch your salininty and adjust accordingly.

Use a turkey baster or powerhead to get the crud into suspension.

Use carbon and change it every couple of days.

Do water changes. But, have the output of the RO/DI checked for quality first. It should be close to zero TDS and around 6.8 pH coming out of the RO/DI.

Good Luck,

[hndakd]

tds from the unit is zero input on it is at 225

no the anemone is not eating its a resuce from a friends tank that had to be sold. first day in the tank. the lights had also been off a couple of hours before i flicked them on and took the pic.

temp is 79 on nighttime and 81 on day
calcium is at 400
i dont have test kits for the others

[drillsar]

Are you saying you throw out the chaeto? Let me ask you; does your tank water go to the fuge first?

[drillsar]

Maybe look to get more snails, Turbo snails and cerith snails do a good job

[hndakd]

yeah i throw it out my fuge is full of it and it collects all the brown stuff in it. the sump is setup with a like this

the skimmer feed pump and carbon tube pumps are ran right in the first baffling

[drillsar]

Thats one of your problems, it should be plumbed like this. The drain should go to the fuge first:

[drillsar]

Another note, fuge will get algae thats ok, thas what it's for so it asobrbs nutrients out of water so our display tank dont get it. Right now I would do a water change, test also your source water for Phosphates, nitrates, tds. About 20% change every 3 days, Run carbon and clean every 3 days, raise skimmer, turkey blast the rocks, get some snails.

[hndakd]

i know that the fuge will get algea it works great as far as doing its job. I think the drain design is fine, there was really only one way to make it work with a large fuge. the feed pumps for everything are in the first baffles only because i dont have room for them anywhere else.
the left most side of the drain is only there incase the first clogs. I run a filter sock on it to catch stuff.

all the snails that i had or have gotten in the last couple of months seem to just die off. i do have a couple of hermits in there that could be the problem. Is there somewhere online that i could order them? No store around here carries alot of snails.

After reading through a bunch of stuff I think that it could be my sand? The reason being that i have never really replaced it.... any of it.

I have been told that the phosphate test that i have only reads dissolved phosphates in the water column if the algea is feeding on it wouldnt the number low or zero everytime then? The source water never shows any phosphates either. nitrites and trates are 0 or close to it. My other tank (african cichlids) is fine and has no algea or anything and i use tap water for them.

[Mavrk]

1. Not to be argumentative, but your sump configuration is fine. Drain -> fuge -> return is a valid setup. Many people use it successfully.

2. The fact that your chaeto is growing helps your cause. Keep trimming it back like you have been doing. I think drillsar originally thought you were throwing out the whole thing.

3. I agree with agu's suggestions on actions to take.

4. What CUC do you have? I suggest ceriths and/or trochus snails. I tend to shy away from turbos because they knock over corals (but they are great cleaners).

5. I highly suggest an alkalinity test kit for your corals. Magnesium test would be good too.

6. What is your livestock?

7. What is your water change schedule? How about your light schedule?

8. Think about getting a Phosban Reactor. They really help and the TLF 150 is only about 35 bucks (plus a small pump and the media).

9. How did you acclimate your anemone? It is probably jsut stressed from the move. They can be difficult to keep. If your water is clean, it will be happy. Was it bleached in your friends tank? Unfortunately, you really cannot judge its health from one day in the tank.

Sorry for all the question, but it is 5:30 AM here, so I am babbling a bit

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by hndakd
i know that the fuge will get algea it works great as far as doing its job. I think the drain design is fine, there was really only one way to make it work with a large fuge. the feed pumps for everything are in the first baffles only because i dont have room for them anywhere else.
the left most side of the drain is only there incase the first clogs. I run a filter sock on it to catch stuff.

all the snails that i had or have gotten in the last couple of months seem to just die off. i do have a couple of hermits in there that could be the problem. Is there somewhere online that i could order them? No store around here carries alot of snails.

After reading through a bunch of stuff I think that it could be my sand? The reason being that i have never really replaced it.... any of it.

I have been told that the phosphate test that i have only reads dissolved phosphates in the water column if the algea is feeding on it wouldnt the number low or zero everytime then? The source water never shows any phosphates either. nitrites and trates are 0 or close to it. My other tank (african cichlids) is fine and has no algea or anything and i use tap water for them.

How often do you clean your sock? Yes, the hemits are probably the issue. You should have pleanty of empty shells of different sizes for them to use or they will kill your snails (they may kill them anyway... that's why I don't keep crabs).

