Sand bed algae & low coralline growth.

[todd22]

I have had my reef set up for about a year now and I still have weekly diatom algae blooms all over my sand bed and tank walls. My snails and hermits keep the rocks clear, but my sifter goby only works on part of the sand bed. Should I add another sifter or try something else? I also have had low coraline growth on my rocks and never on my tank walls. I add b-ionic frequently and still slow going. When I first started up my tank the coralline grew like crazy but I slacked off on the skimming and B-Ionic and lost most of it to diatom algae, now I have been skimming a lot and add B-Ionic every other day, but I still cant get the fast growth of coralline back. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

Diatoms love silicate and if you are still having blooms after a year my bet would be that you're adding silicate in your make-up water.

If you're not using RO/DI water to top-up then that will be the cause of your trouble.

You might want to look at your phosphate too - coralline hate it.

The white powdered products used to remove phospahte will remove silicate too, so you can kill two birds with one stone.

 

[todd22]

Thx for the quick response, I have some phos guard laying around I may has welll use it. What do you use to keep the sand bed clean?

 

[phoenix1]

Check your nitrate levels and how long since you changed your bulbs. Both could contribute to your problem. For keeping the sand clean, I have spaghetti worms in the dsb as well as a couple of tiger tail cukes and a queen conch

 

[Gatortailale1]

You didn't mention your calcium level or ph. You may need to dose B-ionic every day at least until you get calcium leveled off. It seems like a pain to dose every day, but in effect you can add it in 30 seconds or less.

Gator

 

[dvmsn]

I would recommend replacing evaporated water with kalk water introduced in a slow drip. The
liquid calcium v. kalk water debate is a controversial issue, but I have been using the kalk drip
method for many years with good success. I have good coraline growth and low silicate blooms.
It is important that you drip the kalk water. If you pour it in quickly, it will react with phosphate
and precipitate in your tank and will not be as available to the tanks inhabitants. Of course all of
this is anecdotal, but it has worked for me.

 

[mvp1]

ro/di water is a must
also stop working so hard....get or build a calcium reactor..its easy and effecient thanks to
www.marineaquarist.org

goto the DIY page

 

[fusion]

I wouldn't worry to much about the diatoms. My tanks been up for about 16 months now and I still get em. My nitrates are 0, and I don't think I've got any phosphates or silicates. I've yet to test but there are no warning signs outside of the normal diatom growth.
You might want to try some nassarius and cerith snails to work the sand. The nassarius snails will work it by burrowing and the cerith snails will eat the algea and turn it over at the same time. A conch will do a good job also.
As far as the coralline goes, as long as your water quality is adequate, it will gain a foothold and grow. It's all a matter of finding that special #/amount when dosing that will leave your tank in balance. I've no experience with B-ionic but like anything else be carefull. In an attempt to do good you can get your tank so out of wack that nothing seems to do any good. You'll have to stop the supplements, do water changes, let everything balance out naturally and then start over.
Hope this helps a little.

Good luck....