I am new to reefing.

[Louis1959]

Good Evening Fellow Fish & Reef lovers.
I am running a 54 Gallon Bow tank for about 6 months now.
I have a sump set-up below the display tank. Live Frag rock, 2" media base. Some left over leafing vegetation. Three red Mangrove chutes which are starting to root nicely. And a protein Skimmer.
my levels;
SPG = 1.0265, try to decrease slowly.
PH = 8.2,
KH = 9.0°,
Phosphate = 0.15 ppm,
Nitrates = ~15-20 ppm, trying to get this value down.
Nitrites = 0,
Ammonia = 0.,
Calcium = ~510 ,
Magnesium = ~1420
Fish = 3 fire fish, 2 Pecula clowns, 1 Mandarin Dragonet, 1 yellow wrasse,
1 Foxface, & 1 Cardinal.

I am dying to go reef, but I have been battling Green Hair algae. I just scrubbed all of my live rock from the display tank. I do not want to have to do that anymore. It is killing all of my coraline.

I know I need to get my nitrates down, and get my SPG down to around 1.025. My question is how on the nitrates. I may be over feeding slightly.

Any and all help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[morleyz]

Water changes are the way to get nitrates down. To maintain them at a good level corals there are a few things to do.

Do not over feed and keep up with regular water changes.

If that is not enough, you can try something like cheato in your sump. This will take up nitrates and phosphates. Some reefers swear by cheato, others have not had luck getting it to grow. I find it to be a great way to export nutrients.

Lastly, if you still cannot keep nitrates down, you can look into carbon dosing.

[gone fishin]

I think first off I would just continue with some WC's and feed less, since you think you may be overfeeding. Just be aware it may take some time to see the GHA start to go away. I always like to pluck out as much as possible just prior to a WC. Also, keep in mind you still have a fairly new tank and it is still maturing. You may see things come and go. If this does not work you may try carbon dosing but read up on it first or run some GFO. Good luck.

[BigBlueTang]

Originally Posted by Louis1959

Good Evening Fellow Fish & Reef lovers.
I am running a 54 Gallon Bow tank for about 6 months now.
I have a sump set-up below the display tank. Live Frag rock, 2" media base. Some left over leafing vegetation. Three red Mangrove chutes which are starting to root nicely. And a protein Skimmer.
my levels;
SPG = 1.0265, try to decrease slowly.
PH = 8.2,
KH = 9.0°,
Phosphate = 0.15 ppm,
Nitrates = ~15-20 ppm, trying to get this value down.
Nitrites = 0,
Ammonia = 0.,
Calcium = ~510 ,
Magnesium = ~1420
Fish = 3 fire fish, 2 Pecula clowns, 1 Mandarin Dragonet, 1 yellow wrasse,
1 Foxface, & 1 Cardinal.

I am dying to go reef, but I have been battling Green Hair algae. I just scrubbed all of my live rock from the display tank. I do not want to have to do that anymore. It is killing all of my coraline.

I know I need to get my nitrates down, and get my SPG down to around 1.025. My question is how on the nitrates. I may be over feeding slightly.

Any and all help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I know this wasn't your question, but how old is your tank?
The mandarin will die if the tank is not more than a year old, and personally, I think mandarins should not be in tanks smaller than 70 gallons... The foxface will get too big for your tank. Be ready to face some agression problems in the future..

[Mishri]

I agree that the foxface should definitely go, he is probably your main messy dude adding junk to your tank. He'll get too big as well. Dragon net I completely disagree on both the age and size of tank. The only important thing is that you have tons of pods for him to eat off the rocks. (and an area he can't get to so the pods can multiply - which usually isn't a problem, but depends on your aquascape). -Buy pods if you aren't seeing them or your dragon net isn't all fat and happy, most of the ones I see in stores are skinny... they get quite fat (closer to a round shape) when they get enough pods.

So.. if you are going to do softies/lps having 20ppm nitrate isn't bad. But you want to rid yourself of hair algae. So, Starving it and giving it some competition is what you want. An Algae Scrubber, Macro algae in a sump, and/or a phosphate reactor can all help with that. reducing food. reducing fish.


edit: oh i forgot, also skimmer.. type/model? skimmer working well? Might need to step up the skimming.

[Louis1959]

Originally Posted by Mishri

I agree that the foxface should definitely go, he is probably your main messy dude adding junk to your tank. He'll get too big as well. Dragon net I completely disagree on both the age and size of tank. The only important thing is that you have tons of pods for him to eat off the rocks. (and an area he can't get to so the pods can multiply - which usually isn't a problem, but depends on your aquascape). -Buy pods if you aren't seeing them or your dragon net isn't all fat and happy, most of the ones I see in stores are skinny... they get quite fat (closer to a round shape) when they get enough pods.

So.. if you are going to do softies/lps having 20ppm nitrate isn't bad. But you want to rid yourself of hair algae. So, Starving it and giving it some competition is what you want. An Algae Scrubber, Macro algae in a sump, and/or a phosphate reactor can all help with that. reducing food. reducing fish.


edit: oh i forgot, also skimmer.. type/model? skimmer working well? Might need to step up the skimming.

First off I would like to thank all of you for your input. One thing I've learned in 55 years on this earth, is take in all of the info. you come across. Somewhere, someway, everything is relevant. That being said.

Mishri, I am tuned into your comments. My dragonet has lost weight since purchased. It took me a long time to get him to start eating thawed out frozen brine. But he is now. I'd say he eats about 3-5 shrimp aggressively, and then slows down. He swims around and picks at various spots on the live rock. Not sure what he is picking at. I don't see anything. At best i only get to feed twice a day, mostly only once per day.

I had bought those tiny orange pods and did as the guy in the store said. Poured some in the display tank, and the rest in the sump. That was not very successful.

One thing I do have going for me is I have those tiny shrimp looking things breeding in my sump. They are living in my frag rock in the sump. The only problem i foresee, is how do they get to the display tank to feed the dragonet.

If i had room and space i would culture my own pods, and I just may do that. what temperature in a tank by themselves should the water be at?

So far the Foxface has been behaving himself aggression wise....knock on wood. The main reason he is in the tank is after reading some literature I learned they will devour the green hair algae.
To my grateful surprise, two of my blue claw hermit crabs and three of my smaller ones, who all had longer hair than I did during my 60-70's days, all now have crew cuts. He is doing a pretty good job on the hair that was growing on the live rock. The only thing he wont touch is any of the hair algae that grows in the base media.

[Dustyboots]

I'm a huge fan of carbon dosing, vodka for my reef. Google it and read the advanced aquarists guide to vodka dosing. It is inexpensive and extremely effective on reducing both phosphates and nitrates. Follow the dosing instructions to the letter.