a little worried...

chefbenry89 · 11/13/2009, 11:48 PM

hey everyone!
First of all, Thanks for all of your help so far! My tank is about 3-4 months old... i have not done a whole lot up until last week, thats when i got a shipment of stuff (enough to not have to pay shipping

). so everything went well for the most part, I lost the fish, but the anemone, inverts, and corals were fine. I blame the the life to shipping, i acclimated a slow drip for about 2 hours, super slow for 1 and a little faster the second.

ok, so my current problem is that there is A TON of green algae growing, i assume hair, its just green and fuzzy, i don't think i like it. it hasant taken over but it is on almost every rock. Is it what i think it is? and what should i do about it?

its a 55 gal, pc and MH lighting over half (i know, but it seams to be working for now) and the algea is mostly on that side, a 10 gal sump, and canaster filter.

danrobberg · 11/13/2009, 11:52 PM

have your nitrates and phosphates tested. get some emerald crabs to help keep it under controll. how often do you do waterchanges? you should do at least 10 percent every other week. your tank is probably going through an algae bloom because it is starting to cycle. how long do you have your lights on for? maybe its too long

Tbone675 · 11/14/2009, 12:11 AM

what do you have for a CUC?

chefbenry89 · 11/14/2009, 01:18 AM

i do about 5 g a week which is just under, i will be back tomoorrow night with nitrate and phosphase readings. My light runs 12.5 hours with attinics, and 8 hrs with 250w Halide.

CUC????

Ritten · 11/14/2009, 01:46 AM

You might want to run polyfilters and carbon and do a 10% water change each and every week.

Flipper62 · 11/14/2009, 02:08 AM

What are you using for water ???

RO/DI ??

ludnix · 11/14/2009, 04:09 AM

CUC stands for Clean Up Crew, as in hermits, snails, urchins, etc.

In order to have hair algae and other nuisance algaes there must be excess nutrients for them to use and grow from. This is normal in the first few months of a tank, but you need to be careful with the nutrients you add (in the form of food, tap water, any nitrogenous waste).

Adding a clean up crew can help remove the actual algae so the nutrients can be exported in another manner such as a skimmer or macro algae. Ultimately you must have a way of removing the nutrients you add from fish food though.

chefbenry89 · 11/14/2009, 08:58 PM

yes ro/di water. this is my first water quality issue. im cangine 10% now and 5% 2times a week until it goes away.
MY test results, are. Sal. 1.024, temp80, ph 8.5, ammonia was just in red on test, unsure of exact reading, nitrates are 20 mg/l and nitrites .1 mg/l, Phosphates are 0.
My 'cuc' is a ton of blue red and white hermits, a serpant star, a red starfish, coral banded shrimp, and idk if theye cound but sexy shrimp and a pistol shrimp.
im running carbon and what is a poly filter?

Ev's Reef · 11/14/2009, 09:27 PM

Things that can help to remove the Hair Algae
-Remove the algae by hand (time consuming and annoyning)
-Increase frequency of water changes
-Add a clean up crew, few turbos, hermit crabs, emerald crabs, etc...
-Add fish that eat the Hair Algae, Foxface, Tangs, etc..

Other then that, check your paramaters and make sure everything is in check.

chefbenry89 · 11/14/2009, 09:44 PM

i am looking to get a few mexican turbos, and an emerald crab, but i don't want to add fish the ammonia is too high, and i think i can expect everything else to spike too, what happens to sea anemones when they die? mine looks like there is a sac or something hanging out of his mouth, he looked upset for a few days, i havn't been able to get him to eat silver sides or krill.

chefbenry89 · 11/14/2009, 09:56 PM

how can make sure im feeding everything but im not adding too much food to the tank?

danrobberg · 11/14/2009, 11:23 PM

dont feed more food than your fish will eat in 2 to 3 min. do you have live rock? and how much? poly filter is expensive but works very well. just keep up with the water changes. your tank is just cycling. when your amonia lowers i would look into getting a tang yellow or foxface love algea. as far as the anemone it sounds like its on its way out, just leave it for now and see how it does.

chefbenry89 · 11/15/2009, 09:55 AM

so i need to put like 5 mysis shrimp in??? they come in a frozen cube of like a thousand!! I may be able to add a foxface but it is only 55 gal, the yellow tang is out of question

