things getting better-before and after pics

[tbone71788]

THESE ARE MY BEFORE AND AFTER PICS SINCE RS


BEFORE-

BEFORE-

BEFORE-

AFTER-

AFTER-

AFTER-

AFTER-

AFTER-

 

[ReefLady]

Wow, looking very good!!

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Very Nice... What changes have you made.. ?

 

[tbone71788]

I'm only using RO water but i still have a hair alge problem.
I changed oceanic salt to reef crystals
3 gallon water change every week
nitrates are zero
nitrites are zero
ammonia is zero
PH is 8.2
calcium is a little high about 540
carbonate hardness is 12
phosphate is .5 (i can never get this to 0)

bad news is that i have lost two orange turbo snails and an emerald crab in the last two weeks and last night i lost my lawnmower Blenny which was one of my first fish so it could have been old age

 

[tbone71788]

thanks reeflady and blue eyes if i can find out why i have all this hair algae and figure out why im losing snails and my emerald crab everything would be great could it be from the calcium being so high..

 

[tbone71788]

how can i get rid of the hair algae

 

[ReefLady]

Check out this thread:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/just-starting-out-sw-beginners/40682-hair-algae-tried-everything-help-required.html

HTH,

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Hi Tbone... I was looking over some of your past post.. How are your test? Algae takes along time to get rid of.. I faught the dredded red slime/ cyano bacteria for almost a year... I tell you what I cleaned and cleaned and clean the tank.. Rinsed filters, sponges daily -sometime twice a day... I eventually would throw the filters and sponges away everyday and replace with brand new one...

You have to starve the algae out... No nutrient in the water what so ever...


I would turn my lights out for 3 days at a time . This helped a lot... This might be an option for you? My corals did fine but if they woudl show stress I would turn the light back on...

I would up your water change to 20-25% weekly.... The trick is keep it clean...


I keep thinking of more ideas, sorry for the rabbling... Do you blow the rocks off with a turkey baster or powerhead.. I would manually hours at a time have my hand in the tank... Blowing off the rocks... They are a filter too ya know? They need cleaning too..


Also up the flow as much as possible... I think mine was mainly for low flow in the lower section of my tank... If a powerhead isnt working 100% I see algae starting within the next day or so.. Keep all the detrius and junk in the water column so it can be filtered out...

 

[tbone71788]

So far i have started to feed only every other day. I changed from 10 hours a day to 8 hours a day on the lights. I change the filter every two weeks. I have also slowly been getting rid of the bio balls. Algae has slowed down but its still growing. Me losing my two turbo snails and emerald crab and lawnmower blenny hasnt helped much. I'm starting to wonder if my coral banded shrimp is killing things from not being fed everyday. If i just run my antic lights maybe two days a week and not the day time lights will it help with my algae or will that be taking to much light from the corals?

 

[Dentoid]

Great success story! I loce it! Keep working on water quality, ie lowering nitrates and phosphates. Even though the test kit shows low or no phosphates they can still be present in forms that hobbyist test kits can not test for. Weekly 10% WCs, and highly filtered source water are good starters. Since you're working with a small volume of water, maintenance and vigilance is going to be increased over larger volumes of water. Keep up the good work!

 

[tbone71788]

Thanks Scott im trying. Do you think it could be the coral banded shrimp killing my snails since im not feeding every day.

 

[blue_eyes53813]

I change the filter every two weeks

I would change at the minimum once a week... As far as the lighting.. You can try it but definitely keep an eye on the corals... If they start to pout.. Turn the lights back on..

 

[CATALYST]

That looks a ton better!
Do you have a place where you could put some chaeto? It's something that will eat up the nutrients too.

 

[Dentoid]

Thanks Scott im trying. Do you think it could be the coral banded shrimp killing my snails since im not feeding every day.

Anything is possible. The Coral Banded shrimp, although fascinating and pretty are notorious for being bandits. On the other hand, snails are sensitive to sudden changes in water chemistry and some of them just fail to thrive.

 

[Luukosian]

My lfs had a bunch of those orange turbos, all of them died in the course of a couple months while the regular ones in the same tank all did fine.