ArabTanker Posted October 20, 2014 Author Share Posted October 20, 2014 Yo, so whats the update? Whats up man! Hm, update... Well. A lot of bubble algae haha. I havent done a water change in two/three weeks now. The LPS are loving it. My monti cap is suffering a little. Fish are happier than ever. Ohh. I got a Lubbock's wrasse. Awesome little fella. So right now I have a Black and White clown, Kole Tang, Sapphire Damsel and a Lubbock's wrasse. They're all friends and create a lot of movement in the tank. Havent got the Kole to eat pellets yet though. Hes been picking at algae for the past 2 months. But he seems healthy. I'll try getting some pictures up. Thanks for asking. I've been swamped with school and work. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 http://s172.photobucket.com/user/coipo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20141025_202015.jpg.html'> http://s172.photobucket.com/user/coipo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140930_220428.jpg.html'> http://s172.photobucket.com/user/coipo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20141012_173336.jpg.html'> http://s172.photobucket.com/user/coipo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20141012_173358.jpg.html'> http://s172.photobucket.com/user/coipo/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20141013_222054.jpg.html'> Bam. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Blarp. I keep slacking on water changes. I really need to get a wc station in order. Hope everyone is well. Link to comment
Lawnman Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Looking good!!! How is the Silverado doing? Link to comment
NorthGaHillbilly Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Glad to see things are lookin good. How's the mh treating ya? Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 Glad to see things are lookin good. How's the mh treating ya? Thanks man. MH's are fine. I do have a lot of algae though. Probably because I only change water once every 2-3 weeks. Today I was checking out my tank and found my lubbocks wrasse laying on the sand under a rock. He's still breathing but I don think he is going to survive. I have no idea what happened to him. The last time I saw a fish like that it had spinal injuries. I also cant find my yellow eye tang ANYWHERE. Today is a sad day. Link to comment
Jackal_Knight Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 sorry to hear about the your fish, i lost a clown and a starry was bumbed for a while about it. you should step up your water changes, Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 sorry to hear about the your fish, i lost a clown and a starry was bumbed for a while about it. you should step up your water changes, Thanks. Yeah I know I should. Well. I just hope the tang shows up. I really liked that guy. I also really liked the wrasse. Well. The semester is over in a week so I have time to make any appropriate changes before I go back. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted December 28, 2014 Author Share Posted December 28, 2014 I put in a big order with reef cleaners. Should come in tuesday. Hope everyone is doing well. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Well. I got the CUC from RC. Wasn't too happy. Not sure why. I had no luck with the limpets and fuzzy chitons. All died but one small limpet that stays at the top of the tank. And the hermit crabs I received were TINY. I mean seriously tiny. And some of them weren't even blue legs. Two days after I received it I headed over to a local guy I always buy from. I got a sea hare, pin cushion urchin, hand full of turbo snails, and 2 more emerald crabs. Im popping the bubble algae with a siphon during water changes. Kind of just leaving the hair algae for the cuc. Starting to think its time for a wc station and dosing kalk. Ill start in the near future. Maybe even this week. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 What salt you using? Coral growth can be so many things it's mind boggling. Definitely don't dose kalk (or anything) unless you're testing and seeing it drop. On your tank thread, make a new post going over everything about the tank - filtration, other equipment, what you feed, how much you feed, anything else you do, anything else you think might be relevant, and I'll go over and see if I can help out Thanks for the help Ben. Im using instant ocean reef crystals mixed with rodi water (0-2 tds). Filtration: 20g sump with a fuge and sac skimmer - occasionally use filter sock Equipment: Digital heater, ATO Food: I feed New Life Spectrum Marine once every two days. I cut down after two of my fish died. Just a little pinch. Lighting: 2x150watt MH and 2x t5HO I did go for about 2 months doing a water change once every two weeks. A few weeks ago my yellow eye kole tang vanished and my lubbocks wrasse was in very poor condition. Found it on the sand bed breathing very shallow - I euthanized it. Kole tang or remans of it haven't been found. Algae bloom started before the fish died. Link to comment
