Aquatic_Adam's 1st Salty Tank

[Aquatic_Adam]

Hey everyone,

This is my first time working with marine. I have kept aquariums for years now mostly with dwarf South American Cichlids and planted tanks. But when it comes to this stuff I'm a bit out of my element. I would love to continue on and get a beautiful reef but I need some help!

Equipment:
Standard 125g display tank (6 ft long)
40g long sump (1 chamber for skimmer, 1 for refugium, 1 for return)
2 ReefBreeder Value LED fixtures
SCA-302 Skimmer (rated 180g)

Additives:
SeaChem Stability
Two Little Fishies C Balance A and B for Alkalinity and Calcium
SeaChem Magnesium

Fauna:
1 Bicolor Angel
2 Green Chromis
2 Blue Throat Trigger (recent addition)
1 Lawnmower Blenny
3 Red Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (got a bit excited and bought...more than needed)
Various CUC including Hermits, Emerald Crabs, and snails
Frogspawn
Goniopora (dying on me for sure)
Orange Plate Fungia
Various Zoa (Green Bay Packer and random frag)
Green Star Polyps
Purple Mushroom

Parameters:

Temperature: 79 degrees
Salinity: 1.027
pH: 8.2
KH: 150
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5
Phosphate: 0 (I assume a mix of PhosGuard and hair algae are using it)
Calcium: 340 (low)

This is all that I can measure for at the time being. Which leads me to a few questions for you all:

1. I have...a boat load of hair algae...how do I get rid of this? I decided to get a few SeaChem PhosGuard to help me remove any stray phosphates and been attempting to remove manually but I cant seem to get ahead of it

2. My Frogspawn has been getting lighter and opening less. Is there is such a thing as too much light for the Frogspawn? I will attempt to get a picture of it on here.

3. I can regulate the blues and whites of the LED...do you guys just play around with it until you find the balance or what? So far I have been running them at 50% total capacity of white and 35% if total capacity of blues. I do this because the lights are resting on the glass (I dont have a good way of elevating the lights above the tank (my gf wants everything to look nice considering its in the living room))

4. So far, I have been using tap water because my RO unit has broken down (Im sure thats not helping my hair algae). What does everyone use here for additives? I feel like I am not getting all of the trace minerals needed to keep a reef going successfully (granted I need to get better about my testing).

 

[RCS82]

Stopping the tap water would be my first move and grab some filtered water from the grocery store for water changes.
How's your flow/water movement?
A 6ft tank will require some serious equipment to move all that water around.
Also running a good quality carbon in your sump could benifit things.

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Stopping the tap water would be my first move and grab some filtered water from the grocery store for water changes.
How's your flow/water movement?
A 6ft tank will require some serious equipment to move all that water around.
Also running a good quality carbon in your sump could benifit things.

Thanks for the response!

I currently only have 2 powerheads. They move about 1400-1500 GPH and are pointed slightly upwards to create surface movement/ripples. Both are on opposite sides of the tank and both point to the left creating a circle flow.