Chaeto Dying, Diatoms and Green hair taking over?, uh oh...

[Xenoch88]

Please help, as the topic reads,

My chaeto is developing brown spots on it while my green hair algae and diatoms are going CRAZY!

Theories?

Xen

[teemee]

Think you've posted in the wrong thread - try posting in one of the main forums.
Either way, I'd get rid of the cheato, let your tank cycle properly and get a good clean up crew. then get some more cheato.

[Casey8]

I had the same problem before. As teemee said, you need to throw your cheato away, or save the very best part of it to grow it again. I was religiously doing 20% of water change everyday, for the whole week, and scrubing with a toothbrush on the rocks before changing the water to get rid of hair algae. After that my tank has no hair algae coming back until now. I have changed my water every 2 weeks since then.

[reefwars]

hair algae is a ntrient issue meaning you have excessive nitrates and phosphates in your tank, using a media reactor with gfo will consume your phosphate aggressively, and nitrates are in the water column and pockets can be hidden in live rock and sand so can be manually removed via water changes and good husbandry meaning blow off the rocks with a turkey baster, clean your sand and have ample flow throughout so ditrius doesnt settle in hidden places.cheato by its self will do nothing for your nutrient export it just helps.

using ro water,regular light schedules with bulbs of good age, flow, media reactors,refuge,regular water changes,carbon dosing, low feedings, blotting frozen food,keeping a low bio load,skimmer etc etc etc are all things we use together to control nutrients any of these by them selves dont really do the trick.

diatoms is something that happens in new tanks for the most part, and usually will dissappear once the tank is stabilized, if it becomes really unsightly you can kill your lights and stir it around or brush it off rocks but it will come back but usually dissappears with in a couple weeks if the conditions are right meaning not adding more nutrients to your tank

if this is a new tank i suggest taking it slower and making sure you do some research basically you want to improve water quality before moving any further ahead with fish or corals.

cheers:)

[MKLKT]

Check for sources of phosphates and silicates.

[Xenoch88]

ok, so toss the chaeto (can get more at the LFS locally or a local reefer may have some).

I am using tap water (all that is available at the moment, getting RO:Di shortly from school).

I was hoping that the Chaeto would be able to out compete most of those, and for the cleaning crew, right now I have a few astrea snails and a couple hermit crabs, getting more next weekend when a friend of mine returns from a vancouver trip.

Here is the list of what I will be getting, do you think this will be enough and will do well?

Display:

2 Bumble Bee snails
2 Cerith
4 Nassarius
1 Red legged hermit

Refugium/Sump

(refugium section with sand and rock approx 2-3 gallon):
2 nassarius
2 Astrea
2 Blue legged hermits

[reefwars]

ok, so toss the chaeto (can get more at the LFS locally or a local reefer may have some).

I am using tap water (all that is available at the moment, getting RO:Di shortly from school).

I was hoping that the Chaeto would be able to out compete most of those, and for the cleaning crew, right now I have a few astrea snails and a couple hermit crabs, getting more next weekend when a friend of mine returns from a vancouver trip.

Here is the list of what I will be getting, do you think this will be enough and will do well?

Display:

2 Bumble Bee snails
2 Cerith
4 Nassarius
1 Red legged hermit

Refugium/Sump

(refugium section with sand and rock approx 2-3 gallon):
2 nassarius
2 Astrea
2 Blue legged hermits


bumblebee snails are not reef safe so take caution if you are going to add them.

also its def good that you are ading a fuge it helps with pod reproduction and nutrient export but if you want to eliminate hair algae you have to find the cause of nutrients in your tank or it will never go away.

[Xenoch88]

Just took the bumble bes off the list. Thanks

[reefwars]

Just took the bumble bes off the list. Thanks


anytime thats what were here for;) gooduck and cheers)

[MKLKT]

I've found cerith snails to be pretty darn good, they don't die by falling over from what I've seen. (Astrea snails and turbos love to do this.) A conch or sand sifting star is going to be a lot better at cleaning sand than Nassarius snails will unless you have a large number.

[Xenoch88]

I am thinkin 5, and the others, would they fit in a 10 gallon?