markalot Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Corals won't grow until you start feeding the tank on a regular basis. I feed 3 or 4 times daily, that keeps the fish healthy. I also add coral food to both my tanks to keep the corals healthy. I have 'ick' in my tank but as long as the fish are fat and happy I only have to worry about an outbreak when I add new fish. If you starve the tank to starve the algae then fish and corals will suffer. After making this mistake myself it has become so obvious (to me anyway) why new tanks struggle so much. You want to feed heavy to build bacteria in the tank to be able to handle more food, but when algae crops up people freak out and cut back. That trick almost never works. Get some thin striped hermits for algae cleanup. They get BIG, big enough to be pets, but they will eat most kinds of bad algae, except for bryopsis. Can't help with bubble algae, look at the mess my 29 is. My 29 is a good example of how trashed a tank can get with heavy feeding, water changes, poor export (crappy skimmer), and yet with two thin stripes and a little manual labor it's still presentable, and the fish are fat and happy. Now that the tank is getting older when I clean it takes longer and longer for the algae to grow back. It's an aging process IMO. More meticulous reef keepers can do a much better job than me, but I love my little tank and the mess that it is. As for parameters. Throw out all API kits. I see you tested PH with an API PH kit? Just say no. Get a nice Alk and calcium kit, I like Salifert. Test calcium occasionally to make sure it doesn't drop too low, otherwise ignore it. Test KH and try to lock it in at a value of your choosing. Test at the same time every day before dosing anything. If KH drops say .25 in a day then google a reef calculator, put in the product you want to use, and go. For me two part is easiest and if a calculator shows I need 20ml of the Alk part I simply also dose 20ml of the calcium part. In my 29 I take the opposite approach I do in my 150. I mix Kalk with my topoff and add 45ml of vinegar / gallon of RO/DI + 4 tsp of Kalk for a super saturated mixture. My evaporation is low so I need to do this. This mixture in the topoff just happens to keep Alk around 9.5 but I almost never test. I don't keep acros in my little tank so I don't really care, nor do I have time to care. Last thing. You say you use 2 TDS RO water? I bet that 2 TDS is mostly algae food and getting that to 0 would be a good first step. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Mark beat me to basically everything. Feed every day as much as you possibly can. I feed on average three pinches of NLS pellets (1.0mm) and a 1.5"x1.5" hunk of LRS herbivore frenzy daily. This took a long time to get my bioload and filtration to be able to handle this much nutrient import, so if you start feeding like this (I recommend it) you may need to look at small amounts of carbon dosing until your biofilter can catch up. You have a ####ton of light, so if you do not have a lot of corals and great filtration, algae is going to be what is primarily feeding from that light. How long is each type of light and bulb on? What SCA skimmer do you have? Bubble algae is easy. Remove as much as you can manually and purchase a rabbitfish. They're cheap and will eat ANY algae that you can grow. I personally do not like small hermits. I have two large hermits (each in a massive shell, around 2.5" long) that are easily removable if they become assholes. Florida cerith and astrea snails make up the brunt of my CUC, with Euplica snails right behind them, and then adding in dwarf ceriths, limpets (collected myself), and periwinkles. Nassarius help with leftover food, as do a couple of serpent starfish. I'm on the hunt for another hawkwing conch, those things are semi-comples algae MACHINES. Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 I like my fighting conch, nice critter. