Just broke down my breeder system and I was really depressed so I broke down one of my sumps and cleaned it up… already had it drilled for sump useage so all I had to do was slap on an overflow box and transfer sand and rock from my other systems… I didnt realise how much I had until I brought the rock to the store to trade in for credit.
I had over 700 lbs of rock and I have no clue how much sand (4-6 inch sandbed with great amounts of baserock for jawfish in a 150 gal tank… you do the math. It hurts my head) I still have more rock than any one 55 gal should EVER have but I wanted to make sure I had what I needed. I traded just around 60 lbs of the rock for credit to get fish in the tank and the rest went on craigslist… there are some very happy people out there right now… I dont think I realized just how many copepodes can fit in one rock! THey went crazy in my tanks and I didnt even know it until I broke down the systems.
Now my brand spanking new 55 gal reef (if you can call it that) has been born! All I have are the corals I hadnt sold yet (5 of them) 2 clowns, pistel shrimp, yellow watchman, canary blenny, bicolor, and the cleaner crew I transfered from my system (hermits, aerowcrab, one very large mithrax crab that scared the shit out of my husband when he lifted a rock and he was suddenly nose to nose with him and one coral banded shrimp,) The setup isnt as beautiful as my old 125 gal and not nearly as intreaging as my breeder system, but I need cheering up so I will be posting pictures of it and taking suggestions on additions to my family. This is strictly peaceful setup. Reef with blennys and gobys, but I hope to have it running like my other systems soon. (cant find the pump I had on my protein skimmer so my hopes may get dashed if I dont kind it soon!!!)

Hey everyone,
So i was pretty optimistic starting out with a new reef tank and I enjoyed it for a while, it was quite beautiful, then I had a hair algae outbreak. I scrubbed, water changed, the whole lot, and eventually it started to go away only to be replaced with Red Slime Algae. I am getting ready to throw in the towel because the tank is starting to loose its visual appeal. Is this normal?

I am going to list my complete setup in hopes that someone can pinpoint what is wrong and what is causing the algae to spiral out of control.

Equipment
20 Gallon Tall Tank (Not near a window)
Lighthouse Light by Catalina Aquariums (Dual 35 Watt I believe?) – On a timer from 8-6
Marine Land Bio-Wheel Power Filter 150 w/ Chemi Pure and Filter Floss
Whisper 5 Gallon Internal Filter with Poly Filter Cartridge
Aquatech Power Head 170 GPH
75W ViaAqua Glass Heater

Livestock –
2 Clowns
1 Green Mandarin
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
2 Emerald Crabs
20 Nassarius Snails
6 Turbo Snails
1 Red Starfish
I had a sea haire who ate quite a bit of algae and died a couple days later – Cause unknown

Corals -
Galaxia Coral
2 Kenya Trees
1 Medium Red Sponge Tree (Becoming covered in hair algae)
Medium GSP Frag
1 Toadstool Coral
1 Small Zoa Frag (Keep having to clean the red algae off of it)
1 Medium Mushroom
1 Small Mushroom

I am doing a roughly 20 – 30% water change once a week with RO Water and IO Seasalt and Kent Osmo-Prep and Calcium supplements.

My current water conditions are
20 Nitrate
0 Nitrite
120 Alkalinity
8.4 PH

Please someone tell me there is hope!

Hi, Im new to this forum and reef tanks…Ive had saltwater FOWLR tanks but never got into corals so Im giving it a shot.

OK so Ive had my tank up and running for about 4 months now…stock is minimum at the moment. Tank Specs are…

55g
4 x54w T5 lamps
1 36w acintic blue lamp
70lbs live rock
2 Koralia current producers (4 &2)
Red Sea Berlin X2 Skimmer (rated for 225g tanks)
1 emperor 400 (no bio wheels, just LR rubble and carbon pads if needed)
Heater with temp around 79f
RO water used only and do at least 10% water changes per week sometimes twice a week
1 tomato clown
2 firefish
1 yellow watchman
1 red stripe angel
1 LTA
1 Squamosa Clam
2 feather dusters
1 bullseye pistol shrimp

so I tested my water today and my test results came back as this…

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
PH: 8.3 (is that ok?)
Nitrates: 10ppm
Calcium: 470
Phosphate: 0ppm

I know I need to check for Magnesium and Alkalinity, but I will go and buy those tests tomorrow.

Are those good readings, as far as being able to keep coral? I feed my fish a good meal about once every 2 or 3 days and spot feed the clam and dusters plankton once a week.

With those readings is there any wya to guess that my magnesium and alkalinity should be ok? Im trying to get coraline to grow (not wanting to use purple up or anything like that) I have quite a few nice size spots of purple coraline on the rocks that I lightly scrubbbed with a toothbrush to get it to seed. So my params good? Any feedback/suggestions will be pleasantly taken. Thanks!!

Saw GREAT!!! show on my local PBS about an atoll off the coast of Brazil .140miles offshore to be exact. Any way what blew me away was this atoll was not made by dead corals but made ENTIRELY of coraline algae!! The atoll is called"Rocas" check it out when it plays on your local PBS