Algae indentification

[golgi aparatus]

THanks for the advise on alk/calcium. Your'e the man

That is a great relief, however I agree that it is always good to have a working knowledge of the situation.
Like I said, I'm going to go with just some nice button polyps, mushrooms etc. Perhaps leathers? I think that I have heard they are for beginners as well.
I have yet ANOTHER algae question

I have this algae growing in my prefilter on my reef-ready tank. What is this algae and should I clean it out or let it be? I'm an algae making machine!

 

[saltn00b]

that is green hair algae, and stuff will grow back there. if it gets to impede down flowm then just manually remove it. otherwise, let it be and it will perform some fuge-type functionality by exporting nutrients...
if it grows in your DT then it can become more of a problem. with leathers and with green hair algae and cyano bacteria (another common plague algae) you will want to monitor your phosphate levels. they will cause algaes to bloom and corals to die.

 

[golgi aparatus]

OK, I'll get a phosphate test kit right away. What causes phosphates to rise other than tap water. I make my own RO water, so that is not a problem fortunately.

 

[saltn00b]

the food you feed your tank. frozen cubes are notorious. and the excrement of the fish and corals.
phosphates are absorbed quickly by calcerous material like LR and LS and coral skeleton but after a while it reaches its max absorption potential and it will build up in your water column. i personally keep a 2 little fishies phosban reactor to keep them at zero.

 

[golgi aparatus]

Where do you have the phosban reactor set up? In your sump or what?
Is it easy to setup?

 

[eugenez_21]

Heres a pic that i have if its any help. Sould give you a visual pic. It deos not mater where. On the back of DT or Sump.

Id perfer sump.

 

[saltn00b]

hey eugene what is that other media you are running?

 

[golgi aparatus]

Well man, I'm adding my first coral today!! A nice smallish new zoo. I'll post an image of it when I get a chance. I'm excited about the beginning of my reef!
I appreciate all the help I have received and am sure to get in the future!!

 

[golgi aparatus]

Speaking of my new zoo polyp that I will introduce tonight, how do you reccomend that I acclimate this new coral?

 

[saltn00b]

corals can be simply temp acclimated and dropped in. tho some will say you should drip them to be on the safer side.
you should normally wait about 6 months before adding coral so your system is mature and stable.

 

[golgi aparatus]

I think that my system is relatively mature. It has been setup since mid-January. I hope that it is ready for at least the most beginner level, hardy corals...we'll see!

 

[saltn00b]

u should be good!

 

[golgi aparatus]

Well, here we go. Here is my first coral. A nice colored green/orange zoa. It is not very big, but hopefully it will grow and spread. Assuming good water/light conditions, how quickly does something like this spread? Is there anything that I can do to incourage it to grow out on its rock and to spread to other rocks?

 

[saltn00b]

nice zoos. nothing you can do but keep your water quality great. and your bulbs new if they get old. dont use additives as you never want to add anything you cant test for.

 

[golgi aparatus]

If everything is kept up well, will they eventually spread to other rocks?

 

[saltn00b]

yes