All nice, expect... brown

[PBar]

Dear colleagues,
I hope everyone is fine.

My tank is rather new, only 6 months, started with Zeovit.

The tank seems to be doing really well but apparently I overdosed something... probably Zeostart...

Tank:
220 x 45 x 35 cm
Net volume: 350 litres
Bare bottom + Dry Rock
Bubble King 160 Skimmer
2 x Kessil 360x
2 x Radion XR15
4 x Vortech MP40

Dosing:
Zeoreactor 1l (350l/h)
Zeostart3 1ml daily
Zeobak 3 drops 2x/week
Zeofood 6 drops 3x/week
SpongePower 3 drops 3x/week
B-Balance
Xtra
Amino 3 drops 2x/week
Acroglow 3 drops 3/week
CoralVitalizer 3 drops 2x/week

My ICP test (from ATI) gave me Phosphate 0.01 and Nitrate 5.78 mg/l.

I recently started to have an issue with a brown film algae which creates bubbles at lighting period.
I stopped dosing all Zeovit products except for Zeostart and Zeobak.

I dosed for a week Coral Snow daily with CyanoClean followed by a two day blackout... and the algae was almost gone.

But today, after 6 days, they seem to start to come back.

Any advice?

Follow the pictures:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191294...tolist-2kdoK2F
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191294...posted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191294...posted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191294...posted-public/


Yes, I also need help to put the pictures here

[PBar]

Apologies, another important information:
I had an issue with Silicon in the RO water in the first months due to RO problem. First ICP tested detected. So I had some diatoms (but they didn’t had bubbles)
I corrected this issue one month ago... and according to ICP results from last month... the level of silicon (which I’m not sure if it is the same as Silicates) is back to normal.
Still a bit high:
238.9 µg/l

[G.Alexander]

Welcome to ZeoVit.com !

Silicate and Silicon are two completely different things so I expect the ICP test does measure silicates which can be responsible for Diatoms for example which you seem to have at the moment.

To be sure, does they disappear completely while the dark period growing back quick when the lights are switched on the the morning ? If that would be the case it could be Dinoflaggelate also but from the pictures I would tend to say those are Diatoms.

How old is your system and is the used rock live rock, dry rock or any kind of ceramic material for example ?

G.Alexander

[PBar]

Dear G.Alexander,
many thanks! Big fan of your explanations/experiences already from a long time...

No, the algae does not disappear during the dark period.
The tank is 6 months and I used dry rocks (Marco Rocks) plus one small piece of live rock.

Seems that the ICP test from ATI just test Silicon indeed. I’ll try to attach the ICP results

I tend to believe that they are diatoms also...

[G.Alexander]

In the first step it would indeed be interesting to have the Si (silicate) level of your system and the RO water as this can be the reason for the diatoms.

Do you additional run a purest water filter resin as the last stage of your RO unit ?

In the next step some temporary of your dosing regimen would be necessary.

G.Alexander

[PBar]

Let me know if it is possible to visualise the ICP results from the tank water and RO/DI
And I’m running a rather big system for the RO/Di water... but something might be still wrong with it.
After the RO, I have 3 DI filter plus 1 silicate remover.

[PBar]

An now the RO/DI results.
let me know if you can see it.
Thanks!

[dbq5anlxj]

My tank has the same issue also 6 months old. I hope you can find the solution or cause for this.
Edit: I just checked your picture. Mine is not that severe. But around the two month mark, mine is like that. I reduce the zero start dose ever since the issue is much manageable, but still persist.

[G.Alexander]

Can you please contact the test center to ask if Silicone = Silicate in their test result ? I expect the silicone level does contain the concentration of Silicate so therefore there is still space to improve. Silicate is not removed by the RO membrane so if the tap water does contain this element you need a silicate remover resin for your RO unit which you already have but I would expect that a zero level in this case ?

Have you noticed a improvement of the brown film after a water change ?

G.Alexander

[PBar]

Hi Alexander,
see below the answer from ATI:
”if all of the silicon is bound in silicate, you need to multiply the results by ~3,2 to get the value for silicate”

So, I believe that we can assume that my Silicate is probably an issue... and the algae is indeed mostly likely diatom.

Hard to say, but my RO/DI might have an issue... I’ll check the speed in system (if water is passing too fast)

Any other potential idea?

[G.Alexander]

Thank you that makes it clear that your RO water does still contain silicate which might be the source of the problem with the brown film (diatoms) you are experiencing at the moment. If you try to fina a solution you can alternatively use a Si hobby test which will make it easier for your to fix it instead of doing a ICP test each time. A fresh water test would be perfect.

G.Alexander

[PBar]

Dear Alexander,
I’ll start to fix the silicate problem in the tank.

Probably, it will take 6 or 8 weeks to get rid of all...

What it is suggestion in terms of dosing?

The ICP results displayed 0.01 phosphate and 0.11 nitrate.
I found now a bit of cyano also in one small rock...

Currently I’m dosing Zeostart and I started already Coral Snow with CyanoClean (already for a week).

Should I add something else? Or just first wait to get rid of all algae?

My only concern is to get rid of all algae and hit the zero nitrate and phosphate level at the same time... which could bring Dinos.

[G.Alexander]

If your corals are doing fine I would do a temporary change of your dosing regimen for about one week as follows:

Zeostart3 0.35 ml 2 x daily
Zeobak 3 drops 2x/week
Zeofood – stop dosing temporary
SpongePower – stop dosing temporary
B-Balance - stop dosing temporary
Xtra - stop dosing temporary
Amino - stop dosing temporary
Acroglow - stop dosing temporary
CoralVitalizer - 6 drops 2x/week

8 ml CoralSnow mixed with 4 drops CyanoClean daily

G.Alexander