Frag Outpost Forums - Coral Propagation and Reef Aquarium Forums - View Single Post

jinenon · 05-07-2006, 08:44 PM

First off, i'd like to say hello to everyone. I stumbled on this forum the other night and have already learned alot. I'm glad to see a site like this with so many helpful readers. I am new to the reef tank but have done damn near everything there is to do with fresh and salt (fish only and fowlr) tanks and i have purchased a couple frags and have my tank cycled and established to start getting serious with the coral. I have a few questions that might seem stupid but things have changed alot since i had my tank set up before. The first and foremost is the quality of lighting. I have a 55 gal tank. My first major purchase was a nova 216 watt hood. It has 3-10k bulbs and only one actinic. I have two timers for these but im wondering if i shouldnt get another actinic or 50/50 bulb for one set. Next, and this is probably the stupidest thing i have done so far....i left the undergravel filter with 2 powerheads in with 75 lbs crushed coral and 50 lbs. crushed puca shells. Should i take about half of that out including the undergravel filter? Is that why my ammonia stays above .1 ppm? I also have an aquaclear 70 over-the-back filter. The only problem i am having right now is that the ammonia level in my tank hangs around .25 ppm and i have had the tank set up for about 8 months. Nitrite and Nitrate is 0 and my Mushrooms and Zoos and even a condy anemone are doing great but my fish keep scratching themselves on things all the time. I thought my coral beauty had ich but within 2 days he looked fine (other than scratching still) and my clown wasnt acting ok but has made a full recovery (he was really immobile and his dorsal fins were splitting). My yellow tang, hawkfish and damsels have never had issues. I have some very large snails and about 7 hermit crabs however, i have a major algea problem. When i first got my hood i was leaving the light on for about 10 hours/day. I decreased it to about 8 hours/day and that helped alot with the algea for about a week. Now im getting mass amounts of green and brown algea again and the hermits seem to not want to clean and just sit and look at things all the time. Is that an ammonia problem that cause invertabrates to react that way? That will be all for now. Thanks for any help you vets can give me!! I'll be on alot.....love this site....Jesse

05-07-2006, 08:44 PM	#1
jinenon Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 69	Basic info First off, i'd like to say hello to everyone. I stumbled on this forum the other night and have already learned alot. I'm glad to see a site like this with so many helpful readers. I am new to the reef tank but have done damn near everything there is to do with fresh and salt (fish only and fowlr) tanks and i have purchased a couple frags and have my tank cycled and established to start getting serious with the coral. I have a few questions that might seem stupid but things have changed alot since i had my tank set up before. The first and foremost is the quality of lighting. I have a 55 gal tank. My first major purchase was a nova 216 watt hood. It has 3-10k bulbs and only one actinic. I have two timers for these but im wondering if i shouldnt get another actinic or 50/50 bulb for one set. Next, and this is probably the stupidest thing i have done so far....i left the undergravel filter with 2 powerheads in with 75 lbs crushed coral and 50 lbs. crushed puca shells. Should i take about half of that out including the undergravel filter? Is that why my ammonia stays above .1 ppm? I also have an aquaclear 70 over-the-back filter. The only problem i am having right now is that the ammonia level in my tank hangs around .25 ppm and i have had the tank set up for about 8 months. Nitrite and Nitrate is 0 and my Mushrooms and Zoos and even a condy anemone are doing great but my fish keep scratching themselves on things all the time. I thought my coral beauty had ich but within 2 days he looked fine (other than scratching still) and my clown wasnt acting ok but has made a full recovery (he was really immobile and his dorsal fins were splitting). My yellow tang, hawkfish and damsels have never had issues. I have some very large snails and about 7 hermit crabs however, i have a major algea problem. When i first got my hood i was leaving the light on for about 10 hours/day. I decreased it to about 8 hours/day and that helped alot with the algea for about a week. Now im getting mass amounts of green and brown algea again and the hermits seem to not want to clean and just sit and look at things all the time. Is that an ammonia problem that cause invertabrates to react that way? That will be all for now. Thanks for any help you vets can give me!! I'll be on alot.....love this site....Jesse