[autumnandbrett]

We have had a smaller tank with seahorses for several years, 6 months ago we moved all to a 55 gal. Then I thought it would be great to add things to it. Now I have 2 seahorses that seam very happy but I also have a toadstool, a brain coral, mushrooms, feather dusters, Purple worm anenamie( we have this separated from the rest), we have a false pecula (not sure of the spellings for some of these)last but not least we have algae lots and lots of algae. We were doing great with all of it until last week we put a stronger light on our system we had a pretty good one and all waswell, what were we thinking. We have about a 2" live sand bed with 20 lbs or so of live rock. We have a skimmer running a penquin bio wheel filter made for a 55. Now we have algae everywhere, growing off the back glass, rocks are covered and the sand all of a sudden developed the black algae. We are just not sure of how to deal with this. We have started as of yesterday leaving the light off, he read that somewhere, well if we do that they don'tthink any of the these animals get fed well. We have read about cutting the hours that the light is on and we are thinking about changing out water and brushing the algae off the rocks and clean all algae off throughout the tank (i think if we do that we lose our copepods) Has anyone got a suggestion. Oh, we do have four powerheads two on both ends. I want to start a refugium in a 30 gal we have but we have 2 freshwater tanks that we are currently trying to sell to have room for the refugium. So, we are hoping anyone or everyone can give us some good suggestions so that we dont lose what we have. Thanks yall!!

[autumnandbrett]

Is my question that bad that I can't even get a reply? I have read posts in here and they all say different things. guess I can go read more

[e_baer]

What are your water parameter? Specifically, SG, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia. Are you using RODI water? How long is your lighting schedule? How long ago did you add the rock? Did you cure the rock before adding it to your tank? How often do you do water changes? What kind of skimmer do you have?

Sorry for so many questions, but it is the only way to get to the bottom of your problem.
Oh, and I would ditch the bio wheel filter. They usually seem pretty usless in SW.

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by autumnandbrett

Is my question that bad that I can't even get a reply? I have read posts in here and they all say different things. guess I can go read more

Elliott has you covered. You are in good hands.

Tank parameters from a reliable test kit for Calcium, DHK, Amonia, Nitrites and Nitrates along with your tank set up are important for some one to lend a helping hand.


Glad to see you here

[autumnandbrett]

thanks yall, here is the water parameters
Nitrites are 0
Nitrates are at 8 Maybe 10 I am fixing to chage out 15 gal of water, I usually change 5 a week.
PH 8.3
Calcium 420
KH is 214 hmmmm
we have a SeaClone 150 Skimmer and an Emperer 280
As far as the rocks i have had them for at least a year, except I purchased a two peices last week that were purchased from the lfs, they usually are reliable. We added a light that is 4-T5's this is when we started having a major problem. My husband is having problems just leaving them on 8 hours he read 9-10 hours. Also on learning to feed the corals now we have it down to once a week, was once a day and then talked him into every other day .The seahorses, gobies, crabs, skunk shrimp, a firefish goby, a false percula and and arrow crab(to help with worms) we were feeding daily 2 cubes from the lfs one of brine and one of mysis. Now he wants to cut that back to every other day (is this overkill) I don't want to make the seahorses go hungry have had them 1 1/2 years feeding daily.

So, do I need to get rid of the biowheel? I do have a canister filter that I could use, it is on a freshwater tank now but could switch, if it would better benefit saltwater. If so what would yall suggest putting inside?

Ok, what eles, .... I do purshase my water from lfs, RODI

[e_baer]

You probably have algae from adding the LR last week. LR should be cured before adding to your tank.

As far as feeding, I would feed once daily and the seahorses twice daily. What kind of corals do you have? If they are all photosynthetic, they dp not require feeding and doing so will be detrimental to your water parameters. Do you have a fuge or sump? In not, I would look into getting one. I would not add a canister filter either. i would take a look in the RB library. Take a look through there and read a few articles about the problems you are having. Lots of people have the same problem you are having including myself when I first started.

I dont think the algae is because of the lights.

