Mixing tanks

[Ne0eN]

I have not! :( ... my solution -- no water changes!

 

That has worked well to bring the algae under control but not a good long term solution. The lid didn't help. Taking the heater out didn't help. I'm a bit at a loss. If I make water NO MORE THAN 1 day in advance I can minimize the brown stuff and the skimmer and whatnot should be able to handle the new nutrient intake. Haven't tested this of course, waiting for the alge to all go away. It's 90% gone at this point.

 

 

 

Yanek,

 

Are you by any chance using the boxed IO that was part of the BRK's group purchase? Pam has also been having problems with this batch. We have sent a sample back to IO for analysis. (still waiting)

 

-- Rob

[emissary]

Are you by any chance using the boxed IO that was part of the BRK's group purchase? Pam has also been having problems with this batch. We have sent a sample back to IO for analysis. (still waiting)

 

Hmm, why yes. I am. :-\

[Carl]

Wouldn't this be interesting...

 

a first perhaps...

 

a WAMAS group recall on IO salt.

 

-Carl

[emissary]

Are you by any chance using the boxed IO that was part of the BRK's group purchase? Pam has also been having problems with this batch. We have sent a sample back to IO for analysis. (still waiting)

 

Any word on this? I took my mixing tank out to clean it today. Rinsed it out with water. Sprayed vinegar all over the inside. Squeegeed the insides. Rinsed again. Squeegeed again. Rinsed again. Drained. Squeegeed again. Paper towel dried. Paper towels turned light brown.

 

:-\

 

I doubt I got it all out. Whatever it is will "grow" again. It must be alive else it wouldn't incrase in qty, right? I mean... if it reproduces, it's alive right? I'll try to wrap some floss around pump's intake filter to see if that helps. Not sure what else I can do. Should I make a point to seed the water with tank water?

[davelin315]

OK, here's my new and improved guess at what's going on. Either diatoms or dinoflagellates are growing in your mixing tank. I redid a tank the other day and did a 90% water change on it. I scrubbed off all the rocks and even turned over the sandbed multiple times (at deepest it's 2" and it's a mixture of crushed coral frags and reef grade sand), vaccuming it out completely. The release of nutrients triggered a diatom/dinoflagellate bloom so I did some research on it as I haven't had a bloom like this in years. Turns out they don't need much of anything as far as nutrients are concerned and need only the tiniest bit of light to grow. I think this is probably what your problem is. I had it in a mixing tub that received light only from the ceiling fixture and tossed a UV sterilizer on there - pretty sorry looking retrofit as I was using any parts that I could find so I've got a maxi-jet 1200 drilled into a 3/4" pipe running up into the sterilizer then back down through some old silicone tubing. Like I said, pretty sorry looking, but it worked to clear up the water in no time at all. I still have the slimy feeling on the edges of the tank, but it's still working. That's my best guess. This also means, though, that there are probably some silicates in either the water or the salt mix. I don't think this is an isolated thing for you with your IO or the batch from BRK, it's probably just a simple fact of life. One thing that I read that can eliminate this problem is to boost your pH to 8.6 and that should kill it off, but I'm not sure how that would really help you as you'd have to push it back down again when you were ready to do a water change (people reported mixed results with it anyway).

[emissary]

SOLVED.

 

 

Okay so I think there were two things going on here. First of all there was an alkalinity imabalance with the salt. Pam/Rob figured this out. This allowed a white residue to stick to everything in the mixing tank (Day 1)... on subsequent days something (still dunno what) allowed the growth of what was probably dinoflagellates.

 

So what I did is add a simple penguin fillter with carbon and bio-wheel. The mechanical filtration and carbon probably help more than anything else. The tank was cloudy one day and crystal clear the next. A cheap and effective solution for anyone else doing mixing tanks. Now I can do regular water changes again.

[dschflier]

Well I just got back from thanksgivng and saw this thread. I had this same problem about a month ago. I ended up putting a bag of carbon on the PVC that is attached to my stirring pump and now my water is clean again.