Hello everyone

[fishlover2]

Hi everyone, my name is Mike, i'm from around the Dayton area and i am very new to the marine tank hobby, i started about 5 months ago and so far i am really into it, id love to get to know all of you people and have you guys share all your information with me so i can get my tank to look as great as all of yours , please reply and keep in touch

[MechanicalEngineer]

Welcome to the hobby and forum!  Please post about your setup; we'd love to hear about it!  (Pictures are always great too!)

Nikki

[fishlover2]

I have a 55 gallon with about 60-80 pounds of LR, idk the exact amount, i have a pair of false percullas, a green chromis and diamond goby currently with a sabae anemone and also a green bubble tipped anemone and a couple frags of zoos n such, everything looking so far so good though

[MechanicalEngineer]

Cool cool.  What sort of equipment do you have (if any)...skimmers, lighting system, sump/refugium, reactors, etc?

[fishlover2]

right now i have a protein skimmer, a hang on filter, a power head and my lighting is metal halide with acetic and moon lights, its pretty bright, i got it off ebay, any segestions on what else i should have equipment wise? or how am i doin so far?

[fishlover2]

Here is a photo i just took, tell me what you thinkg or if you have any suggestions id like to hear from you, thanks!

[ohioreef]

Welcome to Ohio Reef!!!!

[REDPYRO]

i like how your rock is setup, but looks like you need some help with the green hair algea

[fishlover2]

Yeah i know, theres too much in there i think.....do you know of anyway to get it down or how to control it, maybe some fish or inverts that eat it a lot? any ideas thatd be great!

[REDPYRO]

just from what i can see of your setup...those prefilters on your powerheads are breeding grounds for crapola build up that leads to nutrient build up that causes algea.  either remove the prefilters or keep them clean.

some people on here can recommend a fish that will eat it, lawnmover blenny, some sort of sea slug....but its all about nutrient control, you get to much nutrient in your water that crap grows wild because it live off of it.

what is your skimmer?

[fishlover2]

its an odyssea p75, it was tricky to get workin at first but since ive gotten it to not overflow its been workin pretty good i think, i clean the prefilters about once a week but all the algea that comes all the rocks sucks to that prefilter and gets right back to where it was before i cleaned it

[Amstar]

what type of water do you use to do top offs and water changes with?  also what are you feeding the fish and how much?

[fishlover2]

i use regular water and put aquasafe drops in it with salt when needed and also i feed my fish omega one flakes around 2-3 times a day

[REDPYRO]

2-3 times a day...well there is your problem right there...

to much food = too much waste = to much algea

[fishlover2]

How much do you recommend i feed them a day? i have 2 false perculas, a green chromis and a diamond goby at the moment

[Amstar]

have your regular water checked at your LFS.  you maybe adding way to many nutrients into your tank that way as well if you are using plain old tap water

as for me, I feed every other day.  and I spread the feeding out over a half hour span.  I have a set amount of food that I am going to feed them. at each helping during this time (the half hour) I give a little bit of the food until it is gone.   less is wasted through either not getting eating, going down in the sump etc.  instead of throwing a ton of food in and having a free for all, its more of a controlled feeding, so there is less waste and less hungry fish

[fishlover2]

alright ill be sure to try n do that from now on! do u know of any fish or anything that usually eat mostly the algae that i could maybe get for my tank to also help it go down?

[slandis3]

I feed 2 a day, but i have 8 chromis, 2 clowns, 1 blue jaw, 1 yellow tang, 1 coral beauty, 1 fox face, 1 cardinal, 1 six line wrasse.

[ohioreef]

Check out www.ohioreef.com/hair.html for details of my battle with hair algae.

[MechanicalEngineer]

I battled GHA for about 6 months with no luck.  I had it worse than anyone's tank I've ever seen...and never kept a picture for proof, thank goodness.  Here's what I did...and now my tank is near spotless.  I barely ever even clean the glass (and I have 2 flasher wrasses and a blenny).  I was desperate...and did just about everything in the book. 

Tunze Nano Skimmer -- biggest help

Increased Sump Size from 10g to 20g

Added a Remote Sand Bed -- Second biggest help

Reduced Photoperiod

Switched sump from a 24/7 photoperiod to a reverse photoperiod

Added Chaeto as well as keeping Caulerpa

Reduced feeding (even though I was already target feeding corals and letting the fish just pick at the leftover food)

Phosphate Reactor

Quit dosing everything

Weekly water changes

Took out all artificial sponges/bioballs/etc.

Ran carbon

Took out every single rock & scrubbed the algae off in a separate container of saltwater

Changed my lightbulbs to ensure they were the right color spectrum


I tried a lawnmower blenny, about 75+ blue legged hermits, and a sea hare, but honestly, they can just make the problem worse by spreading the spores of the algae through their poop.  Just find the problem...and get rid of it.

Turns out, after all of that...and two months of having a spotless tank...I got a TDS meter to measure the quality of my RO/DI water (compliments of Joel at Aquarium's Etc.).  My RO/DI water was OVER 700 TDS.  (It should be ZERO.)  In fact, the EPA recommends drinking water be 500 TDS or better to give you a reference.  So, I changed all of my filters/resins to prevent that whole problem in the future.

Good luck & hope this helped!
Nikki

[fishlover2]

where could i get myself a nice RO system, that is decently affordable, to use for water changes and such?

[ohioreef]

I got mine off ebay and have been very pleased with it. A lot of people look down on the ebay systems, but then everyone is entitled to their opinion.

www.buckeyefieldsupply.com is a local e-tailer that carries them. I'm not sure whether Joel, www.aquariumsetc.com, carries them, but it wouldn't hurt to ask him.

[micki]

I got mine from filter direct.  We buy all our replacement filters from them as well.   http://www.filterdirect.com/catalog/index.php  I've got the 110 gpd 5 stage RO/DI plus we have an increaser pump and a large pressure tank due to we have well water and the water pressure is lower.  

Melevsreef from RC sells them.  http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html  I haven't looked at his prices.  

[REDPYRO]

airwaterice.com is where i bought mine....rick has it now

The Typhoon Reefkeeping RODI
5 stage with ASOV

You don't need glue, Teflon tape, pipe dope, or wrenches.

Easy to use push-in fitting make installation a snap.

every easy to install..all push fittings


i hooked mine up to a brute trash can and a float valve and always had about 50 gallons of RO/DI whenever i needed it.  when it was used it would refill itself.  nothing to overflow or worry about.

now with no reef I converted it over auto fill dog bowl technology

[ohioreef]

I have the same system Micki has with the exception of the membrane. I requested a 75gpd rather than the 100gpd membrane. I have mine hooked into a Brute trash can with a float valve.

I also put a tee in mine so that the pressurized tank feeds our refrigerator. I placed a flow restrictor to prevent the pressure tank from emptying when the float valve on the trash can opens. This allows the refrigerator to have water even when then trash can is filling.