[autumnandbrett]

thanks so much I will keep reading and see what eles I can do. We are thinking of building a refugium, sorta hard on that too. Everyone has so many idea, sometimes hard to know which to go with.

The LR could be the problem however there is not any algae on it. We have always had some algae were just getting in control went it went haywire.

We have a devils claw, a devils fingers, a large toadstool, a brain coral, a purple bush a purple worm anemie, mushrooms, featherdusters of course and green bubble coral.

One question left , what do you think of miracle mud in the refugium.

Thanks again, will get pics once all is well.

[DEWAYNE]

I converted part of my wet & dry into a refugium, I have just started adding corals, noting major, trying to get info. on building ballast for two mh 250watts 10k. I used the same subtrate as my lfs, I have been doing business with him for 14yrs, he has two very nice display tanks, actully the best I have seen, which there are alot on here that run a close second. The substrate is argonite, with mangroves, no cheata yet. I would show pics, but I cannot get them to post. I could show if you want my email (pics). dfinney72@yahoo.com

[e_baer]

Miricle mud is an excellent idea! I have a bunch in my seagrass tank!

The only thing I dont like about it is that when you first put it in, for a week or 2 it makes the top of the water really really foamy.

[Tonz of fun]

IMO its not easy to keep corals and seahorses in the same tank. They like different water conditions. Seahorses like lagoon style of flow and corals like lots of flow. You need flow to keep down on the algae from your powerful lights. But I may be all wrong...

[autumnandbrett]

I was always told the same about the seahorses and that is what we have done for almost 2 years then we thought well we will move them to a deeper tank with more room. Well, they stayed on one end so we thought lets put other things in and see how they do we gradualy added one thing at a time and add a little more current to the water. Now, we do have a lot of water circulation and the seahorses stay on one end and venture out and play in the current. I have built an area under the pump for my skimmer and such where there is not a lot of current. They sleep here and eat in this area. This is one of the only places that I don't have an algae problem. We have had this going for almost 6 months. The horses seem to be doing great, fat bellies and they come out every morning to do their dances in the current. I guess time will tell. We do have another tank just in case we notice them being traumatized. We have really enjoyed the horses and the babies (that is a real trial) of which we had 6 live and we gave them away at 10 weeks. But we have decided to try a different sea world now and I guess that is why were running into so many problems. As you may know horses have to have great water parameters so I do lots of water changes. We just had never dealt with the brighter light and a different person was feeding so I am coming to beleive that all this contributed to the algae outburst. We are going to change water more frequently for the days to come until we can get a refugium, with some miricle mud and mangoves, or sump going and keep an eye on the food and amount of light.

I do appreciate the help and all the comments are wonderful that is why I like this forum so well. Everyone gives opinions and if there is disagreements it usually answers others questions. There is so much to doing saltwater, and we are very far from learning even half of what we should know but were trying and yalls help is always valuable.

[e_baer]

Originally Posted by jimw369

Elliott has you covered. You are in good hands.

Tank parameters from a reliable test kit for Calcium, DHK, Amonia, Nitrites and Nitrates along with your tank set up are important for some one to lend a helping hand.


Glad to see you here

thanks!

[unclejed]

Hi autum, you say you have 4 t-5 lights, are two actinic and two 10,000k?

[autumnandbrett]

Sorry in not getting back sooner, yes, they are and I have definately seen a difference in how the corals are reacting.

[unclejed]

Your lights are good. I had a similar problem and added a multi media reactor and used "phos-loc" in it and hair cleared in 8-14 days.

[autumnandbrett]

A multi media reactor and phos loc? I am not familiar with this. I have looked in my Foster and Smith catalog and cannot find these, maybe I am looking in the wrong section. I am fixing to move my canister filter over to the salt tank until I can get my refugium set up. I thought I would take all the insides out of the canister and replace with a few peices of (cured) live rock, is this something I could add to the canister either on top or below the live rock. I know I sound like a newbe to this, but I have been doing salt for awhile, I just always change my water when my paremeters are out of whack even the slightest, mainly for the seahorses. However, I am learning so much the more I read post throughout this site. It is so much better then some of the things my lfs has told me. We all learn eventually. ;-)