Hello
- Thread starter yudhas
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Hi there,
I just want to say hello. It's my first time having a saltwater tank. I previously had planted tanks, discuss tanks, community tanks, etc. Pretty much anything to do with freshwater tank I've had it before and were pretty successful.
I moved to Sydney, Australia last year and didn't have a tank until over 10 weeks ago. I decided to try a 20g reef tank. I've had it cycled for about 3 weeks with live rock. The live rock came from an established system and were only out of the water for less than 2 hours. Went through diatom then cyano then hair algae (still fighting the hair algae).
The tank is an Aqua Medic Blenny. All the equipment are from the box except for the light which I have switched to an AI Hydra 26 HD and I added a Ecotech VOrtech MP10QD. I've had the light for around 3 weeks and still trying to figure out the settings. Any suggestions are very welcomed. This is the current setting at the moment at its peak
V 55%
UV 60%
DB 80%
B 70%
G 10%
R 10%
CW 45%
The light starts at 7AM and it slowly ramps up for about 4 hours until 4.30pm where it ramps down for 3 hours. From 7.30PM until 3AM I have the moonlight setting. It is set at around 12 inch above the water line.
Right now in terms of stocking I have a pair of black ocellaris, a six line wrasse, a firefish, a twin spot goby, a sand shifting star, 3 trochus, and 3 turbos. For corals I have a few acroporas, a zoanthid, a fungia, 3 brain coral, a hammer coral, a torch coral, a green star polyp (I think), and a toadstool leather.
Right now I'm struggling with hair algae. I've checked both the nitrates and phospates are 0. So I don't know what's going on. I'm not too sure if my settings for the lights are good. And my toadstool leather was doing fine until about a week ago where it started to shrunk. It kinda grew a little but not as much as before and most of the time it just shrinks.
Any help on any of those will be most appreciated. Thanks.
I just want to say hello. It's my first time having a saltwater tank. I previously had planted tanks, discuss tanks, community tanks, etc. Pretty much anything to do with freshwater tank I've had it before and were pretty successful.
I moved to Sydney, Australia last year and didn't have a tank until over 10 weeks ago. I decided to try a 20g reef tank. I've had it cycled for about 3 weeks with live rock. The live rock came from an established system and were only out of the water for less than 2 hours. Went through diatom then cyano then hair algae (still fighting the hair algae).
The tank is an Aqua Medic Blenny. All the equipment are from the box except for the light which I have switched to an AI Hydra 26 HD and I added a Ecotech VOrtech MP10QD. I've had the light for around 3 weeks and still trying to figure out the settings. Any suggestions are very welcomed. This is the current setting at the moment at its peak
V 55%
UV 60%
DB 80%
B 70%
G 10%
R 10%
CW 45%
The light starts at 7AM and it slowly ramps up for about 4 hours until 4.30pm where it ramps down for 3 hours. From 7.30PM until 3AM I have the moonlight setting. It is set at around 12 inch above the water line.
Right now in terms of stocking I have a pair of black ocellaris, a six line wrasse, a firefish, a twin spot goby, a sand shifting star, 3 trochus, and 3 turbos. For corals I have a few acroporas, a zoanthid, a fungia, 3 brain coral, a hammer coral, a torch coral, a green star polyp (I think), and a toadstool leather.
Right now I'm struggling with hair algae. I've checked both the nitrates and phospates are 0. So I don't know what's going on. I'm not too sure if my settings for the lights are good. And my toadstool leather was doing fine until about a week ago where it started to shrunk. It kinda grew a little but not as much as before and most of the time it just shrinks.
Any help on any of those will be most appreciated. Thanks.
BluewaterLa
Active Member
Hello, welcome to R2R.
It seems you have a good amount of stock in a fairly new aquarium.
Saltwater tanks all go through the ugly stages with different algae outbreaks and problems as they cycle and start the process of maturing.
It is perfectly natural to have cyano and hair algae issues.
There are some contributing factors that fuel or feed the algae like nitrate and phosphates. These nutrients among others come from fish waste, uneaten foods breaking down, and frozen food juice.
