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Welcome.
If you are buying natural seawater at your LFS and you live in Murrieta then your water is probably comes from Andy at Oceans In Motion. That's where they are based out of, Murrieta. Their water is the same water that Scripps out of La Jolla uses. It's good water. Your phosphates are way up there, enough so that levels are still that high with all the nuisance algae feeding on the PO4. This is why you are having these outbreaks. Your nitrates are ok. A question I have regarding your loss of fish is did you take them out when dead or did they disappear. If they just went missing that could have a lot to do with excess nutrient and organics in the water as well as your feeding. Decomp. One cube of the food you took a pic of is way to much for two fish. They will not eat it all and it will lead to more of the same problem. Are you sure you found an Emerald Crab or could you have found a different one like a gorilla crab which would decapitate your sea hare. what typeof lighting do you have? Some solutions for the relief of the hair algae is another sea hare, turbo snails and rabbitfish. However, unless you get the PO4 under control it will just grow back. There is also chemical solutions as well. Red Sea NO3/PO4X is a good one and there are others too. You can also think of a refugium in your sump if it will support it. The good macroalgaes will out compete the nuisance algaes for the excess nutrients in the water and starve off the HA and the Cyano (red slime) which is not algae but a bacteria. And lastly, for the bristleworms, there are fish that will pick on them and some crustaceans will feed on them as well. Arrow crabs and coral banded shrimps are a couple that come to mind. bristleworms are also beneficial as they eat detritus and stir up the sandbed. Hope you find this info helpful and good luck getting it under control. Keep up with the water changes and good you got your skimmer up to snuff. Keep it clean including the neck where all the smelly crap settles


Wow thank you so much for the information, ya I get my water from Gill's on Winchester so not sure where he gets it from but I am sure he gets it from the place listed.

As for the crab I am pretty sure it's an emerald crab but he is pretty big. I will try and get a pic of him later.

As for the fish I only had one fish disapeer, I thought he jumped out and the dogs ate him, it was a yellow eyed tang and he was pretty big to be dead and me not see him in my tank. As for the other 3 they does and I pulled them out right away.

So how many fish will one cube feed? I want to get a few more fish soon, I really want to pair up my clown fish soon and get another tang I really liked the last one I had.


Ok so I will look into the chemicals to being my levels down to where they need to be..

Thanks so much for the help
 
I have one clown, 2-3 chromis damsels and a yellow coris wrasse and don't feed a whole cube at one time to them. I give them some and feed rest to my sons cichlids. I use same brand food as you but only give them frozen now and then. I feed mostly flake, sometimes NLS pellets and also a small amount of reef nutrition products but not at same time and then an occasional bit of frozen. Your fish should consume ALL the food within a minute.
Chemical will not remedy immediately either and some reefers will seek to find a more natural solution (myself inc) before resorting to it. There is a lot of learning that will last forever when going thru the labor of natural remedies. In the meantime, when doing your water changes siphon out as much of the cyano as you can. It sucks right up and pick off the HA with your fingers. It comes right up. It's tedious but it's what needs to be done.

You are welcome :)
 
the Turbo snails do not do well if the temperature is above 79 degree. Not sure about the hermit crabs. I have 1 snail and 1 hermit and I have not seen them the last few days when the temp was above 79. If the snails die, take them out of the tank asap just like the dead fish.
 
So my protein skimmer is working great now.. Pulled out so much stuff just last night, there is a control valve on it to control the flow. Can it pull to much out of the system? Or at this point does it matter and maybe turn it down later?
 
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