i've about had it with my tank and am very close to giving up. unless of course somebody here can come up with something that will work....
the problem....hair algae and lack of coralline growth...i have to admit that about 1 1/2 years ago, i fell behind in the water changes and the tank developed an explosion of hair algae. since then, i had my lfs guy come in and scrub the rock with a brush, which was back around Christmas.
the tank is 100 gallon and has been set up for about 4 years. i have been running carbon (changed weekly) thru an emperor 400, i have a red sea berlin hang-on skimmer, lighting is 3 x 175 metal halide (6500k) and 2 x 96 pc actinic, about 100lbs of rock and a sand bottom.
inhabitants are 2 clownfish (percs), 1 foxface, 2 pajama cardinals, 1 six line wrasse, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 condy anemone, some polyps and some mushrooms, some hermits, astrea snails, a sand sifting star and unfortunately some aptasia. for the past several months i have been doing 25 gallon water changes using seachem reef salt every week, i also add a daily dose of b-ionic calc/alk buffer. i feed the fish only every few days with mysis/spirulina brine mix and some krill once a week for the condy. all inhabitants are healthy and have been in the tank for at least a couple of years. although i cannot seem to keep any NEW inhabitants more than a month or two....some less....
i bought the metal halide set up to replace my 4 x 65 pc back around october. almost wish i would have stayed with the pc's
the water always tests fine by my lfs....correct ph, 0 ammonia/trites, low trates, salt is occasionally a little high, 0 phosphates, calc/alk ok.....etc...sorry, i dont have the exact values for all of these
i am going to the lfs this weekend to pick up 2 new actinic pc's and am also going to replace 2 of the 6500k metals with 10000k.
i'd sure like to see good coralline growth and my polyps and mushrooms to return to their health and vigor of yesteryear. i'd also like to add a few more fish and a clam, but, until i see improvement, there is no way i'm adding anything to this tank
i'd really like to not try to sell the tank. in the past, when it looked good (lots of purple and healthy shrooms and polyps), it truly was something to look at, we even made a sitting room out of the room where the tank is, but......if i cant make it work, i really dont need the aggrevation....
HELP!!!!!!!
the problem....hair algae and lack of coralline growth...i have to admit that about 1 1/2 years ago, i fell behind in the water changes and the tank developed an explosion of hair algae. since then, i had my lfs guy come in and scrub the rock with a brush, which was back around Christmas.
the tank is 100 gallon and has been set up for about 4 years. i have been running carbon (changed weekly) thru an emperor 400, i have a red sea berlin hang-on skimmer, lighting is 3 x 175 metal halide (6500k) and 2 x 96 pc actinic, about 100lbs of rock and a sand bottom.
inhabitants are 2 clownfish (percs), 1 foxface, 2 pajama cardinals, 1 six line wrasse, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 condy anemone, some polyps and some mushrooms, some hermits, astrea snails, a sand sifting star and unfortunately some aptasia. for the past several months i have been doing 25 gallon water changes using seachem reef salt every week, i also add a daily dose of b-ionic calc/alk buffer. i feed the fish only every few days with mysis/spirulina brine mix and some krill once a week for the condy. all inhabitants are healthy and have been in the tank for at least a couple of years. although i cannot seem to keep any NEW inhabitants more than a month or two....some less....
i bought the metal halide set up to replace my 4 x 65 pc back around october. almost wish i would have stayed with the pc's
the water always tests fine by my lfs....correct ph, 0 ammonia/trites, low trates, salt is occasionally a little high, 0 phosphates, calc/alk ok.....etc...sorry, i dont have the exact values for all of these
i am going to the lfs this weekend to pick up 2 new actinic pc's and am also going to replace 2 of the 6500k metals with 10000k.
i'd sure like to see good coralline growth and my polyps and mushrooms to return to their health and vigor of yesteryear. i'd also like to add a few more fish and a clam, but, until i see improvement, there is no way i'm adding anything to this tank
i'd really like to not try to sell the tank. in the past, when it looked good (lots of purple and healthy shrooms and polyps), it truly was something to look at, we even made a sitting room out of the room where the tank is, but......if i cant make it work, i really dont need the aggrevation....
HELP!!!!!!!