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 I'm sorry for the delayed response, I was out of state for a few days. Corals won't grow until you start feeding the tank on a regular basis. I feed 3 or 4 times daily, that keeps the fish healthy. I also add coral food to both my tanks to keep the corals healthy. I have 'ick' in my tank but as long as the fish are fat and happy I only have to worry about an outbreak when I add new fish. If you starve the tank to starve the algae then fish and corals will suffer. After making this mistake myself it has become so obvious (to me anyway) why new tanks struggle so much. You want to feed heavy to build bacteria in the tank to be able to handle more food, but when algae crops up people freak out and cut back. That trick almost never works. Get some thin striped hermits for algae cleanup. They get BIG, big enough to be pets, but they will eat most kinds of bad algae, except for bryopsis. Can't help with bubble algae, look at the mess my 29 is. My 29 is a good example of how trashed a tank can get with heavy feeding, water changes, poor export (crappy skimmer), and yet with two thin stripes and a little manual labor it's still presentable, and the fish are fat and happy. Now that the tank is getting older when I clean it takes longer and longer for the algae to grow back. It's an aging process IMO. More meticulous reef keepers can do a much better job than me, but I love my little tank and the mess that it is. Yeah I thought cutting down on food would help with the algae because I was feeding so much. I could go back to feeding everyday. What kind of coral food are you feeding? I have a few smaller thin striped hermits in my tank. I will look into getting some bigger ones though. Yes a couple of months ago when the break out started, I continued to feed regularly but it just got worse. It seems like you found a solid threshold to keep your tank in. I'll keep looking for mine haha. As for parameters. Throw out all API kits. I see you tested PH with an API PH kit? Just say no. Get a nice Alk and calcium kit, I like Salifert. Test calcium occasionally to make sure it doesn't drop too low, otherwise ignore it. Test KH and try to lock it in at a value of your choosing. Test at the same time every day before dosing anything. If KH drops say .25 in a day then google a reef calculator, put in the product you want to use, and go. For me two part is easiest and if a calculator shows I need 20ml of the Alk part I simply also dose 20ml of the calcium part. I understand how crappy API kits are. But I don't think its work investing into an expensive, basic, test kit. I only use them for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH. For mag, cal, and alk I use my Red Sea kit. Although, I wouldn't mind buying a quality pH tester. What values of Ca is too low and what alk level is desired? In my 29 I take the opposite approach I do in my 150. I mix Kalk with my topoff and add 45ml of vinegar / gallon of RO/DI + 4 tsp of Kalk for a super saturated mixture. My evaporation is low so I need to do this. This mixture in the topoff just happens to keep Alk around 9.5 but I almost never test. I don't keep acros in my little tank so I don't really care, nor do I have time to care. Last thing. You say you use 2 TDS RO water? I bet that 2 TDS is mostly algae food and getting that to 0 would be a good first step. What is the vinegar for? Yes. When I first turn on the RODI filter I get 2 TDS water. But after a few minutes, as adequate pressure builds up, I get 0 TDS. Often times I just start filling my buckets after a min or so after turning it on. So I have some water that isn't 0 TDS. I change my RODI filters once I see a spike in TDS. Mark beat me to basically everything. Feed every day as much as you possibly can. I feed on average three pinches of NLS pellets (1.0mm) and a 1.5"x1.5" hunk of LRS herbivore frenzy daily. This took a long time to get my bioload and filtration to be able to handle this much nutrient import, so if you start feeding like this (I recommend it) you may need to look at small amounts of carbon dosing until your biofilter can catch up. I will start increasing my feeding. I can also start using using carbon. You have a ####ton of light, so if you do not have a lot of corals and great filtration, algae is going to be what is primarily feeding from that light. How long is each type of light and bulb on? MH: 3 hours T5s: 9 hours What SCA skimmer do you have? I have a SCA-301 Bubble algae is easy. Remove as much as you can manually and purchase a rabbitfish. They're cheap and will eat ANY algae that you can grow. It seems like everyone has luck with different things one it comes to bubble algae. Example: Emeralds, tangs, and sea hares. Do rabbitfish normally eat bubble algae? I had a Khol tang that never touched the stuff. Also, are foxfaces and rabbitfish interchangeable? I personally do not like small hermits. I have two large hermits (each in a massive shell, around 2.5" long) that are easily removable if they become assholes. Florida cerith and astrea snails make up the brunt of my CUC, with Euplica snails right behind them, and then adding in dwarf ceriths, limpets (collected myself), and periwinkles. Nassarius help with leftover food, as do a couple of serpent starfish. I'm on the hunt for another hawkwing conch, those things are semi-comples algae MACHINES. I'm having a lot of trouble finding larger hermits for sale locally. I do however regularly buy astrea, dwarf ceriths, nassarius and nerite snails. Additionally, I have 3 emerald crabs, a pincushion urchin, a sea hare, and a sand sifting starfish. I will start looking for hawking conchs. Thanks a lot for the help guys. I really appreciate it. I will follow your advice. Going to test for alk cal and mag soon. I'll relay the results. