Zach's 90 Gallon "Build" Log

[ZMattie]

K, well I sadly have to admit, I lost my Regal tang. I dont know what happened, no signs of Ich or any illness. All of the other fish are healthy and seem to be happy (besides the six line that jumped into the overflow due to me trying to catch it lol), and there isnt a fish in there that would be aggressive it to it. Hmmr=.. Another bad thing is, I havent found it yet!!!! Im going to keep looking tomorrow, its been gone 3-4 days now and I dont want it to decompose in there, so I HAVE to find it.

Also, I have been having some bad algae showing up lately. I believe its dinoflanges or something like that lol, its not cyano, its the brown algae that covers the sand bed and rock. I still have the algae showing up on the glass (diatoms) but im not too worried about that, I believe with a little more flow it would disappear.
Steps I plan to take to get rid of the algea are as follows...
1. Cut my photo period down to 5 hours, (5 hours of actinics and 3 1/2 hours of daylight). How long can my corals withstand this shortage of light?
2. Do waterchanges every 5 days for a month, then every week for a month and so on, until the problem seizes.
3. Stir the top layer of my sand bed every day. I can do that right? lol
4. Blast the rocks that are covered in it with a turkey baster and then if powerhead if the baster doesnt remove it.

Any other tips, suggestions, walkthrough etc. would be appreciated!
Thanks guys/gals,
Zach

Oh, does anyone have a good website for algae identitification and removaL? Ive came accross a few but never really had this bad of a problem, so therefore did not save them.

[Kyuss]

pics?

The tang is prolly already cleanup crew fodder, my cc takes care of carcasses pretty fast, I am talking a few hours and nothing is left but skeletons.

How often are you doing your water changes? Did you get chaeto going yet? I pmed you the other day to let you know I have plenty. I will be around most of the weekend during the day. lmk

[ZMattie]

Yea Josh, Ill stop by this week and grab some, I could really use some lol. My dog chewed up my laptop charger so Ive only been able to catch up to LARK when im at work. But back to the subject, ive only done 3 water changes since I started the tank. One right after the cycle, another when I had the big leak (it changed itself lol) and one 2 days ago. So roughly, once every 1-2 weeks.

[Kyuss]

yearghh! darn dogs cool man, the chaeto will definitely help with the nutrients. Go ahead and stir the top layer, it wont hurt anything. I don't think that short of a photoperiod will really hurt the coral. People black out there tanks for days to combat cyano, you would still be giving them the light that they need. You may not get crazy growth but they should not die.

[ZMattie]

great thanks josh!

[tangmang23]

yeah stirring the sand bad will be fine, just make sure you get more flow in there to prevent massive dead spots. The problem that i had, well were guessing was saturated sand. Continue cleaning the sand when you do water changes to keep the crud off of it and suck out any algae that may grow. One question i have is how often are you feeding?? This has been talked about alot and was one of my major draw backs to a clean tank was me feeding daily. Cut that back a bit, shorten the light, and keep up with water changes with good clean water, and hopefully it should clear up with out any major action. Good luck, let me know of that photo period works for you. I might try it as well.

[ZMattie]

I was feeding a small amout of garlic soaked frozen/flake food daily when I had the Regal Tang, to prevent illness, but since it disappeared, I have been feeding every other day. Maybe Ill cut that back to one every three days? Another question, how long does pellet GFO last? I think Ill go ahead and change it in the reactor, but its only been in there roughly 2 weeks.

[schneijt]

The only way to know when to change is with a Phosphate test kit. If you had phosphates to begin with, they may have "used up" the GFO in these past two weeks. And once you remove them, the GFO will last for anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on how much Phosphate is in your fish food and what not. GFO will usually last a while when it's "maintaining" the undetectable phosphates. If there were some there to start with when you brought the GFO online, it'll get used up pretty quickly, likely within the last couple weeks even... But yeah, the best way to know when to change it is by regularly testing for phosphates and replacing the GFO when they creep up a little bit as the GFO exhausts...

-Joe

[ZMattie]

Well I havent updated in awhile... I have added a few new fish, which include a Purple Tang, a Sailfin Tang and a Chocolate Tang, all of which are less than 3 inches, and yes before the tang police come after me, I do plan to upgrade within the next couple years and the fish are getting along just fine so far with no "fight" or signs of aggression. I have also added quite a few new corals, which include, a nice sized bubble coral, a purple tip fuzzy acro frag, a small flower pot frag, a few new rics, and a few new zoas. I also lost one of my naked clowns due to me making a BAD choice that I would rather not talk about lol. But everything seems to be doing great and my algae problem is slowly but surly getting better!

[ZMattie]

Also, in about a month, I am going to be plumbing a 55 gallon FOWLR tank to my system for a few aggressive fish. I have a couple questions on how to do this, but I will wait to ask them until the time gets closer. Just thought Id share what I had planned! LOL I also may plumb in another 10 gallon acryllic tank (for a mantis)!

[OLDETOWNENORTHPETS]

And the BAD choice was putting a Red Volition in tank. AND who said not to? HMMMMMM.

[ZMattie]

Lol hence why i said I would rather not talk about it!

[firsthesitation]

Is your skimmer gonna keep up with all this bioload?

[ZMattie]

I have 1 wrasse, 3 tangs, 1 clown, 1 firefish and 1 chromis. Thats 3 medium fish, and 4 small fish. Im pretty sure I'll be alright! Dont you have 2 tangs and a couple smaller fish in a 75?

[firsthesitation]

Yeah but I'm talking about when you add all those other fish into these tanks that are plumbing into your current system. Or did I mis understand and you aren't sharing a sump with them.

Sides after tomorrow I'll be running a Bubble King, so I'm not too worried about my bioload anymore. :P