Alot of Particles/Alge in the Tank

[Gregsf66]

Hey guys and gals,

My name is Greg and I am new to saltwater/reefkeeping. I have a 29 gallon right now that has about 45lbs of Liverock and has a 2213 eheim filter ( which will come off in 2 days when I get my sump from Louis) I have a 900 mj powerhead, and a 65 coralife super skimmer. I have noticed that Alot of particles/alge/crap has been settling on the liverock and in the livesand.

The tank has been up running for about 4 1/2 weeks now and Wondering what is wrong.
1. Not enough flow ( I have ordered 2 maxijet 900 powerheads)
2. New Tank syndrome
3. Something I am doing wrong.

I have qustions also. thx

1. Is it ok to put liverock all the way up against the back of the tank?
2. How much flow should be in the tank?
-Wed I will have 2 MJ 900 at 235 each and a mag 3 return at 250, which is 720 gph / 29 gallons = 25 cycle times per hour

3. Too much live rock? 45lbs
4. Not enought Live Rock?
-I have 24 lbs extra in another 29. I got a great deal from some peeps.

5. What is a good clean up crew?

Right now I have a false purcula clown fish- came w/ tank, 5 blue legged hermit crabs, and that is it.

I wanted to get a Lawnmower blenny, and a pigme dawrf angel fish. and some mix corals, leathers, mushrooms, anominee (mis spelled)heh, and that is about it.

I have a coralife 130w compact light on the tank now.

Any advice would be great. please be honest and Dont worry about hurting my feelings. I'm all ears. Thx guys and gals.

Greg

[Gregsf66]

Here is a pic

Greg

[Jeff]

one more maxjet, plus your return is good for flow.
if your rock is up against the glass you will have less water flow through it to pick up the detritius that will settle there. the real thing is it is your tank, aquascape it as you will.
as for a clean up crew go with about 5 nasarius snails, 20-25 astrea snails, and maybe 5 more hermits.

[Jeff]

oh yeah, i forgot to say WELCOME TO MAAST.

[erikharrison]

....

[erikharrison]

WELCOME! A good rule of thumb is 1 crab per gallon, and 1 snail per 1.5 gallons. That should keep your tank immaculate. It sounds like maybe you're feeding a tad too much, and therefore the waste is what you see settling at the bottom. Live rock, the more the better, and you have plenty in there. As far as LR being against the tank, it's ok, but you could probably do a good deal of hiding with extra powerheads etc, behind the rocks. Your skim should be coming out black as sin, if it's semi-clear, try to adjust it so it's skimming a little less, although wet skimming is used if you have alot of garbage in the water. Your flow will be righteous on Weds, just try to make sure your sand stays in place. As far as corals, look at zoos/palys as well. All the ones you have listed should do alright under pc lighting, but if you see that they never truly open up, you may need to adjust your rock work to facilitate moving the coral to "higher ground". In your sump, you could add more LR, but you also may want to add a bunch of sand, and some good macro algae. It sounds like you almost have everything you need. Good job!
Peace!
Erik

[brewercm]

At 4.5 weeks you may also just be going through a regular cycle of algae bloom at the beginning. I'm in the middle of it right now on my 140 with a bunch of hair type algae but a little different. I just started putting some snails and crabs in that are very happy to eat away at it.

[loans_n_fishes]

Welcome to MAAST, Greg! :D Sounds like you have a good set up going to me. Absolutely add the janitors (crabs and snails). They make a huge difference very quickly. When you are ready for some softy frags, let me know. We MAASTards love to help the newbies! ;)

Also, it may be good for this thread to be moved to general reefkeeping. I don't think this is necessarily an emergency situation, and you will probably get more responses there. (I'll ask to have it moved)

BTW we have a meeting this weekend in SA. Hope you can make it!

Angela

[DaBird47]

Sounds like you've gotten some great advise above...Welcome to MAAST, and keep posting pics. , we love pics.....

[txstateunivreefer]

Welcome to maast soon you will be an addict like the rest of us

as for your questions
1. you can never have enough flow it will keep fish poop off the bottom and keep your h20 chemistry under control
2. very possible it could be one of the many algae blooms that new tanks go thru if it is golden brown then it is diatom algae and will get on everything for a few days
3. overfeeding like others said can make problems arise ie algae from hell, and lots of waterchanges so be patient and feed every few days

1. some folks put rock up against their glass, my first tank was a 29 and i did it. its a no-brainer that it will put stress on the seams, and if your worried about it you can put some pvc or construct a PVC rack to stack your rock on and keep it off the glass
2 when counting flow i dont take into account my return however some do on my 110 i have a dart pump that puts out 3600gph so i get roughly 36x turnover a neat idea for you would be to put a closed loop on there running thru a SCWD to give you some wave action
3. too much no such thing i just loaded another 100lbs to make my total about 225 in my tank most of the time it just depends on what you can afford.
5. what erick said there is a group order going out to a company called reeftopia and you can get all the critters you need for MUCH cheaper than a petstore so get in on it quick! im talking hermits and snails for .30 instead of 1.99 ea


as for your coral ive always heard to wait a bit so your tank can stabilize about 6mths i just started doing coral about 3mths ago so maybe someone else has some input on that.

welcome and if you are new to saltwater dont learn the hard way that patience is a good thing because only bad things happen fast in SW.

[dabudkrew]

2. very possible it could be one of the many algae blooms that new tanks go thru if it is golden brown then it is diatom algae and will get on everything for a few days


will it go away by itself or with help of snails?

[txstateunivreefer]

yes and no diatom algae can be caused and solved by several things...

all algae is fueled by excess nutrients this can be from over feeding, not enough filtration, or using tap water to fill your tank.

all new tanks go thru the blooms also and they usually go away. feed your fish less to cut down on access nutreints.

another thing you can do is use RO or DI water

[Jeff]

actually too much live rock will actually trap more detritus and food than the rock can break down leading to a rise in nitrates. i know from personal experience. you have enough rock already but if you want more i would look into making you own or contacting someone who does. it is less stress on the enviroment and you can make any shape that you want. remember to take it slow and steady, learn good husbandry, and don't add too much too soon. you can enjoy a perfect tank set up that is cheap and easy to take care of if you take it slow.

[txstateunivreefer]

too much live rock will actually trap more detritus and food than the rock can break down leading to a rise in nitrates


more rock = you need more flow which is my next project too :skeezy

[erikharrison]

yeah the objective with flow is to keep the detritus suspended long enough to be processed into your filtration. I take my seio off the glass every week, after a WC and sort of "wash" the rocks clean of detritus.