Few questions, hopefully many answers :)

[mdjxt39]

Hi there guys

With the exception of what I think is a sick elegance coral the rest of my corals are doing really well. If you want to help me solve the mystery of the sick elegance coral I have a post in the sick coral forum.

However this post is about a few other things...mainly nuisance algae!

First Question

I have a lot of green algae growing on the glass of my tank and it looks like crap, it is also on my LR too. In addition to that I have some hair algae growing on my LR too.

I keep the lights on in my tank 8 hours a day, I do water changes every other week of about 20%, I use RO water, and it shows negative for phosphates in my testing.

I was thinking the answer is going to be in upping the size of my clean up crew, specifically my snails and maybe getting a UV. What are your thoughts on this?

Second Question

I have these little white things that look like bugs crawling ALL around the glass of the tank, are these copepods ? If so I am excited because I've always wanted to keep a Mandarin and it looks like that might be feasible if these are indeed copepods!

Thanks!

 

[seaham358]

Pics would help on all questions... White critters are probably pods.
Algae is another issue, did u test the tank for nitrates and phosphates? post numbers just saying its ok is not enough info.
RO water is ti ro/di water?
UV will only help with free floating algae not hair algae or the other kind that grow on rocks Whats alot of algae? We all or most get green algae on the glass that we need to clean every few days..
Post pics for algae ID...

 

[mdjxt39]

Nitrates and Phosphates come up as 0, it is only RO water.

 

[roka64]

Do you still have the sponges in the fluvial?
What fish do you have?
Your info says you have a RO/DI unit, are you not using the RO.DI water and just RO?

 

[mdjxt39]

Yes I still have the sponges in my fluval, I have no fish, and I corrected my info to reflect that is only an RO filter.

 

[roka64]

How often do you clean out your filter? I removed all my sponges in my 304.

 

[melosu58]

Here is some good info on the algea.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=14

http://www.fantasyreef.com/database/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=11&item_id=5

 

[mdjxt39]

I think I can safely say that the algae had to do with my cleaning crew, I upped the number of snails I had by 8 and almost overnight there was a HUGE drop in the amount of algae on the glass.

I am receiving a livestock order from liveaquaria on Wednesday and I got another 10 dwarf crabs, and 6 turbo snails which will help even more.

On a side note though I am also getting some fish in that order and I am very excited about adding them

- 2 Carberry Anthias
- 1 Green Mandarin
- 1 Firefish

 

[roka64]

How old is your tank?

 

[mdjxt39]

1 year old, and I have a large copepod population for the Mandarin.

 

[MT79]

Mandarins should have at least ~100 lbs LR to feed from, as well as a mature tank w/ a fuge preferably. Here is some more info and methods of target feeding them you may find useful- http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_care.html