Bad diatoms or something else?

[SaltwaterGardening]

sure looks like dinos to me mine started out on the sand but eventually it grew on the wall like a brown stringy spider web

Look for coralife turbo twist. I have one on my QT and a larger one on my DT and they are compact but work great! And they don’t break the bank

We just installed a Coralife Turbo Twist 3x 9w in our redsea 300xl to get a diatom outbreak under control and prevent future pests.

 

[Dmac]

How did you plumb it?

 

[Dmac]

So after two days of blackout and dosing neo nitro for 3, I finally got my nitrates up to 10ppm. Dino's are mostly gone.

 

[SaltwaterGardening]

How did you plumb it?

Top back left corner of my redsea 300xl. The unit sits gently on top of the piping that runs across the back top and to the front along perimeter walls. Cut tubing to match Coralife Twist UV Sterilizer hosing, pulling water from the back left corner of the sump using a pump and then dumped back in same area of sump.

 

[Dmac]

Just realized phosphates are still really low at .01 but not gonna worry about that now

 

[NanCrab]

Top back left corner of my redsea 300xl. The unit sits gently on top of the piping that runs across the back top and to the front along perimeter walls. Cut tubing to match Coralife Twist UV Sterilizer hosing, pulling water from the back left corner of the sump using a pump and then dumped back in same area of sump.

It is better to dump UV water into the baffle before your return pump instead of the same chamber you pull from because you are reprocessing the same water over and over. I pull from the section the drain dumps into and return to the baffle before the return pump. If you return directly to return pump section it causes microbubbles

 

[SaltwaterGardening]

It is better to dump UV water into the baffle before your return pump instead of the same chamber you pull from because you are reprocessing the same water over and over. I pull from the section the drain dumps into and return to the baffle before the return pump. If you return directly to return pump section it causes microbubbles

Thanks, I’ll let my husband know he should adjust that. We’re still figuring this stuff out.

 

[NanCrab]

Thanks, I’ll let my husband know he should adjust that. We’re still figuring this stuff out.

Believe me I completely understand. A lot of people do it that way but I did a lot of research on it and this is what is recommended. @aestheticlibra is an invaluable resource for people just starting up. He literally saved our tank several months ago. Shawn is his name.

 

[ZapataInc]

Believe me I completely understand. A lot of people do it that way but I did a lot of research on it and this is what is recommended. @aestheticlibra is an invaluable resource for people just starting up. He literally saved our tank several months ago. Shawn is his name.

Its just @Shawn now....lol easier than Aestheticlibra.

 

[NanCrab]

Thanks Zap!

 

[Dmac]

We just installed a Coralife Turbo Twist 3x 9w in our redsea 300xl to get a diatom outbreak under control and prevent future pests.

I've read some reviews that say this model had an issue with voltage and the bulb housing leaking. Anybody had one long enough to comment on this?

 

[SaltwaterGardening]

I've read some reviews that say this model had an issue with voltage and the bulb housing leaking. Anybody had one long enough to comment on this?

Our Coralife UV sits above the sump as precaution against possible leaks, but we haven’t had any issues over the last few weeks. Our diatoms are fully under control now.

 

[Dmac]

What size pump did you get for your sterilizer? Mine will only have about two to three feet of head pressure

 

[SaltwaterGardening]

What size pump did you get for your sterilizer? Mine will only have about two to three feet of head pressure

I bought the lowest flow Sicce pump at Premier Aquatics. Maybe 0.5 or 1.0, but not certain.

 

[NanCrab]

We’ve had the 12 for 5 months and the 18 about 2 months. They in the water we so I’m not sure about stray voltage but seems to work really well. I started out with a really nice Pentair but it was enormous and we just couldn’t find the space for it. I have just a small adjustable flow pump on mine. We draw water from the skimmer section and return to the baffle area just before the return pump

 

[Dmac]

Got my coralife 6x setup today. Hopefully will see some progress soon. I used a 370gph pump but does anybody think this is too high?

 

[Dmac]

Got my coralife 6x setup today. Hopefully will see some progress soon. I used a 370gph pump but does anybody think this is too high?

My bad. It's a317gph pump