quick lighting question

[hayes_101]

I have a 55 gal tank 1 kenya tree and a low light mushroom 1 true clown and just a few other fish, I have not picked up a light fixture for the tank as of yeat and I am just running 2 natural day 18" lamps on the hood. should I be leaving them on all day or just turn them on for a few hours at night.. I am noticing that I have a lot of brown alge growing on the tank and my cleaners ar lazy! any input will be apreciated.
And I know what some are going to say that I have got to git a good light source for my tank but well I hade one lined up and they backed out and I can't afford 400$ for a good set!

 

[IslandCrow]

Honestly, the two corals you have will probably do OK even under that lighting. Not perfect, but they're not very light demanding. As far as the algae, reducing your light cycle can help you battle the issue, but that's only one of many options, and won't solve the problem on its own. I'd mainly concentrate on reducing your nutrients. This can be done by properly regulating your feeding, regular water changes, using RO/DI source water, using carbon and/or GFO (a.k.a. phosphate remover), amongst other things.

 

[hayes_101]

ya I am running carbon in my filter and I use bottled water, they use reverse osmosis I think that is the same right? and I do a 20% water change evey month. and I fed them a little bit in the mornig and while I have more time at night they git fed twice verry small portions each time.. am I at least doing that right.. lol. I do have to say I love this hobby.

 

[perrl]

You might try more frequent water changes for the algea problem. Patience is a virtue

 

[hayes_101]

ok I will do 10 to 15% every other week

 

[IslandCrow]

10-15% every other week would certainly be better, but if I were having algae problems, I'd be doing that much weekly. Actually, I was doing weekly 10-15% water changes in my 46g even without algae problems. Your feeding sounds like it's probably fine. I think multiple feedings is a good thing as long as it's small portions. There should be very little uneaten food, and I never put more food in the tank at any one time than my fish can eat in about 30 seconds. As for your water, bottled water isn't bad, but it's not the same as RO/DI, which is going to give you pretty much lab grade purified water. In the long run, it's also much less expensive than buying your water from the grocery store, not to mention more convenient, which in turn is going to make more frequent water changes cheaper and more convenient.

 

[hayes_101]

we have places around where you fill your own bottle and I think they use the same filter system that you are describing. I mean RO/DI is just reverse osmosis is it not??? I am a little confused on that. I was told to use that kinda bottled water

 

[IslandCrow]

The RO in RO/DI is in fact Reverse Osmosis. The second part of that is de-ionization. That's the final stage that gets your water from pretty pure to very pure. Can you run a successful reef tank without the DI part. . .sure you can. Are your chances of success just a little better with DI. . .absolutely.

Now, the problem with bottled water, especially the machines where you fill them up yourselves, is quality control. Not all of those places do a good job keeping up on the maintenance of their machines, so the water may not be as pure as you think. Buying a TDS meter (you can pick one up at any online fish store) will help you judge how pure your water is. With a well maintained RO membrane, I'd say your TDS should be 5 or less (mine is usually 2 or less). DI is going to get that down to less than 1ppm of dissolved solids.

 

[75gsalt]

Island is right, my local walmart is where I used to get my RO water, from the Cullagan machine. I bought a TDS meter and it showed 12ppm. I had bad hair algea problems, tested the water for phosphates and it was very high. I have a RO/DI now, well worth the money.

 

[hayes_101]

good advice I will look into gitting one in the future, things are so expensive, I looked into gitting one befor but it was goint to cost me almost 400$, between the skimmer I need and lighting man I stil have a long way to go!