brown diatoms to green algae question

I have a green algae question.

I have a fairly new reef tank. I got the normal brown diatoms that lasted
just less than a week then it all turned green.... and the green grew fast.

Is this part of the cycle? I read that once somewhere, but I cannot find
any other reading supporting that brown diatoms, which I know isn't algae,
give way to green algae.

The algae is powdery or slimy I guess. It is not hairy and does not come
off in sheets; in fact it doesn't want to come off much at all. I have a
handful of snails but they aren't exactly thorough so I don't think buying
tons more of them is the fix.

Some stats:

90g
20 lbs dead Carib Sea sand and 10 lbs live sand (can't remember brand)
18 lbs dead base rock, 55+ lbs of live rock
actinic and HD lights on about 10+ hours a day on a timer, moonlights
thereafter
2 emperor 400's
hermits, astreas, elephant slug, few tiny feather dusters
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 10, was 20 a few days ago
pH = 8.4 steady

I haven't done a phosphate test but I'm betting it's part of the problem.
Why? I hate to admit that I did use tap water in the beginning. I treated
it but I was uninformed. Less than 10% of the water is RO/DI now. And who
knows what was hiding in my store-bought sands and salt.

Anyone have experience with a UV Sterilizer?

Thanks for your thoughts.
Bryan
www.geocities.com/bryg30/ - for a pic of the mess

On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:28:43 GMT, "Bryan"
wrote:

I have a green algae question.

I have a fairly new reef tank. I got the normal brown diatoms that lasted
just less than a week then it all turned green.... and the green grew fast.


This is common in new tanks, first they go brown, then a bit green,
then they should improve if you are doing things right. The initial
tapwater fill may not be an issue as that's a one off source of
nutrients, main thing is that you are using RO now. The post though
doesn't give the important details about the setup though which a

1. Is there an effective skimmer set up, things grow partly on organic
nutrients that you can't measure with a test kit, and skimming helps
here.

2. Is all your topup kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) and what is the
evapouration rate from the tank - ie are you getting much of this in?

Anyone have experience with a UV Sterilizer?

You don't need a UV sterilizer, and it may be harmful in that it will
kill small creatures in your water that the corals like to eat. You
are trying to replicate a natural ecosystem, this is a reef not a fish
only setup!

Steve

I have no sump, skimmer, refugium nor kalkwasser in my top off.

Evaporation rate I'll be measuring this weekend.

Tonight I did some glass cleaning and added some chemical to lower phosphaes
1.5 ppm in the next 72 hours. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks,

Bryan


"Steve" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:28:43 GMT, "Bryan"
wrote:

I have a green algae question.

I have a fairly new reef tank. I got the normal brown diatoms that lasted
just less than a week then it all turned green.... and the green grew
fast.


This is common in new tanks, first they go brown, then a bit green,
then they should improve if you are doing things right. The initial
tapwater fill may not be an issue as that's a one off source of
nutrients, main thing is that you are using RO now. The post though
doesn't give the important details about the setup though which a

1. Is there an effective skimmer set up, things grow partly on organic
nutrients that you can't measure with a test kit, and skimming helps
here.

2. Is all your topup kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) and what is the
evapouration rate from the tank - ie are you getting much of this in?

Anyone have experience with a UV Sterilizer?

You don't need a UV sterilizer, and it may be harmful in that it will
kill small creatures in your water that the corals like to eat. You
are trying to replicate a natural ecosystem, this is a reef not a fish
only setup!

Steve

My tapwater pH is 7.6.
The water that comes out of the RO filter is 6!
No wonder I can't keep my pH up. Do RO filters normally make the pH that
much lower?

Cindy

On Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:40:30 GMT, "Bryan" wrote:

I have no sump, skimmer, refugium nor kalkwasser in my top off.

Yikes.

Well you don't need the refugium or the sump.

I think I'd get the other two sorted out pretty damn quickly myself. A
sump might make arranging skimming neatly a bit easier, but you can do
something in/beside the tank, that is probably the quickest way
forwards.

All your topup should be kalk, your calcium and buffer levels will
deplete if you don't use it, must be dripped in slowly, quick way to
set this up is to syphon in via airline tube with an airline tap to
regulate the drip rate. There are much better ways long term, kalk
reactors, dosing pumps, whatever.

