New to hobby

[Jordan Eells]

I have a new tank. Good coralline alge growth but the green alge is new. If it good alge, and if not, what can I do to take care of it?

 

[Surfandturf]

I have a new tank. Good coralline alge growth but the green alge is new. If it good alge, and if not, what can I do to take care of it?

Hi Jordan! Glad to have you here! So a couple of questions. How long has has it been since you started this tank (adding water, live rock, and sand)? How big is the aquarium or rather, how many US gallons does it hold? Do you have anything currently living in the aquarium (fish, coral)? Do you you have a saltwater test kit ? If so, what are your parameters (include temp, photo period, and specific gravity). What type of lights do you have and do you have a power head to help create flow? How often to you do water changes and at what volume? The presence of algae is not necessarily a bad sign. There are many ways to rid your system of it. Let's see what your working with first though.

 

[Reefer Deez]

Hi Jordan! Glad to have you here! So a couple of questions. How long has has it been since you started this tank (adding water, live rock, and sand)? How big is the aquarium or rather, how many US gallons does it hold? Do you have anything currently living in the aquarium (fish, coral)? Do you you have a saltwater test kit ? If so, what are your parameters (include temp, photo period, and specific gravity). What type of lights do you have and do you have a power head to help create flow? How often to you do water changes and at what volume? The presence of algae is not necessarily a bad sign. There are many ways to rid your system of it. Let's see what your working with first though.

I agree. First we need to know what it is your dealing with. Water parameters and lighting schedule and the life of the tank can tell everybody a lot and give us a good starting point for us to help you. Welcome to R2R and your new journey !

 

[Jordan Eells]

Hi Jordan! Glad to have you here! So a couple of questions. How long has has it been since you started this tank (adding water, live rock, and sand)? How big is the aquarium or rather, how many US gallons does it hold? Do you have anything currently living in the aquarium (fish, coral)? Do you you have a saltwater test kit ? If so, what are your parameters (include temp, photo period, and specific gravity). What type of lights do you have and do you have a power head to help create flow? How often to you do water changes and at what volume? The presence of algae is not necessarily a bad sign. There are many ways to rid your system of it. Let's see what your working with first though.

Thanks for the welcome! Im excited to be here and learn. To answer your questions, I started the tank about 2 1/2 months ago. Started it with nitrifying bacteria, dead rock and live sand, and added 2 clowns, 5 snails and 5 crabs. A week later I added a skunk shrimp. I have lost some snails and crabs but the clowns and shrimp are doing great. I have a large hang-on-the-back filter, more than adequate heater, a hydor 6000 power head. I have a saltwater test kit that reads the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. All the levels are where they need to be but the nitrates are a touch high. The temp sits right at 80 and I keep the specific gravity at 1.026(35). I just have a regular fish light on top for now, no reef light. We were told we didn’t need that until we started putting coral in. I’m not sure what you mean by photo period.

It’s a 40 gallon tank and I have been doing roughly 12% water changes every other week.

 

[Surfandturf]

Thanks for the welcome! Im excited to be here and learn. To answer your questions, I started the tank about 2 1/2 months ago. Started it with nitrifying bacteria, dead rock and live sand, and added 2 clowns, 5 snails and 5 crabs. A week later I added a skunk shrimp. I have lost some snails and crabs but the clowns and shrimp are doing great. I have a large hang-on-the-back filter, more than adequate heater, a hydor 6000 power head. I have a saltwater test kit that reads the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. All the levels are where they need to be but the nitrates are a touch high. The temp sits right at 80 and I keep the specific gravity at 1.026(35). I just have a regular fish light on top for now, no reef light. We were told we didn’t need that until we started putting coral in. I’m not sure what you mean by photo period.

It’s a 40 gallon tank and I have been doing roughly 12% water changes every other week.

What type of water do you use for top off?

 

[Jordan Eells]

What type of water do you use for top off?

I use tap water and I treat it with dechlorinator. I don’t have an RO/DI. I have a bucket prepared to top off the water by hand for now. As we all know, this hobby can get pricey quick so I’m doing it in stages.

 

[Jason_1990]

Ro/di water
You can go to your lfs for it.
Or you can get a ro/di system. Then you have top off water an you can buy salt an mix your own salt water. Youll want a refractometer fit that.

 

[Jason_1990]

Thats a huge no in reef hobby. Dont use tap water. Youll be fighting algae alot an wont be able keep corals.

 

[Surfandturf]

I use tap water and I treat it with dechlorinator. I don’t have an RO/DI. I have a bucket prepared to top off the water by hand for now. As we all know, this hobby can get pricey quick so I’m doing it in stages.

So just a few things off the top of my head. #1 you should use RO/DI water. You may get away with distilled, but there will be diminishing returns. Tap water has impurities and metals in it that your dechlorinator is not taking care of. When I was new to the hobby, I tried using distilled, my tank never looked good. #2 If you have snails and crabs dying. Something is wrong. I can see that the tank looks pretty clean, but you said you have high nitrates. Are you feeding too much? Remember that those pellets are like protein bars for humans, to put it into perspective. A little can go a long way. #3 if you have high nitrate, try doing a 10-15% water change weekly. That's a good way to export excess nutrients. I would recommend making a schedule and sticking too it. # 4 The light. When you say you have a regular light, what does that mean? White light shining down in your tank, with the presence of excess nutrients can really get algae growing. When I asked about photo period, I meant how long do you run your lights each day? If you have a lid on your tank, try to take it off.

 

[paul barker]

I use RODI water only even on fresh water tank they are cheap now

 

[Jordan Eells]

So just a few things off the top of my head. #1 you should use RO/DI water. You may get away with distilled, but there will be diminishing returns. Tap water has impurities and metals in it that your dechlorinator is not taking care of. When I was new to the hobby, I tried using distilled, my tank never looked good. #2 If you have snails and crabs dying. Something is wrong. I can see that the tank looks pretty clean, but you said you have high nitrates. Are you feeding too much? Remember that those pellets are like protein bars for humans, to put it into perspective. A little can go a long way. #3 if you have high nitrate, try doing a 10-15% water change weekly. That's a good way to export excess nutrients. I would recommend making a schedule and sticking too it. # 4 The light. When you say you have a regular light, what does that mean? White light shining down in your tank, with the presence of excess nutrients can really get algae growing. When I asked about photo period, I meant how long do you run your lights each day? If you have a lid on your tank, try to take it off.

Yeah, just a regular light on top. We run it from 8a-6p. We feed them a pinch when the lights go on and a 1/2 hour before the lights go off. Is that too much? Because they always seem hungry.