rust coloured stuff on lr

[paley]

over the past 4 days some of my live rock has been getting a covering of a rusty coloured algae/diatoms. it looks slightly fluffy. 45 gallon tank been set up fof 7 wks, using r/o, skimmer, 39w white-39w actinic turned on for 11 hrs a day. anyone got any ideas what it is and how i get rid of it? thanks all:confused:

[Craig Robinson]

Can you take a picture?

It could be diatoms, cyanobacteria or dinoflagelletes.

[paley]

yeh but im not sure how to get it on here

[Gaters]

It's all part of a new tank, are you running a phosphate remover and regular water changes?

[paley]

no phosphate remover, but doing regular water changes. 10% a wk

[Gaters]

no phosphate remover, but doing regular water changes. 10% a wk

You really need to fluidise a phos remover-imo it would be better to buy this before any livestock:Dhth With this and your water changes your 'rust' should disappear fairly quickly.

[paley]

how do i fluidise a phos remover?:confused:

[cl0wn]

theres a few fluidisers in the diy section if you don't want to pay out for one. it's essentially a cannister where water is pushed from the bottom to the top and out, the phos remover is placed inside and the gentle flow up through the phos remover, fluidises it (lifting it gently in the water) and makes it work more effectively.

[Tangman]

how do i fluidise a phos remover?:confused:
Hi you need a phosphate reactor that you put the remover in and pump it round slowing so that it takes the excess phosphates out of the water. Just google phosphate reactors and you will see what i mean HTH Twiggy:D:D

[TheCoralGardenLtd]

Most tanks go through several "Stages" between "Cycling" and finally reaching something approaching "Maturity", this is simply one of them. Possibly caused by an excess of silicates in the water. Now, in theory using GOOD quality R/O water this should be reduced, BUT, in my experience most people are conned into thinking that R/O water is the be all and end all of Reef Keeping.
It certainly helps, and is probably a must, BUT, R?O water is NOT allways what you think it is.
To be any good, its quality must be monitored at production, and not many shops or people actually do that! In fact most shops that sell R/O water actually sell water that is only SLIGHTLY better than tap water, and most people doing there own do not take enough care of the units to produce an exceptable quality produced.
The produce water in theory SHOULD be fine for Reefkeeping if the produced water has a TDS of anything under 20ppm, and most units will produce at around 6 or 7ppm, less if a DI stage is fitted. BUT, the ONLY way to be sure is to use a DI stage, and ONLY use water produced at 0PPM, NOTHING else.
Anyway, this aside, some form of Phosphate remover on the system should solve the problem, as allready stated, as it will remove silicates as well as phosphate.;)