. i have had a prety specific plan for fish and hope that this wont hurt that plan. i have been waiting for my tank to be ready for a mandarin dragonette to get any more fish, at this point a little discouraged. i think i have about 6-8 months left to wait, meanwhile trying to add some more soft or easy corals, and i know i want a hammer! i have been thinking about a perc clown but with no anemone there is no point. i was going to add a few small fishm then when i got the mandarin fat and happy i wass planning on getting a flame angel and a kole tang.

chefbenry89 · 11/15/2009, 09:56 AM

should i turn the pumps off when i feed?

rgentry123 · 11/15/2009, 10:22 AM

if you have ammonia showing up in your system you should not be adding anything. wait until the ammonia is registering at 0 then you should start planning livestock. generally inverts are even more sensitive to water quality(especially ammonia) than your fish are going to be. this is quite possibly what caused the loss of your fish in the first place. if possible i would even try and get your inverts out and into another as soon as possible or they will likely die as well.

chefbenry89 · 11/15/2009, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgentry123

if you have ammonia showing up in your system you should not be adding anything. wait until the ammonia is registering at 0 then you should start planning livestock. generally inverts are even more sensitive to water quality(especially ammonia) than your fish are going to be. this is quite possibly what caused the loss of your fish in the first place. if possible i would even try and get your inverts out and into another as soon as possible or they will likely die as well.

Thank you for taking a minute to try to help me out, but everything was 0 when i added the fish and he was so stressed out from shipping, he just never got comfortable i was planning livestock before i bought the rocks!
Btw am a lone reefer with no help no friends with tanks, and i live in a very small apartment, i will keep up on my water changes 5-10% 2 times a week, imo this will keep the water quality where is should be

chefbenry89 · 11/15/2009, 02:13 PM

if anyone disagrees please let me know, idk what else i can really do.

11/13/2009, 11:48 PM	#1
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	a little worried... hey everyone! First of all, Thanks for all of your help so far! My tank is about 3-4 months old... i have not done a whole lot up until last week, thats when i got a shipment of stuff (enough to not have to pay shipping). so everything went well for the most part, I lost the fish, but the anemone, inverts, and corals were fine. I blame the the life to shipping, i acclimated a slow drip for about 2 hours, super slow for 1 and a little faster the second. ok, so my current problem is that there is A TON of green algae growing, i assume hair, its just green and fuzzy, i don't think i like it. it hasant taken over but it is on almost every rock. Is it what i think it is? and what should i do about it? its a 55 gal, pc and MH lighting over half (i know, but it seams to be working for now) and the algea is mostly on that side, a 10 gal sump, and canaster filter.

11/14/2009, 02:08 AM	#6
Flipper62 Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Naperville, Il. Business Owner, President & CEO Posts: 3,045	What are you using for water ??? RO/DI ?? __________________ If todays automobile had followed the same development as the computer, A Rolls Royce would cost $100.00. It would get a million miles per gallon, but it would explode once a year killing everyone inside." Current Tanks... 90 gal Reef... My awesome Office BioCube....( 180 was on hold ..no time ) ... The 180 gal has been sold...Yay..yay..yay. Hobby Experience: 19 years Reef...22 years FW

11/14/2009, 04:09 AM	#7
ludnix Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: California Posts: 3,031	CUC stands for Clean Up Crew, as in hermits, snails, urchins, etc. In order to have hair algae and other nuisance algaes there must be excess nutrients for them to use and grow from. This is normal in the first few months of a tank, but you need to be careful with the nutrients you add (in the form of food, tap water, any nitrogenous waste). Adding a clean up crew can help remove the actual algae so the nutrients can be exported in another manner such as a skimmer or macro algae. Ultimately you must have a way of removing the nutrients you add from fish food though. __________________ -Eric Sutter Current Tank Info: 14g Biocube

