I have a questions about...

[shallowreef]

My new tank. You see it has been up and running for about two weeks and i am noticing a light green algae on the some of the rocks and on the sand. I tested my water and everything except phosphate was 0. Phos was at like .03 and i a m running carbon and phos remover. If this is long hair algae what can i do to control/get rid of it. I was thinking about shutting off all teh lights or cutting them down to only a few hours only. I am running a fuge and there is a lot of algae starting to grow down there. I was thinking that i could maybe put my corals down there and just leave the lights off.

What do you think?

Also what about a foxface Lo i hear they love to eat long hair algae.

 

[Krish]

Hey man Nick! Sounds like the inevitable is happening to you. No worries man...What I did to control mine in my 90 gal was run more watts per gallon over my sump compared to the main display for more hours on an alternate photo period. When I cycled my 90 gal I had only 130w pc's running on the tank whereas over the fuge section of my sump (which was about 5 gallons) I had an 18w pc (which meant tons more watts per gal in the sump) and as a result, the algae (all types) grew like mad in there because the conditions were more favourable for it to grow there and hardly any grew in the main display. I had to vacuum my sump twice a week in the beginning, then it went to once a week to get out all the algae, but it made me feel tons better having it grow where I couldn't see it, rather than having my display look like crap. Eventually when the tank cycled, I hardly had anything growing anywhere at all...Just my 2 cents on what worked for me. Hopefully your tank cycles quickly for you. As for the foxface, I've never had one, but I know my Yellow tang will pick on the rocks all day and I've heard foxfaces are the same. Good luck

 

[shallowreef]

Well right now i'm running PCs over my fuge and i think today i am going to cut the lights down to only 4-5 hours instead of 11. I will keep the lights on over the fuge though 24/7 like they have been and hopefully that will do the trick.

 

[CarlaW]

You are still cycling, I would just let things be for a while, don't panic. I may look crappy for a while, but nature is still doing it's thing. JMHO

 

[shallowreef]

Charlie,

Thats exactly what my LFS told me to do too. I think i might just wait it out and see what happens. This is the first time i have ever ahd this problem when setting up a tank.

 

[spongebob lover]

i think the boys are right, you're tank is still to young and cycling i'm sure it'll go away and if after a few months you still have it....then i'll give you some tips on tooth brushing .

 

[patmayo]

In your first post you mentioned you were going to move the corals to the fuge? Do you really have corals in the tank or were you joshing? A 2 week old tank is too young for corals. There is not stability yet.

Regards,

Pat

 

[shallowreef]

yeah, i really do have corals in my tank. and believe it or not they are all doing just fine. I have a large colony of zoos, a piece of bubble coral, xenias, an anenome, feather dusters, brain coral all of them have been doing fine since i put them in.

 

[Sherman]

Please don't hate me. Your anemone will almost certainly die soon. The recommended time of tank maturation for an anemone is one year minimum. The zoas could make it, and the xenia probably will. The brain and bubble are iffy at best. I sure hope you prove me wrong!

Take your time with this reef. There's a whole lot of biodiversity you're still building up. I'm still seeing changes in my tank, at two years old!

 

[Krish]

Nick...I can't remember, but did you tranfer anything like the aged water and LR from your other tank to setup and help cycle this new one?

 

[shallowreef]

I'm not going to hate you sherman. If that happens then its not anyone elses fault but mine. But like i said for the time being they look good.

Krish, I transferred about 20 gallons of aged water from my tank, 160lbs of live rock that has been sitting in my tank anywhere from 8 months to 4 years, and about 60lbs of livesand from my old tank. I'm pretty sure it is going to be okay. (knock on wood) After the first week i did a test and the parameters were all 0 except for phos which was .03. The second week everything was the same but i have yet to do a water change. So i'm sure that once i do that i should be in better shape. Besides i do not want to do a reef anymore this is a fish only tank. I'm just keeping these corals until i can find someone to buy them. Once thats done i will never have to worry about reefs again.

 

[Krish]

Yeah, that's what I figured. I didn't think you started totally from scratch with this new system. It makes cycling a lot quicker with the transfer and in some cases like mine, you don't experience a cycle at all with a swap

 

[shallowreef]

well their is a little bit of a cycle but i think its coming to an end. but we'll see.