Finally getting somewhere....

[ferretmath]

I havent posted in quiet a while and my tank has come a long way. I set it up back about 8 months ago. I just added my first real livestock today!!

I have a 20 gallon high with:

30 pounds of live sand
25 pounds of live rock
1 powerhead
Fluval 204 canister filter
24" double compact flouresant lights (130 watts total)

Livestock includes:

12 turbo snails
1 anemonie
1 lawnmower blenny
2 red legged hermits
2 pincushion urchins

I'm having trouble with hair aglae, hence the urchins and blenny. Do you guys think this will be enough to help??

Here's an updated pic. Not the best....I'm learning this new camera....

 

[austinsdad]

Coming along!!

I'd recommend another powerhead on the opposite side of the current one. Both facing towrd the front center of the tank to provide better flow throughout the tank - with a nice ripple on the surface as the PHs crash into each other.

The lawnmower and the turbos should make some progress. My lawnmower got REAL fat until the algae was gone. He never ate anything else... and suffered/starved in the end.

How long are you lighting? I like to go around 10 hrs.

 

[roka64]

Looking good! Austinsdad is right. I will add two more questions.
1 How often do you feed?
2 What do you feed?

 

[melosu58]

Even though the lawnmower will take care of the algea for now the true solution should be finding out what is causing this algea. The blenny is what we call a bandaid solution. It merely masks the problem instead of fixing the problem. We will need water test results and feeding schedule as Scott asked for and light schedule. The problem with getting a blenny is that as Ray said once the alge is gone they do not adapt to prepared foods and usually die. Some make the change but most dont IME.

 

[ferretmath]

I have not been feeding anything at all. I leave the lights on around 8 to 10 hours a day. I only have one of those 5 n 1 quick strips for testing and Nitrate and Nitrite are at 0, Ph is around 8.2ish. I buy my water from Big Als and it reads right at 1.022.

I brought the hair algae into the tank by way of some rubble rock that I got from Petco right when I first started the tank. The only thing that I like about the algae is that one of my original snails that I got so long ago is a big green hairy ball! He also totes around a little feather duster on his shell as well.

I have been thinking about the extra powerhead as well. Its just a matter of picking one up, which I'm going to do tomorrow. Shouldnt be too hard, I work at a pet store.

Thanks for all the responses!