New member

[afilter]

Hello,

I am new to this site(thanks Brenden)

Anyway, thought I would start out looking for some stocking advice.

I have been away off and on for a few weeks with work and family and other than regular FW top offs and making sure someone feed the tank it did not get a whole lot of attention lately.

Last week I came home to find the hair algea problem I thought I had defeated regaining ground. Upon closer inspection I noticed both my tangs (PBT and sailfin) missing along with 2 chromis, spotted mandarin and a CBS shrimp.

Checked the parameters and all was OK, PO4 up over 1 again otherwise surprisingly good.

This past weekend I did a 30g pwc, changed out filterpads, replacedPO4 sponge and carbon. Manually removed as much visible hair algea as possible.

My plan is to let the fish and coral I have go for a couple weeks and do another 15g pwc each week to make sure all is good. Fortunately all corals seem to be healthy.

It has been awhile since I have added livestock, so I am looking for ideas.

What I have left is:

Fish: Pair of maroon clowns, coral beauty, six line wrasse, green chromis

Inverts: Skunk cleaner shrimp, emerald green crab, brittle star, serpeant star, black long spin urchin and assorted snails and reef hermits.

I am partial to Tangs and was even thinking of a butterfly at one time. Due to my work schedule and being gone a lot more these days I am not planning to stock as much as I have had in the past.

Heck, I am probably good now with letting the clowns grow out. I would like one larger fish though on the hardier side. Maybe something with an appetite for hair algea.

Any thoughts?

Oh, for those that do not know it is a 90g reef in the making with 30g sump/fuge.

TIA,

Aaron

 

[mungus]

Afilter welcome to reeffrontiers!!!!

Brian

 

[NaH2O]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

Phosphates sound like they are fueling the algae problem...and the death of 2 fish (if they died in the tank??), didn't help matters. Is your tank being skimmed? Using RO/DI water?

Have you considered a Rabbitfish? I have a magnificant rabbitfish that is quite beautiful, and might be a good algae eating fish to consider for your system. Here is a pic of her:

 

[moortim]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!
Just a couple questions, how big is your tank? What kind of filtration are you using (sump size, skimmer, refugium, ect. more because I am curious than anything)? How long has your tank been running?
Good to have you here!

Tim

 

[moortim]

Dang it I was trying to beat Nikki to the welcome, oh well.

 

[afilter]

Wow, nice fish, what kind of rabbit fish is it? Mostly only see foxface around here.

Yes the PO4 is the culprit and the deaths I am sure did not help. I do skim and have an in home RO system that I use. I almost had the algea undercontrol with PO4 sponge and pwc. Fortunately not nearly as bad as before.

If all looks good on Thursday my plan is to turn out the tank lights and wrap the tank in blanket so no light gets in Until I get home on Thursday. This helped knock it down last time.

Rabbit fish definately on the list for consideration.

 

[afilter]

It is a 90g reef with 30g DIY sump/fuge (10g of it for fuge). Currently using a bakpak II with all filter media removed for skimming in sump. Additonally have 2 powerheads with sponges in tank. Looking at building a closed loop though to replace these.

Basically the sump work by water entering first compartment going through rubble, filter pad/carbon then to 2nd compartment with skimmer through baffles to return area. Then it is returned to tank adn split off to fuge as well. Fuge has 3-4" DSB with rubble and grape clapura.

Guessing I have 150+ #s of LR.

 

[NaH2O]

Its a Magnificant Rabbitfish (Siganus magnifica). I've seen them locally (to me) on occasion, but I ordered mine from Vivid Aquariums online.

 

[Brenden]

Welcome Afilter.

 

[steve-s]

Welcome Afilter...

Hair algae can definately be a bane once it's established.

Another thing to watch I don't think has been mentioned is food types fed. Many varieties of freeze dried, flake or pellet foods are lousy with P. They are usually the number one contributor aside from source water and substrate choices. L-Ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, a widely used vitamin additive in dried foods is quite a large contributor unto itself. Look at the label of the foods you use a see how many contain something like that.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF! Hope you enjoy it here

 

[afilter]

Steve-S,

I am pretty careful with food choices for the reason you mentioned. Additionally I feed very sparingly. I will double check the label on some spectrum pellets I have.

Thanks,