Restarting 55g

[mc12301]

Hey everyone...

Here's my situation and I'm hoping you guys could offer some help.

About ten years ago, I got into saltwater. I was living at my parents, set up a 36g reef. It was awesome. Overtime, I sold off some equipment and turned it into a 55g FOWLR for the sake of simplicity. Setup is as follows:
regular power filter, plenty of LR, 3-4 powerheads, and water changes with RO/DI. Kept just a full grown ocellaris clown and a full grown stag horn damsel.

Well, 2-3 years ago, I moved out of my parents house but couldn't take the tank. Since then, my maintenance on the 55g has fallen by the wayside since I'm never there. I do topoffs when I can stop by and I do a big cleaning and big water change every 6-8 months when it's a mess, but really the regular water changes haven't happened. Right now the fish are healthy, but there's green stringy algae all over the back of the glass and little creepy crawly things growing out of the sand. Ew.

Good news is I recently purchased a house, so I have the chance to relocate the taken and start fresh. I am hoping I can do it in a reasonable low cost, somewhat low maintenance manner. I know that's asking a lot but my bio load is really small for a 55g right?

Hoping you guys can help me with the following...

Lighting - I have been using Coral Reef zoo med lighting. Does this matter on a FOWLR? I have read that cheap lighting can sometimes cause bad algae. What type of lighting would you recommend for a simple set up?

Mechanical filter - I've also read that power filters can be nitrate factories. I'm assuming this is part of the reason I have such algae problems right now. Would it be better on a FOWLR to run just a skimmer and no mechanical filter? Should I take the media out of the filter and just run some purigen and carbon?

Skimmer - I used to run a HOB Tunze skimmer on the old reef tank and still have it. I hooked it up a couple times to the 55g FOWLR but I never seemed to be able to "tune" it properly. It was either taking a large cup of lightly colored yellow water out or it was taking out nothing at all. If I were to get a new skimmer, what's an HOB that you'd recommend for a 55g FOWLR? Are there any that just work and don't have to be fiddled with constantly like the Tunze?

Water quality - I have a 5 year old RO/DI unit from Bulk Reef Supply. Could this be the source of algae problems? Do I need to get a new RO/DI unit? Also, for a FOWLR, does the water need to be RO/DO or could it just be RO?

Sump/refugium - I know sump is best, but it's not an option. I know refugium's are good but I've never tried it before. Is growing some macro algae in the tank a possibility? Seems like it could be an easy way of keeping things clean. Does all macro algae need high spectrum lighting?

Water changes - Okay, okay - not doing water changes for months at a time is probably 90% of my problem. But realistically what should my water change schedule look like? Would 10% every 2-3 weeks be enough considering I have a small bioload? I'm realistic that I don't think I'll end up keeping up with 10% once a week.

Thanks for your feedback. I want to make sure if I do restart this tank I eliminate whatever led to my algae problems in the first place.

 

[Stolireef]

Hey everyone...

Here's my situation and I'm hoping you guys could offer some help.

About ten years ago, I got into saltwater. I was living at my parents, set up a 36g reef. It was awesome. Overtime, I sold off some equipment and turned it into a 55g FOWLR for the sake of simplicity. Setup is as follows:
regular power filter, plenty of LR, 3-4 powerheads, and water changes with RO/DI. Kept just a full grown ocellaris clown and a full grown stag horn damsel.

Well, 2-3 years ago, I moved out of my parents house but couldn't take the tank. Since then, my maintenance on the 55g has fallen by the wayside since I'm never there. I do topoffs when I can stop by and I do a big cleaning and big water change every 6-8 months when it's a mess, but really the regular water changes haven't happened. Right now the fish are healthy, but there's green stringy algae all over the back of the glass and little creepy crawly things growing out of the sand. Ew.

Good news is I recently purchased a house, so I have the chance to relocate the taken and start fresh. I am hoping I can do it in a reasonable low cost, somewhat low maintenance manner. I know that's asking a lot but my bio load is really small for a 55g right?

Hoping you guys can help me with the following...

Lighting - I have been using Coral Reef zoo med lighting. Does this matter on a FOWLR? I have read that cheap lighting can sometimes cause bad algae. What type of lighting would you recommend for a simple set up?
If it's fish only, you can use whatever light you prefer.
It won't make a difference with regard to algae.
Mechanical filter - I've also read that power filters can be nitrate factories. I'm assuming this is part of the reason I have such algae problems right now. Would it be better on a FOWLR to run just a skimmer and no mechanical filter? Should I take the media out of the filter and just run some purigen and carbon? They are only nitrate factories if you don't maintain them on a very regular basis (like once a week). Running carbon/purigen is always a good idea.

Skimmer - I used to run a HOB Tunze skimmer on the old reef tank and still have it. I hooked it up a couple times to the 55g FOWLR but I never seemed to be able to "tune" it properly. It was either taking a large cup of lightly colored yellow water out or it was taking out nothing at all. If I were to get a new skimmer, what's an HOB that you'd recommend for a 55g FOWLR? Are there any that just work and don't have to be fiddled with constantly like the Tunze?HOB skimmers can be a bit finicky.
Tunze is a good one so I'd play with it until you got it right.



Water quality - I have a 5 year old RO/DI unit from Bulk Reef Supply. Could this be the source of algae problems? Do I need to get a new RO/DI unit? Also, for a FOWLR, does the water need to be RO/DO or could it just be RO? When was the last time you changed out the filters.
It could (most most likely isn't) be the source of your algae. Check your TDS on the output.

Sump/refugium - I know sump is best, but it's not an option. I know refugium's are good but I've never tried it before. Is growing some macro algae in the tank a possibility? Seems like it could be an easy way of keeping things clean. Does all macro algae need high spectrum lighting? Macro algae will grow under almost any light but does better under warmer colors (yellow, green). You can try to keep it in the tank but a HOB fuge is a better option. It will help to control nutrients in your water but isn't a cure all.


Water changes - Okay, okay - not doing water changes for months at a time is probably 90% of my problem. But realistically what should my water change schedule look like? Would 10% every 2-3 weeks be enough considering I have a small bioload? I'm realistic that I don't think I'll end up keeping up with 10% once a week. I'd start with a couple of large changes in the range of 50% and then your approach would probably be effective.

Thanks for your feedback. I want to make sure if I do restart this tank I eliminate whatever led to my algae problems in the first place.

 

[mc12301]

Thanks for the reply. When you say regularly maintain the power filter, do you mean just change the media once a week or so? Or take it off and clean the whole thing every week or so?

 

[Stolireef]

It depends what you are using it for. If you're using it to filter detritus and have floss or some other kind of mechanical filter, then you'll need to change it out weekly. If you are using it as part of your biofilter and aren't using floss, then every few weeks just change out part of your media.