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[Carol]

Hello everyone, my name is Carol. I have a 55 gal. aquarium. At the moment, I only have 2 fish. :shock: This is by choice, not because I don't want more.
I just really started getting into the fish part of the tank about a year or two ago.
I am still looking up, researching, about saltwater tanks.
I have read so many different sites on saltwater tanks, that they have me more lost than ever.
I have an algae (rust) colored on my rocks and aquarium walls. Some say its good, others say it's bad. My tank I believe is cycling when it does that? I have cleaned it, taken out the rocks, and scrubbed them down, and it all comes back when I put the light on. No light, no algae.
So I decided to find a forum and see if ya'll can help me figure everything I need to know, to at least feel like I know what I'm doing and not winging it.

 

[Bifferwine]

Hello! Welcome to the site.

 

[dcantucson]

Hello Carol. Welcome to Living Reefs!
Hopefully we can help you work things out.

 

[little_fish]

Hi and Welcome!

It sounds like you have diatoms in your tank, which is what all tanks go through at the end of your cycle. It could also be a continuous problem if i you are using tap water in your tank.

And it comes back because you cant completely remove every single cell, and there is something in your tank that they are feeding off of (slicates from new tank, rocks or tap water, and nitrates from cycling your tank)


So if you are using tap water, i would switch over to RO/DI or distilled as soon as possible, and over time they should go away on their own!

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site..glad to have you. I totally agree with little fish. The rust colored algae are diatoms, natural in new tanks and tanks that use tap/sink water.

 

[Aquatic]

Welcome to the site Carol! We have plenty of helpful people here to answer your questions! Looks like little_fish is covering you already :P

 

[Carol]

Thank you all for the replies. I thought it might be diatoms from looking it up. I also am using tap water, and was putting something in it which I thought was supposed to be getting rid of all of the nitrates, chlorine, etc..
I'll go to the store later for the dist. water.
Thank you all again for the help. :D

 

[d2mini]

There you go. Stop using that tap water.
Saltwater tanks generally do much better when using RO/DI water. Not only is the water better to begin with, but you are not adding chemicals to your tank. The whole saltwater environment is much more sensitive than freshwater tanks. So I would definitely start with that. You can buy RO/DI from your LFS, but it makes much more sense to buy your own RO/DI unit that you can install near your washing machine or under your kitchen sink. You can find one for around $100-200. TDS in tap water is the main cause of algae.

My second concern is what lighting to you have? Type of light and color temperature of your bulbs?

 

[Carol]

The lighting is basically one long fluorescent bulb. This tank was given to me by my brother in law. I am planning on getting a new tank this friday.

 

[Ulta]

Hi Carol and Welcome! :)

D2 and Little fish pretty much have you covered :)

Its funny I started with the same kind of stuff that was hand down that my mom got from her brother (my uncle) but she never got to the point where she added fish to the tank :(
So I took over the project years later as "My New Endeavor" the link is in my sig, its not really updated but it shows the beginning progress =P

You may realize (as I did) that a lot of the equipment is inadequate and may need to be replaced. Likewise, you may be able to find good use for a lot of it as well :)

2 things I regret however looking back and that was using crushed coral instead of sand and the 2nd being that I didn't buy a new tank as you mentioned, because the scratches in the glass on mine REALLY annoy me! =(

Good luck! This hobby is awesome & rewarding! ;)

 

[d2mini]

The lighting is basically one long fluorescent bulb. This tank was given to me by my brother in law. I am planning on getting a new tank this friday.

I would look into a T5 fixture with 4 bulbs. These are relatively inexpensive and the 4 bulbs will allow you to play with the spectrum of light by mixing different colors to get the look you want. Another option is a metal halide fixture. There are different color temperature bulbs available to choose from as well, but these run hotter than T5. If you have an enclosed hood over your tank, this might be a problem and may require you to purchase a chiller to keep water temps down. If you don't have a hood and will just be hanging your light form the ceiling you will probably be fine without a chiller. MH bulbs give you a nice shimmer effect in the water and there is more contrast/shadows vs the flat look of T5 and other fluorescents. Another option is a T5/MH combo which is what I have. More options for changing the color spectrum and you still get the shimmer that MH bulbs give you. And finally there are LED lights. The newest technology and the most expensive (initially).

Any of these would be a DRASTIC improvement over what you are using now.

 

[Carol]

We have the live sand in ours. The reason I waited so long to do something is, I let the tank run about a good year and a half before I put anything in it. And, I wanted to replace the carpet, but that may wait awhile longer after pricing recarpeting the whole house:S. This problems with this tank is the black molding around the top is cracking. The hood is basically a piece of plexiglass cut to fit. I tried looking around for a new hood and such, but I'd have to basically redo the molding, top and bottom, and the hoods themselves I can darn near buy a tank with the matching hood cheaper than I can go out and buy the top assembly. (around here anyways).
One question though, when I transfer I know to keep the same water and such. As far as the live sand, should i transfer that with the water included? Or, can I do that last? I'm not sure if transferring it without the water would kill the benefical stuff in it.

 

[Carol]

I will copy down what you wrote about the lights and hood, for when I go get the tank.

 

[little_fish]

If you have had nothing in the tank, then i would think you could transfer the sand. But if you have ever feed the tank or had anything else live in there, i would ditch it. Moving it will stir up detritus which normally causes a cycle and can be problematic.

And to keep anything live, like the rocks you do need to keep wet, but you dont need to keep all of your water. Most of the bacteria is in the substrate, not the water column.

 

[Carol]

I do have a couple fish in there. A coral beauty and mandarin. I may just go ahead and get some more sand. For about a year and a half, I had a couple of clownfish, and then I did something stupid, not rinsing something well enough and lost them.