If you changed lots of water weekly well maybe you could get by
without skimming, or even kalk, but it's really *not* ideal to try to
do without these things.

Chemicals and additives are *not* the way to fix your water, take out
the rubbish, add what you do need (calcium hydroxide) , tackle
problems at *source*.

Steve

Cindy wrote:
My tapwater pH is 7.6.
The water that comes out of the RO filter is 6!
No wonder I can't keep my pH up. Do RO filters normally make the pH that
much lower?

Cindy
Yes they do Cindy. By removing most of the stuff from the water, they
remove the buffers from the water. But they do not remove the co2,
which decreases the PH.

But this will not effect the PH in your sal****er aquarium. The salt
mix has buffers in it.

If you have a low PH problem in a sal****er aquarium you need to find
out what the actual problem is, first you need to check your alkalinity.
If it is low, add some buffer, if it is not low, try to reduce the co2
levels by more surface agitation, protien skimmer, over flow etc. If
you have good o2 exchange, try to drop the co2 levels in the room with
the tank, crack a window etc.

For more info on this take a look at the Articles by Randy Homes-Farley
on advanced aquarist online magazine.
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2002/chem.htm
Kim Gross
www.jensalt.com

On Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:51:38 GMT, Cindy wrote:

My tapwater pH is 7.6.
The water that comes out of the RO filter is 6!
No wonder I can't keep my pH up. Do RO filters normally make the pH that
much lower?

Cindy


Don't worry at all, this is a normal pH for RO. RO water has very
little dissolved solids and minimal buffering, hence *tiny* increases
in hydrogen ions from any acid present in traces (eg just dissolved
CO2) will cause significant drops in pH. Because there is very little
acid actually in the water the pH is buffered immediately you put it
in the tank or mix it with salt, sal****er of course contains lots of
buffers and it is *those* that stabilise pH. Look at alkalinity, Ca
levels, how much kalk you are adding - if your pH is low it suggests
in tank buffering is deficient. The added RO water will make no
difference in itself.

Steve

Just to add you can not measure the pH of RO or RO/DI water. These are usually false pH
readings. pH readings need ions in the water to give a accurate reading, especially RO/DI.
If it is just RO and you have a high tap water TDS then yes, often you can. Once the water
is exposed to ambient air it will pick-up CO2 and yield a pH usually lower than 7 often
around the 6 areas

--
Boomer

If You See Me Running You Better Catch-Up

Former US Army Bomb Technician (EOD)
Member; IABTI, NATEODA, WEODF, ISEE & IPS

Want to talk chemistry ? The Reef Chemistry Forum
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/index.php

Want to See More ! The Coral Realm
http://www.coralrealm.com



"Cindy" wrote in message
.com...
: My tapwater pH is 7.6.
: The water that comes out of the RO filter is 6!
: No wonder I can't keep my pH up. Do RO filters normally make the pH that
: much lower?
:
: Cindy

I am a *big* fan of kalk, but it's *not* the only way.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Steve wrote on 6/30/2006 4:42 AM:
All your topup should be kalk, your calcium and buffer levels will
deplete if you don't use it, must be dripped in slowly, quick way to
set this up is to syphon in via airline tube with an airline tap to
regulate the drip rate. There are much better ways long term, kalk
reactors, dosing pumps, whatever.

If you changed lots of water weekly well maybe you could get by
without skimming, or even kalk, but it's really *not* ideal to try to
do without these things.

Chemicals and additives are *not* the way to fix your water, take out
the rubbish, add what you do need (calcium hydroxide) , tackle
problems at *source*.

Steve

On Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:42:13 GMT, Wayne Sallee
wrote:

I am a *big* fan of kalk, but it's *not* the only way.


Fair comment I'm sure. I have never tried to do things any other way
myself, though I have heard dealers mentioning other proprietary
products instead. In fact I get mutterings about this every time I
mention kalk to one local guy... I always wondered if that was sales
talk though, kalk is cheap and doesn't earn anybody much after all. So
how well do other things work then? Any advantages over using kalk,
given that Ca and OH seem to be the main things you need to add long
term? Interested in your views. My main point to the OP here though
was that he seems to be doing nothing much other than adding fresh
topup to this tank, and has said nothing about water changes either,
which is a worry. And my own tanks have always seemed to go backwards
as soon as I've had skimmer problems, as has occured in the past, so
I'm a big believer in those.

Steve