Red Film/Algea?

[DH_Freak]

I just got home from work and have noticed what appears to be a red film or algea on some of my LR and sand bed or I should say on the screen material separating the lower lv of my sand bed. I have also noticed sorta late in the day a lot of air bubbles on the LR also. Is this any reason for concern?

Thanks

Scott

[Aged Salt]

Hi Scott, can you give us more info, ie. nutrient levels/ using ZEOvit? how long? What's your net water vol & current zeo-dosing, including quantity of zeolites used? Recent use of Ca RX? Recent change of salt? Recent increase in bioload?Recent change in photoperiod? Change in current[addition of new LR] Sorry for all the questions, but answers to these are necessary in trying to uncover etiology of your problem. Thnx. Bob

[DH_Freak]

Ok here it goes:

Sal .023
Ca 420ppm
Mg-1500
Alk-8.1dkh
PH- 8.0
Phos-.25mg/L
Nitrate- 40ppm
Nitrite- 0
Temp- 79-82
Water Vol- 90g Total (Main tank,Sump and Refugium)

I have been using ZEO since August if I remember correctly.
My dosing of ZEO is- Bak 2drops once every 3-4 days, 1.5ml start every 2days, .75litres of ZEOvit in a filter sock in sump ( Madison is will be making me a reactor next week hopefully ),
Food 4drops daily, Amino 2 drops every other day, Potasium floride 2 drops every other day.
I use Oceanic salt and Bionic 2part ca currently till I get a reactor or a controller not sure what one to get first. I also add Kent mag.
I have been dosing the calcium at 4ml part1 and 15ml every 3 days.
I have not added any fish/lr or corals for about 3months.

I hope I got it all there.

Thanks

Scott

[Aged Salt]

Hi Scott, I'm still a little surprised your nutrients are that high, even with no zeo-filter, which BTW, will allow cycling of the media with improved results. A few things that pop out to me are how much & how often do you feed your fish? Nutrient import reduction is important & I know you know this. Be sure to "wet-skim" or possibly consider a larger skimmer?? to help exportation better. Also consider increasing your intank flow. Finally, be sure to do you WC's with low TDS RODI water. This may be a nutrient source. Scott, omce you have your zeo-filter in place, plz. post all your tank info from the sticky questionnaire at the top of this forum & I'll adjust your zeo-dosing. Thnx. Bob

[DH_Freak]

Thanks Bob.

I will be sure to update once I get my ZEO reactor and my new Deltec skimmer wich should be here on Monday. I have been feeding my fish some Spectrum Thera A once a day in the morning (very low quantity) and also feed them some frozen bryne shrimp that is cleansed very well (also low quantity). If you think thats still to much let me know and I will slowly readjust that dosing.

Scott

[Aged Salt]

Scott, maybe so--how many fish & type of fish do you keep. Bob

[DH_Freak]

I have:
1- Queen Angel 5-6"
1- Blue Tang 5"
1- Yellow Eye Tang 4"
1- Six Line Wrasse 3"
1- Flame Angel 3"
1- Coral Beauty 3"
2- Chromis 2"
2- Diamond Gobbies 5"

Let me know if any other flags you might see.

Thanks Bob


Scott

[Aged Salt]

Scott, I'd decrease the feedings & once you incorporate the filter with a new set of zeo's, your nutrients will begin to disappear. Bob

[DH_Freak]

Hey Bob,

Wanted to post a update. I changed out my ZEOvit and carbon on Sunday and here are my new postings after a 10% w/c:

Ca- 400
KH- 6.7
MG- 1100
Sal- 31
PO4- .15
NO3- 30ppm

:blue: Also my 2 main sps that hadnt shown any polyp extension in almost a month or more now are showing signs of there old ways. They are also starting to color up again.
I have reduced my fish feedings to every other day.
And also dosing the Start at .2ml every day and AA at 3drops a day.
Every Sunday and Wednesday I am dosing Start-AA-Bak-Food and Potasium and on Sunday only dosing Spur at 2ml currently.

