[Prismaco]

When I got into this I new that there where going to be alot of things that I would learn and on how to deal with them. Also knowing that patience was the name of the game. I figured I could do it since my patience is very high. I guess it wasn't high enough for this. But I plan on sticking through it and cant wait for the outcome. I am talking everyones advice and I plan on sticking around. If it comes down to it, I will just have a LRFO tank.

Beaches:Sure whats the name of it.


-Paul

 

[Chip Wick]

Ouch! Buzzhog, you have a problem with Professor Frink, with the hoiven and the glaven??

 

[tdwyatt]

and I'm still having algae problems from time to time (I tend to "over feed" because my babies beg when I approach the tank). One thing I did do that helped my tank a lot is that I started putting a Phosabsorb (SP?) bag in the return/bottom of my wet/dry.

At this point, not a bad idea for you. Although they will release small amounts of aluminum into the tank's water column (which is detrimental to Sarcophyton spp.), they will remove phosphate (a problem if you're continuing to harvest the algae, the nitrates and phosphates are coming from somewhere), as this may be the nutrient that is most problematic for your system. Everything else is pretty much as others have already posted. Nuisance Algae continue to be the major reason most folks leave the hobby.

Put some Yellowjackets or Sarah McLaughlin on, open a good bottle of Chardonnay (Stags Leap comes to mind...), take deep breaths, and commit to a good cleaning round for the tank. Reevaluate your system in a few months, for now, it is much too young to really be capable of the diversity of algal competition and consumers needed to achieve balance in a closed system.

Good luck with the tank, even moving a system will cause it to go through the algal bloom cycle until the balance is reestablished.

hth

 

[Mr. Ono]

I think lots of people don't understand the meaning of "patience" as it relates to reef tank. Reef tank matures slowly, and you should make changes to your tank slowly.

I set up a 20 gallon clownfish tank. It has a BakPac skimmer, 3 inch DSB and 25 pounds of live rock. I seeded the tank with goodies from IPSF, caulerpa, worms, snails, pods and live sand starter.

I topped off tank with RO/DI water and add a flake once a week., and waited 2 months. After a month, The tank was full of pods, a decent caulerpa growth and no sign of hair or diatom out break. I did a 25% water change and waited some more.

After 2 months I started to look for the Ocellaris pair for this tank. I found a pair two weeks later. Put them in my hospital tank for two weeks. All together it was 3 months before the 20 gallon had anything "large and Living" in it. Had at least 5 people ask me what i was doing with an "empty" tank. I just told them you'll see later.

After adding the clowns I was set. Clowns were in heaven. All the pods they could eat. All I ever did was removed caulerpa for friends who wanted starters, and a 10% weekly water change.

I eventually sold this setup to a customer of my store a year after it was started. His kids loved how the clowns "played" in their home. I warned him that is tank is stable for what is in the tank and nothing more. Well you know what happened.

I get a call 2 months later and the tank is so hairy you can't see the fish. And there were 8 fish now in the tank.

Could this tank have handled 8 fish, maybe, but not 6 new ones in a month,.

Patience, take it slow, allow you tank to adjust to new additions before you add another. The smaller the tank, the slower you should add.

 

[dotel]

just remember your trying to recreate a equilibrium that took place over 25, trillion years or something in reality. It took me about 5-6 months till my tank (55) came to the point that it pretty much kept itself clean and eco system emerged.

 

[Prismaco]

Thats what I have come ro realize. So thats why I am just going to let me take ride for the month of June and do my normal RO top off and 2week water changes. Normal feeding of every 3 days. I also just bought a AquaC EV-90 Protein Skimmer and thats the last thing I plan on buying until things start to go well. Right now I have no skimmer running and hopefuly when I add this new one it will help out.

-Paul

 

[Prismaco]

Also..If I and a fuge would that help at all ? I plan on adding one and just wanted to know if this would be a good time to add it ?


-Paul

 

[grazzit]

hehe just semi ignore the tank for the summer, goto the beach, get a job whatever, let it cook for the summer just doing top off's and water changes. If ya get annoyed again then consider cutting your losses. It's a crazy thing inside that lil glass box amigo!

I see ya snuck in another post on me =P

You should have had a skimmer on this box in the first place, if I remember right (and I could be wrong) one of the main reasons for the skimmer is to cut out the biologicals that feed the algaes that are causing your head aches.