I don't think it is your sand. I just think that you don't have snails. Get some nassarius snails to aerate the sand and eat the detritus. Ceriths are an excellent choice because they aerate the sand and also venture onto the rocks. They love to eat diatoms. Cerith snails are a favorite amongs hermits though, so remember to have those empty shells I mentioned before (or get rid of the hermits).

As far as online goes, I would think the build your own section of etropicals is a good idea. If you spend 60 dollars then shipping is free. It might be hard to get to that level, but if you are buying online shipping is going to cost a bundle. Perhaps someone near you needs some stuff and you could split an order.

I would check your LFS again and see what they have. If you do go with etropicals, they have brittle or serpent stars and peppermint shrimp for cheap too.

BTW, trochus snails will spawn if they eat enough. So you end up with more than you start with. Stomatella will too and are a great choice.

[hndakd]

1. me niether im cool i just want help
2. no i dont throw it all away usually about 1/4 of the main mass
3. i have been running wet skimmate for 2 months, and upped water changes
4. a couple of scarlet hermits elephant nosed snails a couple of turbos
they all seem to disappear when i put them in there
5. gonna try to get one today
6. 1 maroon clown fish, 1 purple tang, 1 spotted toby puffer
7. water change every other week ~ twenty gallons lights are on for 10 hours with a 1 hour dusk and dawn
8. i have one but changed it out for carbon after my 18" leather toadstool died
9. standard acclimation for anenome floated for 10 min slid out of bag done

get some sleep! Its 8 here and im only up cause my daughter wants some food.

[Achapman]

Ummm, you don't just float things to acclimate them. That just gets the temp the same. You have to slowly add tank water to get all the parameters near the same.

[sammyfish]

Sounds like dinoflagellates. This kills snails. Like Agu said, blast it to get it into circulatioion and increase skimming. I'd also run carbon. Plus reducing the amount of time your lights are on has been successful for others.

[dsn112]

its a different form of cyano, cyano doesnt have to be red slime. I went through this, the phosban reactor made it go away fairly quickly.

The stuff dying can be from other causes, if the brown is taking over as the lights come on, and gets worse the longer they are on, its cyano. Everyone jumps to Dyno, I doubt that's what it is.

[sammyfish]

If its brown, looks kind of gooey and gets stringy with little bubbles, its dino. Plus dino kills snails. If your snails have been dying since you noticed it, it most likely is dino.

[dsn112]

Originally posted by sammyfish
If its brown, looks kind of gooey and gets stringy with little bubbles, its dino. Plus dino kills snails. If your snails have been dying since you noticed it, it most likely is dino.

My cyano was very like dyno. Dyno is horrible and would kill alot more than snails. Good chance the fish would die also. Everyone on this site jumps right to dyno. Im just saying that is the last thing that you could ever want, and there is a very good chance it is cyano. I have just got through this, and everyone said dyno. I took a sample of my LR and LS to a Marine biologist and he ran under a microscope and instantly said it was a form of cyano bacteria. Added the phosban and it went away.

Mine was stringy at times and had air bubbles and was a rusty color.
does it look like this?

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by hndakd
9. standard acclimation for anenome floated for 10 min slid out of bag done

get some sleep! Its 8 here and im only up cause my daughter wants some food.

Okay, looks like we may have stumbled on to something. Invertebrates such as snails, shrimp, and anemones require a long acclimation time. Drip acclimation for 1.5 to 2 hours is recommended (after floating the bag for 15 minutes). If you don't have an air hose, then adding 1/4 cup to the original water every 15 minutes will work. After 1 hour, you can up that to 1/2 cup every 15 minutes. You want to match the salinity of the tank water before putting them in the tank. So test that first. Then put the animal in the tank, but discard the acclimation water (usually pretty nasty stuff in there that you don't want in your tank).

I acclimate fish for 1 hour and inverts for 2. Since you are losing your snails so fast, this is probably the issue. Usually the nassarius (elephant nose) snails are not attacked by hermits and only come out when there is food.

I did end up going back to sleep. I was up because my 5 year old daughter came into our room to use the bathroom and woke us up.

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by sammyfish
Sounds like dinoflagellates. This kills snails. Like Agu said, blast it to get it into circulatioion and increase skimming. I'd also run carbon. Plus reducing the amount of time your lights are on has been successful for others.

OP said the "algae" is dusty, not slimy. So I still think it is diatoms.