[Kakalakasha]

Okay, my tank has been up and running for about a month now.
I'm getting long (about 1-1.5inch) Green hair like things.
What are they?
How can i stop them?
Are they 1.Good 2.Bad 3.Neutral
Thanks ahead of time.

 

[reefguy1]

hey zach, its green hair algae....you will want it to go away! this is usual for a newly set up tank. Just keep up with your water paramiters and get a clean up crew and it should disappear with time.

 

[Kakalakasha]

hey zach, its green hair algae....you will want it to go away! this is usual for a newly set up tank. Just keep up with your water paramiters and get a clean up crew and it should disappear with time.

Okay,
For a 20gallon what should my cleanup crew consist of?
And how many of each?

 

[reefguy1]

this is something that I believe is a choice of preference. In my 46 I have about 10 blue leg hermits, 5 serith snails, and 10 tronchas snails. for you I would start with a few hermits and a few snails...maybe a few turbo snails...they make short work of algae.

 

[reefguy1]

oh yeah, if you get hermits b sure and get some extra shells for them so they wont kill your snails for their shells!

 

[Kakalakasha]

this is something that I believe is a choice of preference. In my 46 I have about 10 blue leg hermits, 5 serith snails, and 10 tronchas snails. for you I would start with a few hermits and a few snails...maybe a few turbo snails...they make short work of algae.

Okay,
and could i get a shrimp?

 

[reefguy1]

I believe so, I am not sure on which one you would want to get....but I do know that there are some that do a good job of cleaning up. You may want to see if anyone has an opinion on what kind of shrimp to get!

 

[Kakalakasha]

I believe so, I am not sure on which one you would want to get....but I do know that there are some that do a good job of cleaning up. You may want to see if anyone has an opinion on what kind of shrimp to get!

Okay,
Anyone got an opinion on shrimp?
I was thinking coral banded, but i heard those can kill fish...
So i dont know what to get.

 

[jph]

i would postpone the shrimp, it won't eat algae. let the tank clean up first.

my suggestion;

10 cerith snails
5 astrea snails
2 mexican turbos
5 blue leg hermits
5 scarlet hermits

edit: if you have a sandbed, throw in about 20 nassarius snails to keep that one maintained

now is the time to crank up the skimmer, siphon out all the poop and junk that the rocks shed. and do regular water changes.

don't add too much livestock to the tank that needs to be fed, as you have plenty of nutrients in the system, and adding food will only make it worse at this point.


J.

 

[shaggy420]

i would probably get a peppermint shrimp or two, i had real bad luck with my coral banded. they both died within the first day. it just seems to me that the peppermints are a little more hardy.

 

[Kakalakasha]

i would postpone the shrimp, it won't eat algae. let the tank clean up first.

my suggestion;

10 cerith snails
5 astrea snails
2 mexican turbos
5 blue leg hermits
5 scarlet hermits

edit: if you have a sandbed, throw in about 20 nassarius snails to keep that one maintained

now is the time to crank up the skimmer, siphon out all the poop and junk that the rocks shed. and do regular water changes.

don't add too much livestock to the tank that needs to be fed, as you have plenty of nutrients in the system, and adding food will only make it worse at this point.


J.

How often should i water change, and how much water on a 20g?

 

[jph]

How often should i water change, and how much water on a 20g?

right now, i'd do one 5G change per week.

use a turkey baster to blast the rocks off prior to doing it, then siphon out as much junk as you can.


J.

 

[Loverotties]

And use RO/DI water for your make up and making SW.

 

[OneDummHikk]

Hair algae is NOT normal for a new setup. It means you have phosphates in the water if you have Green HA. Find the source of the phosphates and remove it. Also, HA will not go away on its own unless you get rid of the source of the phosphates. Crank up the skimmer, and start cleaning. Siphon the sandbed (if you have one), clean off the rocks (use a stiff bristled toothbrush if nothing else).

What type of water are you using to make the SW?

Good luck with it.

 

[Kakalakasha]

Hair algae is NOT normal for a new setup. It means you have phosphates in the water if you have Green HA. Find the source of the phosphates and remove it. Also, HA will not go away on its own unless you get rid of the source of the phosphates. Crank up the skimmer, and start cleaning. Siphon the sandbed (if you have one), clean off the rocks (use a stiff bristled toothbrush if nothing else).

What type of water are you using to make the SW?

Good luck with it.

I dont make saltwater,
i buy it.
How do i siphon sand?

 

[OneDummHikk]

I dont make saltwater,
i buy it.
How do i siphon sand?

When you do water changes, you take a siphon tube (you can buy them at any fish store), you siphon the water out from the sand. The sand stays in the tank.

The saltwater you buy, is it SW that an LFS makes up for there own tanks or the bottled SW you can buy? I used the bottled SW to setup my 12 the first time and had problems with it. If that is what you get, ask your LFS about buying some from them out of there tanks, or, getting RO/DI water and making your own saltwater. You can get distilled water from walmart for about 72 cents a gallon. A box of IO salt makes 10 gallons of SW. You put 10 gallons of water in a container, dump the box in, mix it and off you go.

 

[Caball362]

One thing i think for got to be asked is .... What are you testing for ?

Are you Even Testing ?

Whats in the Tank atm ?

How often do you feed it ?

Is it a Sandbed Or Bare Bottem tank ?

What kinda Lighting ?

The more we know about the setup the more we can help .
I dont think HA is Normal theo because its invacive and tough to get rid of .

 

[airman_verde04]

Hey man, I just went through all the stuff your going through now, be werry on what advice you take from the forums. its 50/50 on fact to opinion! If you have a awsome LFS, their advice will be very consitance, so its pretty trustworthy.

so on that note, if you know for sure your tank is cycled, then go for a larger water change. l'd say like 50% if you haven't done any small ones yet. after that you can start a routne! I do 10% once a week. I waited about a week after my first big water change before I got my CUC. but the LFS said 1 snail per gallon, and a couple hermits! umm I dont remember what kind of snails I have, but in the small tank I went for the mexican red tips! they are less aggresive on eatting snails than the blue leg from what research I did. as for Shrimp, I went for the basic cleaner shrimp, I think they call it the Scarlet Skunk cleaner shrimp, its the one with the red strip down its back, and yellow on its belly! they seem to be very hardy from what I read/hear, I'd even go for two of them in a 20g! I was reading that they are much more playful in pairs or 3's. so I cant really give much more advice, I haven't got past the CUC, fish are coming in about 2 weeks for me! good luck!

 

[OneDummHikk]

Hey man, I just went through all the stuff your going through now, be werry on what advice you take from the forums. its 50/50 on fact to opinion! If you have a awsome LFS, their advice will be very consitance, so its pretty trustworthy.

but the LFS said 1 snail per gallon, and a couple hermits!

The amount of CUC you need has nothing to do with how much water is in the system. You need enough to keep it clean without them starving to death. That is directly related to the bioload in the tank and not even remotely related to the volume of water. It is also related to the footprint of the tank. A 75G and a 90G tank are the same footprint, will need the same CUC if both are stocked exactly the same.

I doubt 120 mexican turbo snails would last very long in my 120G tank though.

 

[jph]

I doubt 120 mexican turbo snails would last very long in my 120G tank though.

i'm pretty sure that they could move your rocks if they worked together. those things are like little bulldozers



J.