Redemption

whatnot..... what watt lighting is the new lighting fixture you've ordered? If they are 20w t-8 bulbs I'm concerned about your lighting choice with wanting to keep caulerpa. You'll need fairly bright lighting for the light to reach the bottom of a 29 gal tank in enough strength to keep caulerpa growing strong. A PC lighting fixture (110w - 130w) would be a good choice giving about 6 watts gallon also allowing you to keep those soft corals you like ;)

Also, skip the queen conch. They get HUGE and need a huge amount of open sand space.

I keep no hermits with my horses. Nassarius snails are much safer and do just as good a job of scavenging leftover foods with the added benefit of stirring the sandbed.

Tom
 
Ok Ill get more info on the light. As for the conch thanks for the warning I wont get it. The hermits however are not for scavenging. Im getting them incase hair algae decides to pop up like it has in the past. They are herbivores according to etropicals. THey are also the docile kind that wont eat my snails or eachother.
 
Wait a second.... I already have a 130 watt T-5 which is more than enough... I guess Ill just use that... Its REALLY anoying though because it makes accessing the tank almost impossible unless I take it off.
 
Ok so the cycle is going well. I put a chunk of frozen mysis in about 4 days ago to get the cycle going. I already have cyano. I havnt checked amonia or anything yet.

I have decided on the seahorses I am going to get!
Ill get a pair of sunbursts from ocean rider, and A pair of barbouri. Im not sure where to get the barbs though. Would it be unwise to get the barbs from another breeder such as seahorsesource? They are 50 dollars cheaper there than at oceanrider. And for a pair, thats a hundred dollars i dont need to spend.
 
hmmm, you really shouldn't have cyano already. Brown diatoms are usually the first thing to appear, cyano doesn't usually appear for a little while.

In any event, as far as mixing species from different vendors... I'm sure you've read all the posts giving opinions on that. Some people do it without a problem. Some people have tried it with disasterous results, myself included.

The choice is ultimately yours. If you mix and it doesn't work out will you be willing to strip the tank down and start over if needed? Only you can decide if you're willing to take the chance.

Tom
 
ok I guess since i dont have to pay for the horses any ways i will get them all from OR. I do not want to have to go through this again.

Also, The algea stuff is acctually diatomes in the main display, however i have this greenish slime/mat stuff growing on my calurpa in the fuge. I think that thats cyano.
 
Yeah, i've had a LOT of cyano, and it's never been green. I've had orange, red, purple, ect, but not green. if it's green, and slimey, then that is a different algae, and usually is the start of hair algae, IME. I get that stuff, then it grows into hair algae.
 
Ok so Now that I have lots of algea growing, would it be ok to purchase my clean up crew? IT would get here in about 3 days, and would consist of:

Pepermint shrimp-2
Cerith Snail-10
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab- 10
Nassarius Snail-15
Astraea Turbo Snail-15
Bumble Bee Snail-2
Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab -10

I am waiting for my amonia test to come up right now, so ill post that in 20 minutes when its done.
 
Umm...I think that Dwarf red tip hermits are the most aggressive. I think that whoever told you that the hermits were herbivores lied.

ALL hermits that I have mixed with nassarius snails have ended up eradicating the snails within a day. I would just stick to snails, but JMHO.

Wait until your tank is fully cycled to get your clean up crew.
 
Ok I was just going by what Etropicals said on their little charts. they said that Scarlet reef hermits and dwarf red tip hermits were bothe peacful and herbiverouse. I will not get the dwarf ones, but i am still getting scarlets xD I DO NOT! wan any hair algea to come wreck the tank like it did last time
 
I'm confused. I've read every post in this thread and I don't understand why you are saying the hair algae wrecked your tank? I thought it was vibrio... does hair algae help facilitate vibrio or something?

Or are you just saying independent of your sea horses dying from vibrio, the hair algae grew all over your tank? I'm new to the aquarium hobby so please explain exactly what is wrong with hair algae. Thanks.
 
