biomax

You have 100lbs of live rock already.The ceramic rings will only add to the biofilter so they won't do anything rock rubble in fuge would accomplish.

What tank issues are you having?
 
Well I had a ton of green hair growing on the back wall of the tank and all over the heater and skimmer pump and one piece of LR odd I know. I have never had anything like this in my tank.... but I guess that dont mean a thing lol. I scraped it all off yesterday cause I just got home from work for two weeks so it grew all the time I was gone. This morning I woke up to tons of clear stringy slimy crap everywhere. I put in a new filter in the magnum 350 with those ceramic things and shut off power heads hoping that the filter would catch it, so far it did. But my water smells like hell and that is never like that at all. My water quality is good as always I use two test kits API and Red Sea. the tests come out equal I will repost some more results tomarrow along with a ph. I use ro/di water with a mity mite system which all the filters on that are only 3 months old. Making some new water as we speak for a 10 gal change.I dont have much of a cleaner crew cause my critters tear em apart as fast as I can add them. All that is left in there is about 10 asst. snails 8 if im lucky hermits and a decorator crab. The current livestock in tank is 1 Big lion. 1 Big black longspine urchin. and 1 engineer goby about 6 inches long. and 1 LTA. 130 watt compact flou. Blue LED moons. Seaclone 100 skimmer which seems to produce well.
 
It would be a good idea to up-grade to a better skimmer.I think that would go a long way in helpping your tank.A seaclone is fine on a small tank(20 gallons and under).
Also try running some carbon,that should help with the smell.
 
i heard those ceramic rings or whatever work. but they take time to "seed". For the smell run some carbon. last night my old skimmer was leeking and I woke up this morning and I had like 3.5 gallons soaked in to my carpet. so now my whole room smells like dirty fishtank. i have to get a carpet cleaner now.
 
The ceramic rings are only going to do something if you have ammonia levels in the tank. The rings help convert ammonia into nitrate. Your algae problem is most likely caused by a combination of nitrates and phosphates. Start running GFO in a reactor and buy a bigger skimmer. Seaclones are notoriously ineffective and is probably only producing stuff because you have quite a bit of DOC's. The trick is going to be to increase the rate at which organics are being removed from the tank and get your phosphates lowered.
 
McCrary said:
The ceramic rings are only going to do something if you have ammonia levels in the tank. The rings help convert ammonia into nitrate. Your algae problem is most likely caused by a combination of nitrates and phosphates. Start running GFO in a reactor and buy a bigger skimmer. Seaclones are notoriously ineffective and is probably only producing stuff because you have quite a bit of DOC's. The trick is going to be to increase the rate at which organics are being removed from the tank and get your phosphates lowered.
Click to expand...

What the hell is GFO????? lol I am looking for a bigger skimmer as I bought the "crapclone" before I joined this site. The deal is I need a skimmer that I can HOB now and put in sump later when I get my 125gal finished. Gonna run another Phos test tonight.
 
Dude,

This is EASY as eating apple pie.

You got hair algae because you got nitrates. You have large aggressive fish that eat a lot and that makes ammonia which is broken down into nitrates by your biological filtration.

All ya need is some cheato macroalgae. Use it just like a filter. It grows when you feed it nitrates and phosphates. Put some in the sump under any cheap light and cut it back 50% every month. Toss it in the trash.

All the fancy chemicals and filters in the world won't do as good a job as natural cheatomorpha macroalgae.

A DSB would help too. They convert nitrates into harmless nitrogen gas.
 
run phosphate remover, get chaeto, do more frequent water changes, use RO water only, and check out the Coralife Super Skimmer, it can be in sump or HOB I believe
 
Rcpilot said:
Dude,

This is EASY as eating apple pie.

You got hair algae because you got nitrates. You have large aggressive fish that eat a lot and that makes ammonia which is broken down into nitrates by your biological filtration.

All ya need is some cheato macroalgae. Use it just like a filter. It grows when you feed it nitrates and phosphates. Put some in the sump under any cheap light and cut it back 50% every month. Toss it in the trash.

All the fancy chemicals and filters in the world won't do as good a job as natural cheatomorpha macroalgae.

A DSB would help too. They convert nitrates into harmless nitrogen gas.
Click to expand...

k cool I will get one of those baskets that hang in the tank to put the cheato in cause I dont have a sump. My sand bed is about 3 inches deep.
 
bri74 said:
k cool I will get one of those baskets that hang in the tank to put the cheato in cause I dont have a sump. My sand bed is about 3 inches deep.
Click to expand...

You can run a CPR in-tank refugium. I'll bet it could be hidden reasonably well with rockwork. Maybe do a little aquascaping?

http://www.cpraquatic.com/products/citr.html

Some retailers:
Small
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...ium_Supplies_Refugiums_Internal_~vendor~.html

Large
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...ium_Supplies_Refugiums_Internal_~vendor~.html

I just bought one of these for a nano. It would be great on your tank with a DSB and some cheato.
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=292&HS=1

I'm running a MJ900 on this. It has a built in skimmer and a compartment for the DSB thats 8.5" deep. 10lbs of live sand in mine made exactly 8" of sand bed. Perfect!! That will provide good denitrification. You could do the same thing. 10lbs of sand, a 10w clip-on light and a hunk of cheato and I can almost promise you'll never have nitrates again. It's going to make the tank healthier overall.

Do you have room for it? It's 14" long and sticks up 5" above the back of the tank. The cup sticks out about 3" on top of that. So you'd need 8" in one corner for the cup to stick out the top.
 
GFO = Granular Ferric Oxide, its a good phosphate binder. Unless you have a colorimeter (or the Merck test) I wouldn't worry too much about testing for phosphates, its probably on par with asking a magic eight ball (that may be a little extreme, but not by much). Phosphates are why most people have algae. Mainly because phosphate testing requires expensive testing equipment and it can be easily overlooked. Set up a cheap reactor, two little fishes comes to mind, and fill it with a good GFO (running a good GFO on a schedule can eliminate the need to test phosphates for the most part). Aluminum based phosphate binders are inferior and there has been speculation about aluminum leeching, which can have negative affects on some coral. Dissolved organics are another problem and are usually the result of tanks that have undersized skimmers, insufficient water changes or too many feedings. With your very heavy bioload I would bet that your water is logged with organics. Chaeto is a great way to remove organics, so is upgrading the skimmer.
 

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