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 What values of Ca is too low and what alk level is desired? Calcium between 380-450ppm, alk 140-200ppm (7.8-11dKH). What is the vinegar for? Carbon source. MH: 3 hours T5s: 9 hours I would bump the T5 to 12 hours (if you have more than two, stagger them, have one set 12 hours, the other 10ish) and then the MH for 4-6 hours. Bump up to these times slowly. I have a SCA-301 While a good skimmer, far too small. It seems like everyone has luck with different things one it comes to bubble algae. Example: Emeralds, tangs, and sea hares. Do rabbitfish normally eat bubble algae? I had a Khol tang that never touched the stuff. Also, are foxfaces and rabbitfish interchangeable? Foxface is a kind of rabbitfish, rabbitfish is the proper 'common' name for the Siganus and Lo genera. Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Calcium between 380-450ppm, alk 140-200ppm (7.8-11dKH). Carbon source. I would bump the T5 to 12 hours (if you have more than two, stagger them, have one set 12 hours, the other 10ish) and then the MH for 4-6 hours. Bump up to these times slowly. While a good skimmer, far too small. Foxface is a kind of rabbitfish, rabbitfish is the proper 'common' name for the Siganus and Lo genera. You want me to bump the lights up and feed more? I want the algae to go away, Ben! I can look into getting one that is higher rated. Good, I've always wanted a one spot foxface. Thank you. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 You want me to bump the lights up and feed more? I want the algae to go away, Ben! I can look into getting one that is higher rated. Good, I've always wanted a one spot foxface. Thank you. That comes as filtration increases. If you just have that skimmer, then you're very, very, very underfiltered. http://www.amazon.com/SCA-303-Gallon-Protein-Skimmer-Sump/dp/B00HLYFX0K Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 That comes as filtration increases. If you just have that skimmer, then you're very, very, very underfiltered. http://www.amazon.com/SCA-303-Gallon-Protein-Skimmer-Sump/dp/B00HLYFX0K I'll order one soon. I also think it would be a good idea to replace my MH bulbs. I think that might be a contributor to the algae. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I'll order one soon. I also think it would be a good idea to replace my MH bulbs. I think that might be a contributor to the algae. Eh, not really. Coral farms that still use metal halide usually use either Radium 20K or Iwasaki 6500K, and I've never seen any with the Iwasakis that had algae problems, just gotta have good filtration. Link to comment
NorthGaHillbilly Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 S beastly skimmer is a must for me. I'm not as diligent with my maintenance as I should be, and feed too much, bit a hugely oversized skimmer has taken up the slack. ~50 gallons of water, RO 150 and its constantly pulling disgusting crud Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Eh, not really. Coral farms that still use metal halide usually use either Radium 20K or Iwasaki 6500K, and I've never seen any with the Iwasakis that had algae problems, just gotta have good filtration. S beastly skimmer is a must for me. I'm not as diligent with my maintenance as I should be, and feed too much, bit a hugely oversized skimmer has taken up the slack. ~50 gallons of water, RO 150 and its constantly pulling disgusting crud Alright then. I'll have a new skimmer within the next two weeks. Tested my water and got: Ca: 490 Alk: 10.1 Mg: 1440 Link to comment
ArabTanker Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Anyone know what would cause an increase in Alk? I started feeding more. I also added phosphate removing sponge in the sump. Contemplating the use of carbon. If I do use it, I would just put it into a media bag and throw it into the sump. I had a couple of phosbans but never really liked them. I received two MH bulb replacements. Both 150w 14k. I gave them a shot earlier today and they're significantly brighter. Algae is still all over. One Spot Foxface is on hold for me this weekend. Going to pick it up at Kat's birthday party. Link to comment
nidding Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Hey ArabT. Waaaay long ago since I last checked up on your tank. Really digging the rock scape : Link to comment
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