75 gallon bow front

[GEORGE WALTER]

While I have kept fresh water aquariums many times, someone recently offered me their entire salt water setup because they were done with it. As a result, I now have a 75 gallon bow front with rocks, sand, crabs, snails and 3 fish - 2 clowns and a splendid dotty back (props to Fishy_mcfish for helping me ID this bad boy). It came with:

• 15 gallon 3 stage sump
• Eshopps protein skimmer
• Marineland Advanced LED strip light
• Danner Supreme AquaMag Model 7 (655 GPH) pump

It's more of a setup then I have ever dreamt of, so I'm having a lot of fun right now.

It also came with a serious algae issue, with every rock being completely covered in a bright green layer. It doesn't look bad necessarily (my wife says it's pretty), but I'm looking to make it a reef so I'd like it to be completely gone. Here's a current look at it, with some of the rocks largely cleared of algae:

I've read a lot from all of you on this forum and I'm pretty much going down the road of a chaetomorpha refugium to help clean things up. Here are some of the upgrades I have made:

• RO/DI System
• Tunze Auto Top-off
• H380 Halo II Kessel Refugium LED
• 4" MarinePure Ceramic Biomedia plate in the refugium under the Chaetomorpha

I am sticking to a weekly 30% water change and am running the alternating lighting where I just ramped the refugium light up to 6 hours a night. I'm adding one hour each week until I get to 12. I have noticed considerable Chaeto growth, and some small decrease in the tank algae growth in the 4 weeks that I have been growing the refugium. It does appear to be working, but reaaaaally slowly. I'll keep posting updates as I see improvement.
Once I get rid of the algae, I'm going to start upgrading the tank to prepare it for softies and LPS coral. I'm also going to change to aquascape to be less...all over the place.
Let me know of any tips you may have on how to improve the setup/maintenance to get to reefville.

 

[Chris04]

While I have kept fresh water aquariums many times, someone recently offered me their entire salt water setup because they were done with it. As a result, I now have a 75 gallon bow front with rocks, sand, crabs, snails and 3 fish - 2 clowns and a splendid dotty back (props to Fishy_mcfish for helping me ID this bad boy). It came with:

• 15 gallon 3 stage sump
• Eshopps protein skimmer
• Marineland Advanced LED strip light
• Danner Supreme AquaMag Model 7 (655 GPH) pump

It's more of a setup then I have ever dreamt of, so I'm having a lot of fun right now.

It also came with a serious algae issue, with every rock being completely covered in a bright green layer. It doesn't look bad necessarily (my wife says it's pretty), but I'm looking to make it a reef so I'd like it to be completely gone. Here's a current look at it, with some of the rocks largely cleared of algae:

I've read a lot from all of you on this forum and I'm pretty much going down the road of a chaetomorpha refugium to help clean things up. Here are some of the upgrades I have made:

• RO/DI System
• Tunze Auto Top-off
• H380 Halo II Kessel Refugium LED
• 4" MarinePure Ceramic Biomedia plate in the refugium under the Chaetomorpha

I am sticking to a weekly 30% water change and am running the alternating lighting where I just ramped the refugium light up to 6 hours a night. I'm adding one hour each week until I get to 12. I have noticed considerable Chaeto growth, and some small decrease in the tank algae growth in the 4 weeks that I have been growing the refugium. It does appear to be working, but reaaaaally slowly. I'll keep posting updates as I see improvement.
Once I get rid of the algae, I'm going to start upgrading the tank to prepare it for softies and LPS coral. I'm also going to change to aquascape to be less...all over the place.
Let me know of any tips you may have on how to improve the setup/maintenance to get to reefville.

Do a four or five day black out. Wrap the tank and turn off the lights. Your fish will go into hibernation mood and since you have no corals won’t hurt to do a longer black out.
Get some small tangs or lawnmower blenny to eat what left

That’s my advice happy reefing good luck

 

[cgdcinc]

Start testing for your phosphates. Get some gfo running. Tangs would have a field day with that algae! You can get it under control in no time. Cuc would help some too. Snails and hermits.

 

[GEORGE WALTER]

Do a four or five day black out. Wrap the tank and turn off the lights. Your fish will go into hibernation mood and since you have no corals won’t hurt to do a longer black out.
Get some small tangs or lawnmower blenny to eat what left

That’s my advice happy reefing good luck

Does this mean no feeding for the 5 days of black out? I'm game to give this a go, but if it's risky I can be patient and just let it die back gradually.

 

[GEORGE WALTER]

Start testing for your phosphates. Get some gfo running. Tangs would have a field day with that algae! You can get it under control in no time. Cuc would help some too. Snails and hermits.

I have been testing with the Salifert kit and it's reading consistently near 0 (~0.08 ppm). I'm guessing that this is low in part because the algae in both the refugium and display are sucking it up faster then it can be tested.
I would love to get some tangs, but I have that problematic dotty back that is not a friendly guy. He is pretty aggressive and the previous owner complained that he killed off the other inhabitants (a goby, wrasse and dwarf angel). Any suggestions on a combination of tangs that can coexist and deal with the dotty back? I will likely end up removing him from the tank...but he is a pretty awesome looking and very active fish.

 

[Chris04]

Does this mean no feeding for the 5 days of black out? I'm game to give this a go, but if it's risky I can be patient and just let it die back gradually.

You can feed the fish but if it’s completely black out doubt they eat

 

[Chris04]

I

I have been testing with the Salifert kit and it's reading consistently near 0 (~0.08 ppm). I'm guessing that this is low in part because the algae in both the refugium and display are sucking it up faster then it can be tested.
I would love to get some tangs, but I have that problematic dotty back that is not a friendly guy. He is pretty aggressive and the previous owner complained that he killed off the other inhabitants (a goby, wrasse and dwarf angel). Any suggestions on a combination of tangs that can coexist and deal with the dotty back? I will likely end up removing him from the tank...but he is a pretty awesome looking and very active fish.

If your getting a .08 with that much algae you need to start running some GFO or get some phosphate RX and dose that. It probably 1.5 or higher. Once that algae dies off your going to get a huge spike in nutrients

 

[GEORGE WALTER]

I quick update on the progress:
I am now running the refugium lighting on a full 12 hours cycle. I took some advice from you guys and blacked it out for 3 days, which helped a lot. I did see a pretty sizable nutrient spike like Chris04 warned, but the refugium and a big water change did a solid job of dealing with it. Once things stabilized, I added a yellow tang to the mix to help with the remaining algae. I'll post a picture when I get a chance.

Thanks for the advice!