Over feeding fish needs to be addressed if you are feeding heavily.
Do you have a skimmer for nutrient export ?
And how often are you changing your water ? What % ?
Sometimes it's helpful to manually remove some of the hair algae while you cut back on feeding and get into a good water change schedule.
Lighting schedule can have a negative affect on hair algae as well, too long of a photo period only feeds the algae not the coral.
With intense modern light these days, running a 12 hour lighting schedule isn't necessary as the corals can only use so much light in a day.
Try to reduce the hours you are running while dealing with photosynthetic algae. Wooden BBQ skewers are great for removing hair algae, just stick it down in the patch and twist, pull the clump of algae off the tip and repeat.
Soft coral intake water, swell in size to maximize surface area or gain height to reach light. Leathers are moody sometimes, happy and open for a while and may close for a while. They also go through periods where they shrink down and wax over for a few days during a growth stage, then shed the wax to remove algae growth. So try not to stress out about corals closing here and there, if they close up and stay that way then one or more conditions aren't right.
Have you tested your ammonia, nitrates, phosphates lately ?
Keep in mind that fast growing nuisance algae will uptake nutrients faster than test kits can detect them so if you are reading low or zero nitrates it is possible that is a false reading due to the hair algae.
Hope this helps,
Good luck and happy reefing.
Feel free to ask as many questions as you need to.
It seems you have a good amount of stock in a fairly new aquarium.
Saltwater tanks all go through the ugly stages with different algae outbreaks and problems as they cycle and start the process of maturing.
It is perfectly natural to have cyano and hair algae issues.
There are some contributing factors that fuel or feed the algae like nitrate and phosphates. These nutrients among others come from fish waste, uneaten foods breaking down, and frozen food juice.
Over feeding fish needs to be addressed if you are feeding heavily.
Do you have a skimmer for nutrient export ?
And how often are you changing your water ? What % ?
Sometimes it's helpful to manually remove some of the hair algae while you cut back on feeding and get into a good water change schedule.
Lighting schedule can have a negative affect on hair algae as well, too long of a photo period only feeds the algae not the coral.
With intense modern light these days, running a 12 hour lighting schedule isn't necessary as the corals can only use so much light in a day.
Try to reduce the hours you are running while dealing with photosynthetic algae. Wooden BBQ skewers are great for removing hair algae, just stick it down in the patch and twist, pull the clump of algae off the tip and repeat.
Soft coral intake water, swell in size to maximize surface area or gain height to reach light. Leathers are moody sometimes, happy and open for a while and may close for a while. They also go through periods where they shrink down and wax over for a few days during a growth stage, then shed the wax to remove algae growth. So try not to stress out about corals closing here and there, if they close up and stay that way then one or more conditions aren't right.
Have you tested your ammonia, nitrates, phosphates lately ?
Keep in mind that fast growing nuisance algae will uptake nutrients faster than test kits can detect them so if you are reading low or zero nitrates it is possible that is a false reading due to the hair algae.
Hope this helps,
Good luck and happy reefing.
Feel free to ask as many questions as you need to.
BluewaterLa
Active Member
Just looked again at your light percentages, some are high at 80%.
This may be too high for the shallow depth of the tank with LPS and soft coral being in there.
Try lowering it down and see if the coral respond better.
This may be too high for the shallow depth of the tank with LPS and soft coral being in there.
Try lowering it down and see if the coral respond better.
ScottMyers123
Active Member
Welcome to R2R! Plenty of people here to help you with any issues or questions you may have.
I've lowered some of the settings on the light to see how they will respond. At the same time I'm using the acclimation function on the light and it's slowly getting brighter until full power , which is about 2 weeks away. I'll also reduce the time period. It'll be on for about 12 hours but the peak power time is reduced from 7 hours to only 5 hours.
In terms of feeding the fishes, I feed small amount of frozen brine shrimp in the morning daily. Whereas the corals I feed them the planktons about once every three days. I do water changes once a week about 15-20% and yes I run a protein skimmer.
