Enough Light?

[Rottluvntxn]

New member here so please be patient. 55 gal 2 huge maroons,1 Yellow Tang,2 Firefish,2 Gramma, 2 Huge Long Tentacle Anemone and 2 Rasta Leathers. I have 4 T-5 High Output 10 K Lights, one of them actinic. Is this enough? Im having a problem with red algae and Im gettin frustrated and am being told it is because of light. Water OK but tank is maybe 6 months old.

[MikeDeL]

If the tank is only 6 months old, this is just a cycle you will go through. Best thing to do I think is keep up with water changes, and increase the flow. When you say red algae you mean cyano right? when ever you do water changes syphon off as much of the stuff as possible.

[Rottluvntxn]

How long is this going to take though? I have done maybe 6 water changes now..changing out about 12 gallons at a time. Is this good? Or do I just basically need to have some patience? But the light is sufficient though right?

[Reef69]

How often do you do water changes?

[jlam]

Well if you are having problems with red(cyano algae) then that normally means that you have to many silicates or phosphates. Are you using R/O DI or tap? Normally if your tank is only 6 months old you should not have Cyano. Normally on new tanks in the first 1-6 months you should have a diatom bloom then followed by green hair about the same time the coraline algea starts to grow. Are you over feeding?
Jason

[Rottluvntxn]

Im doing them every week so far once I waited two weeks though

[Rottluvntxn]

I am using R/O not tap. I do have Phosguard in the tank just in case. I feed once a day 1 cube of brine shrimp and maybe some squid as a treat for the clowns.

[GaryP]

Light is no more a cause of an algae bloom than it is of your lawn growing.

Algae blooms are caused by excess nutrients. Often cyanobacteria is related to excess detritus buildup on the substrate in a tank. Increasing current, adding detritivores/herbivores, and siphoning detritus are often very helpful.

A 12 gal. water change is a lot for a 55 gal. tank. You are better off doing smaller, more frequent water changes than infrequent large changes. 10% every 1-2 weeks is a good water change program. I'm sorta shooting in the dark here because I don't know some of the details about your system and I am trying to stay fairly general.

[MikeDeL]

Im not sure with the lighting. The leathers should be fine, I dont know about the anemone though. I think the 55 might be a little to deep for T-5s alone.

How often are you changing the water? You said you have already done 6, does that mean all you have done since the tank is up? If so I would suggest maybe 5 gallon water changes every week instead of one large monthly water change. Atleast until everything gets settled. Basically you will just need some patience. If you keep up with the water changes and maintenance it will pass.

[::pete::]

It seems like they all hit it, so welcome to Maast!!

[GaryP]

Well if you are having problems with red(cyano algae) then that normally means that you have to many silicates or phosphates.

Silicates have nothing to do with cyano. Silicates are a nutrient for diatoms. We're going to be talking about this at the meeting this weekend. Please try to make it to the meeting for a more in-depth discussion.

[Rottluvntxn]

Gary, the system itself is very general LOL..I just have trickle filter on it, protein skimmer and I add a simple Aquaclear 110 hanging on the back.. I only have 1 Aquaclear 402 powerhead. The tank has been sweet so far ..no dead fish..water perameters check sweet.. and up until the last month no algae except for some good green stuff that the tang has kindly eaten. I just hate the red though.

[jlam]

Once a day but how much? Normally I dont feed my fish but once every 2 days. From the fish you have you really should cut back on how much you feed them. If I am thinking of the cube you are talking about (1/2 inch cube) that is a lot of food for the few fish you have. I have about the same amount of fish you have right now and only feed them about 1/4 of a cube every 2 days. Some fish do require to be feed every day but the fish you listed should not have to be feed daily.

Jason

[Rottluvntxn]

I will try less feeding then and frequent my water changes seems like the light is good. I really appreciate yalls responses. Thanks alot for welcoming me!

[jlam]

Since you are feeding with brine shrimp what I normally do is use water to thaw the food. If you put the water you use to thaw the food into the aquarium that has a lot of nutrients. So limit the amout of the thawed water you put in or use a strainer.

In your setup I did not see a protein skimmer in there are you skimming?

Jason

[GaryP]

I would never recommend feeding less. In most cases we don't feed enough. Reef fish are used to eating low quality food almost constantly. I would rather recommend you feed more frequently with smaller amounts. Brine shrimp by themselves aren't real nutritious unless you are using the enriched Hikari shrimp. Mysid shrimp are better. Try mixing some flake or Nori into the mix. I like to feed a mixture of different things so that it reproduces the diet they get in the wild.