Well Bothe Wrecked my tank. I originally set the tank up as a reef tank. It was an uber cool one too lol. I had a baby yellow tang, a pair of saddleback clown fish and a bubble anemone, and a dameselfish as well as WHOLE LOT of corals (SPS LPS Sponges and Gorgonians) Then, I got hair algea. The algea overran my corals to a point where I only had a couple zoos a bubble coral and a leather coral left. I litterally took the tank apart every weekend and scrubbed the rocks with a toothe brush to get the algea off. It did no good. Then, I decided to get seahorses. I sold my fish, anemone, and bubble coral. And got a pair of erectus. the hair algea stayed but it wasnt bothering me as much any more (i learned to live with it) Then the vibrio came, and that was the last straw. lol

Now here I am deciding on a new cleanup crew
 
Ok The new 40 dollar light has been here for 5 days, and my calurpa is growing just as well with it as with my big T-5 one. So its going to stay!
 
It seems like you may take things just a tiny bit too fast. Seahorses dying... buy more.... die buy more, etc. Definitely take your time this time around. Once you get your tank setup, let it cycle for a few weeks and stabilize. Then you can make sure you have everything under control before you try more seahorses.

As far as the hair algae, etc: I'm not sure if I read all your posts carefully, but you're using regular tap water with a conditioner?? I know some people do this succesfully, but I personally tested my tap water and its terrible. The phophates were off the charts and that can grow algae out of control.

You could buy your own RO/ID unit or just get RO/DI water from a LFS.

Again dude, take your time.. it may be that we are just misinterpreting your enthusiasm as impatience :), but either way rushing things will only lead to more problems.

Good luck!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8044004#post8044004 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nickterp
It seems like you may take things just a tiny bit too fast. Seahorses dying... buy more.... die buy more, etc. Definitely take your time this time around. Once you get your tank setup, let it cycle for a few weeks and stabilize. Then you can make sure you have everything under control before you try more seahorses.

As far as the hair algae, etc: I'm not sure if I read all your posts carefully, but you're using regular tap water with a conditioner?? I know some people do this succesfully, but I personally tested my tap water and its terrible. The phophates were off the charts and that can grow algae out of control.

You could buy your own RO/ID unit or just get RO/DI water from a LFS.

Again dude, take your time.. it may be that we are just misinterpreting your enthusiasm as impatience :), but either way rushing things will only lead to more problems.

Good luck!
Click to expand...


Dont need to worry i will not be getting my horses anytime before the end of september or even october. And I know all about the tap water thing. I use RO/DI water for waterchanges, but i dont have an RO unit so i didnt use it for the initial filling of the tank
 
Since you used tap water to fill the tank, i think your first order of business should be to rid yourself of the phosphates, silicates, nitrates in your water.

Water changes are good for keeping nutrients down, once they are down, but not quick at getting them down.

It takes about seven 20% water changes to equal a single 75% water replacement (assuming no additional nutrients are introduced via feeding, etc). Even then the 25% remaining original tap water is enough to reek havoc. It takes fifteen 20% water changes to equal a single 95% water change.

If you add a cleanup crew now, you will need to feed them, which adds more nutrients. Bottom line: If you feed a tank that already has high nutrients from tap water, it could take 6+ months of 20% water changes before the nutrients are manageable.

Things you can do:

1) Add macro algae to help consume the nutrients. Just remember: when the nutrients start getting delpleted, the macro will start to die ... releasing nutrients back into the water.

2) Use commercial products to get nutrients down quickly. I don't like them for sustained control, but they are good for a one-time nutrient reduction.

3) Let the the tank go through a massive algae bloom and reduce the nutrients by harvesting the nuisance algae.

4) Do a 100% water change with ro water

HTH
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8045364#post8045364 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by whatnot45
i dont have an RO unit so i didnt use it for the initial filling of the tank
Click to expand...

whatnot,

I didn't realize you did this. Todd is correct though. Most tapwater is evil! :D Since you mentioned you're already getting algae growth and the tank is only like a week old, I'm going to assume your tap water is like most tap water - crapola! In hindsight, what you should have done is purchased gallons of distilled water, mixed it with salt & aerated it for a day and then filled the tank, if you didn't have RO/DI available.

Todd's given you some good advise as to what to do from this point. If you don't have the test kits for silicates & phosphate perhaps your LFS can test that for you so you know where you stand.

All new tanks go through an "algae phase", which I know you're aware of. The key is, you want it to die off as it should and not continue growing and become problematic like your last tank.

Since the tank is newly set up, now is the time to make changes and corrections before the tank gets too far along. I'd go for a really short lighting period right now until you find out the condition of your water. If it's real high in phosphate/silicates from using the tap water I'd lower that using Todd's recommendations before you go with a 10-12 hour light cycle.

Best of luck to 'ya! We're all here to help if you need it.

Tom
 
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