Anemone lighting

[lovefishys]

Our light went our today. I can't get to the store for a few days. I want to make sure our bubble tip will be ok until then.

We use a coralife 50/50 96 watt. Until we get a new light we are using an old light bar. It is a ZooMed F15T8 50/50 reef sun 18 inches. Will it be ok?

Also while I'm at it. (35 hex) The green and purple algae on the sand bed. How do we get rid of it? We have reduced our lights down to 6 hours a day, Vacuum sand at water changes, nassarius snails. Feeding every 2-3 days. Water levels are good.
Ammonia-0
Nitrates-0
Nitrates-0
Salinity- 1.023
I can't find our phosphate solution right now. I feel like I am missing something else important what should we do? Thank you!!

 

[crister13]

I would say it would be fine for a couple days. I would feed it to give it some extra nutrition. The purple is cyano, which is caused by excess nutrients. It's binding the nitrates and phosphates. Syphon it out with water changes and with good water quality it will go away.

 

[lovefishys]

Thank you! Got up this morning and the anemone didn't look good so I went out immediately. How often should we do water changes to get rid of it? We have been vacuuming it up for awhile. I am by no means an expert. We hopefully we get 125 or more in the future. Until then we will wait to get a trigger.

 

[Rutrag]

Be sure to use RODI water for your changes, or you're just fertilizing the cyano. There's all kinds of stuff in tapwater that just feeds the plague.

I'd do water changes as often as possible to physically remove the stuff - as much as five gallons at a time.

 

[lovefishys]

We have a 4 stage RODI machine down stairs we got sick of taking 50 + one gallon jugs to the store each week right now we are doing changes once a week with a 5-6 gallon change. Would it be safe for the fish to do every other day?

 

[Rutrag]

It should be fine to do 5 gallon changes every other day. Just mix your saltwater well ahead of time to make sure it's well mixed.

Have you checked your RODI output with a TDS meter recently? If you've had it a while or you've been making a lot of water, you may need to replace a filter or two.

 

[lovefishys]

Very true!!! I didn't think about that!!! We purchase the machine about 6 weeks ago and yesterday I tasted it, before mixing, it tasted a little funny. So when I got the light I also got new filters. I will change the filter and do a water change once the water is ready. Our city has some pretty nasty tap water!

 

[Rutrag]

I would think the filters would be okay after six weeks unless you were REALLY pumping out some water. In any case, you can get a TDS meter pretty cheap to double check. Ideally, you want 0 TDS.

 

[lovefishys]

We ordered one on amazon but haven't received it yet. I took the filters to our LFS but theirs was broken. We have a 45 gallon trash can that we will with the water. Then mix 5 gallons at a time put that water in a 20 gallon with a power head and heater. It was pretty discolored. Once we get our meter I guess we will find out