[Rottluvntxn]

Yes I do have a protein skimmer on the tank as well.

[GaryP]

I thaw my food out and then filter it out in a brine shrimp net to pour off the nutrients in the liquid portion of the food. That helps control how much I feed too.

[GaryP]

When I'm feeding meat, I feed a mixture of brine, mysids, krill, and blood worms. I also feed flake, Nori, and macro.

[jlam]

How much is your protein skimmer pulling out. Normally I pull about 1 cup a day but I am running a 100 gallon. Maybe your skimmer is not working 100% but that is all I can think of.

Jason

[Tim Marvin]

Light is no more a cause of an algae bloom than it is of your lawn growing.

Algae blooms are caused by excess nutrients. Often cyanobacteria is related to excess detritus buildup on the substrate in a tank. Increasing current, adding detritivores/herbivores, and siphoning detritus are often very helpful.

A 12 gal. water change is a lot for a 55 gal. tank. You are better off doing smaller, more frequent water changes than infrequent large changes. 10% every 1-2 weeks is a good water change program. I'm sorta shooting in the dark here because I don't know some of the details about your system and I am trying to stay fairly general.

Iwould go with this advice, add a cucumber, snails of all types, a couple hermits (tiny), and maybe a small urchin. Everything but the urchin will help on the sand bed and the urchins processes coralline to help it spread through out the tank and it eats some algae off the rocks. Just my two cents.

[Rottluvntxn]

Well maybe a cup once a week thats about it.

[GaryP]

I know Tim isn't a big fan of them, but some hermits are good for cyano control. Nassarius snails are also good for detritus control.

[Rottluvntxn]

what is detritus?

[Tim Marvin]

I actually have lots of hermits, Jim was the one who doesn't like them. I don't advise people to have too many and I take them out when they get too big. I have been haveing pretty good luck with cucumbers lately though and I have at least a couple in each tank except for the bare bottom frag tank.

[jlam]

I would think about tweaking the skimmer because with the amount you are feeding you should be able to pull out at least a cup every other day. Or even maybe getting a new skimmer?
Jason

[Tim Marvin]

A cup a day is way too much! You need to drop the water level in the skimmer. You should have a cup in about two weeks. It should be a thick syrup like scum. The skimmer on the 80 makes about a cup and a half per month and I feed heavy. I estimate about 2 cups on the 200 gallon system, of good dry scum.

[GaryP]

what is detritus?

Detritus is the solid trash left over from fish waste and uneaten food. It can also include dead algae solids.

No two skimmers operate the same and no two reefers tune them the same way. Some skimmers make a very wet skimmate, some a very dry, gunky skimmate. Ideally you want to make a dry foam that is more solid than liquid. The key point though is whether you are removing the waste or not.

[Tim Marvin]

I respectfully disagree. Skimmers are to remove scum not water. I still beleive a cup per day is too much. Plus you can't go any place for a few days or it will overflow. I would say a cup per day in NaCl's system would be ok, but in a 100 gallon?
Jlam, I'm not trying to bash either, I just think a minor adjustment will save you the hassle of constantly cleaning and it will be working just as well. Leave the good water in the tank.

[jlam]

Well it depends on what you define as a cup. When I mean a cup I mean a measuring cup like you find in a kitchen. If you are talking about the collection cup on top of my skimmer then that is more like 4 or 5 cups. Every skimmer is different most of the skimmers that you guys have is more like 10 cups since your skimmer are so large. My skimmer is medium dry and hardly any water is in it, all brownish black crap that gets skimmed out and I get about 1 cup per day.

Jason

[Tim Marvin]

I thought you were talking about the skimmer cup. OOps.

[Tim Marvin]

Joshua, why don't you just do water changes rather than use a skimmer...LMAO....Maybe with the sand bed and all the refugiums I just don't produce all the crap you do. I usually feed twice a day though.

[NaCl_H2O]

I respectfully disagree. Skimmers are to remove scum not water. I still beleive a cup per day is too much. Plus you can't go any place for a few days or it will overflow. I would say a cup per day in NaCl's system would be ok, but in a 100 gallon?

That's pretty close to what I get, maybe 2 cups a day (if I let Joshua get too close with his glass of milk) ;)

[GaryP]

Steve,

Your system could easily handle a whole gallon of milk. Don't underrate yourself.