Let me know if you think I should adjust dosing even further. Hopefully my Deltec skimmer shows up today and I can work on plumbing that in and removing my Refugium.

Thanks

Scott

[Aged Salt]

Scott, try dosing Start daily in two equal doses of .1ml--this will be more effective than the .2ml once/day Bob

[DH_Freak]

Ok hope this works. Here are some pictures of what I have going on.

I have cut dosing any zeo for the last 3 days and have had no change in getting rid of this red film/algea.






Please let me know what it is or how to get rid of it.

Thanks

Scott

[fkadir]

Scott, I would make sure that you are using the correct amount of zeoliths for your tank volume and double check the flow thru the reactor. I had that problem and found that my reactor flow is too slow. I upped it to the correct flowrate roughly and the cyano that i was facing is slowly receeding. hth

[DH_Freak]

Scott, I would make sure that you are using the correct amount of zeoliths for your tank volume and double check the flow thru the reactor. I had that problem and found that my reactor flow is too slow. I upped it to the correct flowrate roughly and the cyano that i was facing is slowly receeding. hth

Thanks for the response. I am currently running 3/4 litre of Zeolith on a 75g w/ 20g sump and total water volume of around 85g. I don't have a reactor yet waiting on one from Madison. I have them in a sock on my overflow spout from tank to sump.
I will try and decrease the Zeo and up the seaswirl a bit more and see what happens.

Thanks again

Scott G

[G.Alexander]

Scott, the red cyanos should not be a issue if you run the system as recommended in the guide. I would suggest you to do some changes as follows:

1. As you plan I would add a zeo reactor. Some interesting posts regarding water flow through the reactor are discussed in this thread: http://66.246.56.221/~zeovit/forums/...read.php?t=322

2. Until the nutrients are falling measurable I would suggest to clean the skimmer pot daily with hot water also running it what we call wet skimming. Please take care the skimmer will not overflow while you adjust it.

3. Until nutrients are not much lower, I would recommend you to stop the dosage of iodine and ZeoSpur2. This is absolute “colour fine tuning” which is not necessary now. Because of the air bubbles attached to the rocks, I would suggest to stop the dosage of amino acids for about 2 weeks, starting again with a lower quantiy then now.

4. Until you nutrients are much lower, I would also suggest to change the zeolites ever 4 – 6 weeks. I also would adjust the dosage as follows:

Daily: 1 ml ZeoStart twice a day in the morning and in the evening all the time.

After changing the zeolite every other day:

2 drops ZeoBac
2 drops ZeoFood

For a 2 week period.

Than I would suggest to change them to once a week:

2 drops ZeoBac
2 drops ZeoFood

Until you change the zeolite again starting with the above dosage.

Weekly: Water change of 5 – 10 %

The dosage must be adjusted (lowered) if your nutrients are decreasing.

If you notice any STN I would suggest to cut the daily ZeoStart dosage to 0,5 ml in the morning
and 0,5 ml in the evening

5. I would recommend you to check your RO unit if it is working proper.

6. It looks like your salinity has dropped, because of the lower Mg and Ca reading in your second water parameter post. I would recommend to slow rise salinity to 34 – 35 ppt. This works fine by adding some salt to the top of water until you reached 34 – 35 ppt. Do this slow, 2 – 3 weeks are adequate. Please also make sure your salinity measure is correct. Attend if you rise your salinity, your Mg and Ca levels also will rise. They finally can be adjusted when you reached the correct salinity to the levels described in the guide.

7. Please make sure you use a PO4 free carbon (how to check is explained in the guide.

G.Alexander

[nyfireman3097]

ok i have a question i am having the same problem i have 125g i have 1l of zeo in a reactor correct flow and my readings on salifert are 0 and my dosing is 1ml split to 2x a day 4 drops of AA and Flour daily 4 drops of bak/food 2x a week i wet skimm and have been using zeo since DEC 17th 2004
Nick