What next

[beck_bail]

OK, alge is killing me, I know the causes. I'm using tap water, my cleanup crew is understaffed, I'm not running a skimmer, I use a wet dry sump, no fuge.

Please let me know what order would make the greatest impact the fastest, I'm thinking

1. RO/DI
2. Cleanup Crew
3. Add Skimmer
4. Swap out Wet Dry for Fuge

Where should I start

[petoonia]

What type of lighting do you have? Have you tested for phosphates? I would definately start with the RO/DI. You need to get some good water in the tank. Do a really large water change asap. Get a skimmer, get a good cleanup crew. As for the wet dry does it have bio balls, if so you need to start slowly removing them.

[beck_bail]

Originally posted by petoonia
What type of lighting do you have? Have you tested for phosphates? I would definately start with the RO/DI. You need to get some good water in the tank. Do a really large water change asap. Get a skimmer, get a good cleanup crew. As for the wet dry does it have bio balls, if so you need to start slowly removing them.

thanks for the advice

Lets see,
I'm running compact florescents. The hood holds 4 96 watt bulbs, but I've only got 2 in there, and one of them came with the tank when I got it, so it should be replaced. I'd only found one place selling these bulbs before yesterday @ $40 a pop so I haven't been in a rush to fill up the hood, but I found the same thing on e-bay yesterday for aboug $12, so right after the RO/DI, I'm going to fill the hood.

Haven't tested for phosphates. (Kind of lazy on testing parameters to be honest)

So, you'd add a skimmer before the cleanup crew? You know, I have a friend who is convinced that you don't need a skimmer if you are pulling water off the top of the tank with your filter. I don't think he's thinking a skimmer is what I'm thinking a skimmer is. Can't change his mind on that though.

Yup, I've got bio balls. The swap over to a fuge is likely a long time away, so I'm not going to start removing them until I'm ready to get the fuge.

[zoomfish1]

You can remove the bioballs anyway. Just replace with substrate or rock rubble. Remove only anout 10% per week though. When you get a fuge, you can add macro to help with the trates and phates.

Probably substate instead of rock rubble. Just noticed it's a wet/dry.

[petoonia]

You could add the clean up crew first, get your self a really good crew. I see your tank is fOWLR what type of fish, are they gonna eat the clean up crew? If you have a sand bed get alot of nassarius, banded trochus snails are really great, astreas are good too, get a couple of mexican turbos they eat alot!, Hermit crabs are really good cleaners as well. I like to get a different combination of things that works great for me.

Alot of people run skimmerless tanks. But IMO I would get a skimmer as soon as you can. Sounds like your friend is thinking of something else. If you dont have any corals I would hold off on the lighting, and get the other things you need first. Just keep your lights on for about 8 hours a day see if that helps kill off some of the algae.

Something else you could try is an UV sterilizer. That may help with the algae.

[beck_bail]

Longterm my plan is to setup a reef.

I do have a small cleaning crew now, but it's understaffed for my tank. I've got 12 astrias, 6 nassirus, 3 turbos, 20 or so hermits, a queen conch, a sand sifting star, 4 urchins, 2 emerald crabs, and a lobster (probably something else too but thats all thats coming to my head right now.)

My fish won't eat the crew, there 2 tangs, a damsel, and a red clown.

Whats the advantage of removing the bio balls if I don't have a fuge setup?

[awestruck]

Bio balls are excellent for breaking down ammonia to nitrites and then breaking down nitrites to nitrates. Unfortunately the bio balls cannot break down nitrates. Nitrate levels can get out of control because they accumulate. The solution is to either rinse the bio balls frequently or eliminate them, slowly, and let your rock perform natural filtration. Hope this helps.

[petoonia]

When you say fuge do you possibly mean a sump? A refuge is basically a place where you grow algae, and let all the pods thrive. Where it is a great benefit to the tank. It is not absolutely neccessary to have one.

If you have enough live rock in your tank you should have enough biological filtration. You should have at least one pound of rock, per gallon of water. Definately get rid of teh bio balls. You could put live rock rubble in their instead of the bio balls.