Ugly Tank Contest!

did you see how fast the coral grew though in the same shots?

 

The plans for bringing the new tank on line are for the macro algae in the sump to get off to a good start before much of any thing goes into the tank....grow the algae where I want it....not in the display tank.....should make it slower for anything to start in the main tank.

 

Exactly. You won't get it 100%, it may form slowly, but a crew would be able to tackle it. Diatoms who feast on silica will be unaffected, (macros don't remove silica really), but they are easy to control, and will help boost copepod levels.

 

Before -



After...





In the past 4 days, I have done two 80% water changes and I have pulled all my live-stock from the main display and have them crammed into the biocube...

 

ouch...what do you think is causing the water to be cloudy? Have you been running a skimmer on it?

 

I was instructed that it was a major algae bloom that is causing my issues....

Skimmer is on it, and I'm having to empty it daily.

 

I don't suppose you could send a cleaner crew to canada

 

No sorry, for Canadian shipments to work we need a pro on the other hand to deal with customs, (right licenses, forms, vet approval in some cases, etc...), so we don't do it.

Fritts... you were probably told right, looks like a huge bloom of micro-algae. Something like that must have had a large phosphate spike, or a phosphate/silica spike. Are you using RO/DI water? If so, have you checked the source with a TDS meter?

 

I have heard (but do not know myself) that black sand can bring in a lot of silica. Just a thought.

I recently read a thread with similar pics to your cloudiness that ended up being attributed to a dramatic bloom of pods. I was surprised too.

So if nothing seems to work, look into those directions for ideas...

Good luck.

 

the green water would certainly feed the pods and they would bloom, but I wonder what came first their the pods or the bloom in that case you were talking about.

beached sand does contain a fair amount of bio-available silica throughout it. Not that it was discussed, but I think all sand is made of silica, and it is combined into a stable form and doesn't leach into the tank. (So is your aquarium's glass, but it doesn't melt, etc...) So silicate sand doesn't really pose a threat, it is the stuff on it though that might.