Diatoms from silica causing red, green, brown slime

[reefnut5]

I have 75 gal with 40 gal sump for about two years. Everything was going great until I moved. Bought RO, silica remover and still have ugly slime everywere. I also increased the ph to 8.6 as well as decreased the lighting from 12 hrs to 4 hrs. But my corals were dying so I had to increase the light to 8 hrs. Now I have everything growing there red slime, diatoms are out of control, green algea is also growing. I do not know what to do anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions how to stop this?

[dobejazz]

Welcome to TRT!
A few questions to try and solve your problem
Have you tested for phosphates?
What kind of substrate? did you replace it when you moved?
Do you have a skimmer?

[reefnut5]

Thanks, Kelli. And, yes I did. The Phosphate is zero. I have a PhosBan Reactor 150 in the sump. Substate is aragonite sand, and I did not replace when we moved. As to the protein skimmer I have Euro-Reef
CS6-2 up to 80 gal. I appreciate any ideas.

Monika

[dobejazz]

I used aggressive water changes and siphoning out as much slime as I could every time as well as reduced feedings to clear up my tank.

what kind of lighting do you have? and did the flow change at all after the move? old bulbs and low flow are reputed to trigger cyano blooms also

[Spanky]

Hey Monika, I moved your thread to the general discussion. You'll get more help with this over here.

AND

Welcome to TRT!

[reefnut5]

I do about 10% water changes every month, we well as siphoning out the slime, and I did cut the feeding to once a day.

As to the light I have 10000K White/6700K White PowerCompact Bulb, the Actinic 03/7100K Blue PowerCompact Bulb and the Lunar Lights (4x96). And i bought new bulbs in February of this year.

[reefnut5]

Thanks "Spanky".

[dobejazz]

Hmm I was doing 15-20g water changes every 2-3 days on my 95 when it was at it's worst

How deep is your sand bed?

[reefnut5]

Wow that's a big change. How large is your tank? I have 2 inches of sand bed.

[dobejazz]

Do you siphon it out regularly? It seems that you have a build up of phosphates somewhere.

[reefnut5]

I do siphoning also once a month same time as the water changes. Maybe I am not doing as often as I should then. I'll increase the water changes and the siphoning to what you did. Did that help with the diatoms in your tank?

[dobejazz]

Yes it helped alot Good Luck and keep us posted!
For regular maintence I try to change 10 percent 15-20g every 2 weeks

[reefnut5]

Thanks Kelli. I will.

[Loverotties]

Hows your nitrates!.I do 10% aweek and feed every 3 days and chage my lights every 6 months!

[HowardX]

Even though you said you now have an RO unit, have you checked the TDS before using the water in your tank? There may still be something in your water that is fueling your problem, and it doesn't take much really. Also, what brand of Phosphate test kit are you using and how often are you changing the PhosBan in your reactor?

Also might not be a bad idea to check with your local water utility and get some specs on what's in the water supply.