I didn't stock anything and just let it cycle for about 3 weeks. I only started slowly stocking just over 7 weeks ago, I only just added the six line wrasse and some of the SPS yesterday. I think I'm pretty much done with stocking, definitely done with the fishes. Maybe I'll add a coral if something really catches my eye.
As for the phosphates, I had the same feeling that the algaes are eating it faster than I can test it. I had my water tested at my LFS and they had a zero reading as well.
In terms of feeding the fishes, I feed small amount of frozen brine shrimp in the morning daily. Whereas the corals I feed them the planktons about once every three days. I do water changes once a week about 15-20% and yes I run a protein skimmer.
I didn't stock anything and just let it cycle for about 3 weeks. I only started slowly stocking just over 7 weeks ago, I only just added the six line wrasse and some of the SPS yesterday. I think I'm pretty much done with stocking, definitely done with the fishes. Maybe I'll add a coral if something really catches my eye.
As for the phosphates, I had the same feeling that the algaes are eating it faster than I can test it. I had my water tested at my LFS and they had a zero reading as well.
melypr1985
totally addicted
Welcome to R2R!
Torqueroll
Community Member
Having fun with the new QT to get rid of one mistake. Now have another with the hair algae. Tank is finishing the cycle and its been a week since feeding it. photo period is https://flic.kr/p/G4kKia and an shot of what I am curious about dealing with is https://flic.kr/p/GSMgaa and https://flic.kr/p/GYK3Ae. Suggestions?
Well I got a few more trochus the other day and they have helped a lot with eating the hair algae.
I have a questions in regards to clams. My wife really loves clam and wants them in the tank. I've done a bit of research on them and not sure if I can put it in my tank. I'm planning to put a small one in the tank and when it grows I'll transfer it to a larger tank. I know that roughly in a year time we will be moving out of our apartment into a house. I already gave the wife a heads up that I want a large tank, at least 200g and she said yes.
I have a questions in regards to clams. My wife really loves clam and wants them in the tank. I've done a bit of research on them and not sure if I can put it in my tank. I'm planning to put a small one in the tank and when it grows I'll transfer it to a larger tank. I know that roughly in a year time we will be moving out of our apartment into a house. I already gave the wife a heads up that I want a large tank, at least 200g and she said yes.
BluewaterLa
Active Member
@yudhas, on the clam I would be more concerned with the large amount of calcium and alkalinity the require and suck out the water column.
In a small tank this can be a headache to keep up with let alone stable.
Alkalinity swings aren't good for corals.
Not impossible to do just something to consider is all.
Good luck and happy reefing
In a small tank this can be a headache to keep up with let alone stable.
Alkalinity swings aren't good for corals.
Not impossible to do just something to consider is all.
Good luck and happy reefing
120reefkeeper
Reef keeping with Military Precision!
*Welcome to Reef2Reef @yudhas !* Your aquarium looks lovely.Great advice from @BluewaterLa regarding the algae problem.
Thanks guys for the welcoming and advice.
I'm still slowly learning the different things with reef aquariums. The learning curve is harder than I expected. There are more things to consider in comparison to planted tanks, but I think it's all part of the fun.
The hair algae have settled down. It's just a matter of getting them out of the tank. I'm still battling green algae on the glass. I have to scrape the glass every 3-4 days. I have three turbo snails in there but they are all stuck on the live rock. One use to be on the glass in the beginning, but ever since it is on the live rock, it has stayed there.
Any ideas on how to get the algae reduced and under control?
I'm still slowly learning the different things with reef aquariums. The learning curve is harder than I expected. There are more things to consider in comparison to planted tanks, but I think it's all part of the fun.
The hair algae have settled down. It's just a matter of getting them out of the tank. I'm still battling green algae on the glass. I have to scrape the glass every 3-4 days. I have three turbo snails in there but they are all stuck on the live rock. One use to be on the glass in the beginning, but ever since it is on the live rock, it has stayed there.
Any ideas on how to get the algae reduced and under control?