11/14/2009, 09:27 PM	#9
Ev's Reef Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Iowa State University Posts: 203	Things that can help to remove the Hair Algae -Remove the algae by hand (time consuming and annoyning) -Increase frequency of water changes -Add a clean up crew, few turbos, hermit crabs, emerald crabs, etc... -Add fish that eat the Hair Algae, Foxface, Tangs, etc.. Other then that, check your paramaters and make sure everything is in check. __________________ Current Tank: 75 Gallon, with 20 gallon refugium/sump Inhabitants: Maroon Clown, Blue Tang, Flame Angel, Yellow Tang, Pajama Cardinals, Six Line Wrasse, Mandarin Goby, SPS corals, LPS corals, and Soft corals

11/15/2009, 10:22 AM	#15
rgentry123 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: fredericksburg, VA Posts: 975	if you have ammonia showing up in your system you should not be adding anything. wait until the ammonia is registering at 0 then you should start planning livestock. generally inverts are even more sensitive to water quality(especially ammonia) than your fish are going to be. this is quite possibly what caused the loss of your fish in the first place. if possible i would even try and get your inverts out and into another as soon as possible or they will likely die as well. __________________ there is going to be an episode of intervention based on me soon if someone doesnt come up with a 12 step program for this hobby soon. And i have RC members to thank for enabling me.

11/13/2009, 11:52 PM	#2
danrobberg Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo NY Posts: 962	have your nitrates and phosphates tested. get some emerald crabs to help keep it under controll. how often do you do waterchanges? you should do at least 10 percent every other week. your tank is probably going through an algae bloom because it is starting to cycle. how long do you have your lights on for? maybe its too long

11/14/2009, 12:11 AM	#3
Tbone675 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 86	what do you have for a CUC?

11/14/2009, 01:18 AM	#4
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	i do about 5 g a week which is just under, i will be back tomoorrow night with nitrate and phosphase readings. My light runs 12.5 hours with attinics, and 8 hrs with 250w Halide. CUC????

11/14/2009, 01:46 AM	#5
Ritten Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 2,164	You might want to run polyfilters and carbon and do a 10% water change each and every week.

11/14/2009, 08:58 PM	#8
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	yes ro/di water. this is my first water quality issue. im cangine 10% now and 5% 2times a week until it goes away. MY test results, are. Sal. 1.024, temp80, ph 8.5, ammonia was just in red on test, unsure of exact reading, nitrates are 20 mg/l and nitrites .1 mg/l, Phosphates are 0. My 'cuc' is a ton of blue red and white hermits, a serpant star, a red starfish, coral banded shrimp, and idk if theye cound but sexy shrimp and a pistol shrimp. im running carbon and what is a poly filter?

11/14/2009, 09:44 PM	#10
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	i am looking to get a few mexican turbos, and an emerald crab, but i don't want to add fish the ammonia is too high, and i think i can expect everything else to spike too, what happens to sea anemones when they die? mine looks like there is a sac or something hanging out of his mouth, he looked upset for a few days, i havn't been able to get him to eat silver sides or krill.

11/14/2009, 09:56 PM	#11
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	how can make sure im feeding everything but im not adding too much food to the tank?

11/14/2009, 11:23 PM	#12
danrobberg Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo NY Posts: 962	dont feed more food than your fish will eat in 2 to 3 min. do you have live rock? and how much? poly filter is expensive but works very well. just keep up with the water changes. your tank is just cycling. when your amonia lowers i would look into getting a tang yellow or foxface love algea. as far as the anemone it sounds like its on its way out, just leave it for now and see how it does.

11/15/2009, 09:55 AM	#13
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	so i need to put like 5 mysis shrimp in??? they come in a frozen cube of like a thousand!! I may be able to add a foxface but it is only 55 gal, the yellow tang is out of question . i have had a prety specific plan for fish and hope that this wont hurt that plan. i have been waiting for my tank to be ready for a mandarin dragonette to get any more fish, at this point a little discouraged. i think i have about 6-8 months left to wait, meanwhile trying to add some more soft or easy corals, and i know i want a hammer! i have been thinking about a perc clown but with no anemone there is no point. i was going to add a few small fishm then when i got the mandarin fat and happy i wass planning on getting a flame angel and a kole tang.

11/15/2009, 09:56 AM	#14
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	should i turn the pumps off when i feed?

11/15/2009, 02:13 PM	#17
chefbenry89 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Harrisburg Area Posts: 45	if anyone disagrees please let me know, idk what else i can really do.