HELP with Clean Up Crew

[kaseykagan]

We have a 155 gallon Reef Tank. Our fish so far consist of:
Yellow Belly Regal Tang
Sailfin Tang
Flagfin Angel
Diamond Goby
2 Clowns
Bicolor Blennie
2 Banjii Cardinals
2 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Blood Shrimp
4 blue and red legged hermit crabs
A few snails
Just wondering what fish would be beneficial for algae and clean up. Right now we are getting Hair Algae and other undesirable growth..
We also just upgraded from PC's to Metal Halides and wondering if this may be the reason for the spike in Algae.
We have checked our water parameters and they don't seem to be too bad.
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 20
Nitrite - 0
Alkalinity KH - 6.4
Phosphate -.5
Calcium - 480
Magnesium - 1170
Iodine - .03
Salinity -1.021

 

[smartorl]

What is your feeding schedule? What are you feeding? How frequent and what size water changes.
I run my halides for a much shorter period than I did with PC's. Prolonged periods of halides, coupled with overfeeding, would be my guess as the culprit.
I would cut back on the lights, cut down on the feeding, and up the water changes. This will curtail the future growth. For the hair algae that's there, try pulling out as much as you can by hand (a pain in the butt).
I would add a lawnmower blenny, a couple of emerald crabs, and some margarita snails. Typically, I wouldn't recommend two blennies but I feel that your tank is large enough that you shouldn't have any issues.
You could also add an urchin, and they are great for munching on the algae, but they can be bulldozers in your tank. My rose urchin often moves corals and picks up any frags it can find and carries them all over the tank.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by kaseykagan http:///forum/thread/381557/help-with-clean-up-crew#post_3324319
We have a 155 gallon Reef Tank. Our fish so far consist of:
Yellow Belly Regal Tang
Sailfin Tang
Flagfin Angel
Diamond Goby
2 Clowns
Bicolor Blennie
2 Banjii Cardinals
2 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Blood Shrimp
4 blue and red legged hermit crabs
A few snails
Just wondering what fish would be beneficial for algae and clean up. Right now we are getting Hair Algae and other undesirable growth..
We also just upgraded from PC's to Metal Halides and wondering if this may be the reason for the spike in Algae.
We have checked our water parameters and they don't seem to be too bad.
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 20
Nitrite - 0
Alkalinity KH - 6.4
Phosphate -.5
Calcium - 480
Magnesium - 1170
Iodine - .03
Salinity -1.021

If you have hair algae, and still getting a reading of .5 phosphates..It’s off the charts high. You should be getting a false negative since the hair algae feeds on phosphates. To get a reading that high and have the algae is way up there in reality.
The problem isn't a CUC.

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/381557/help-with-clean-up-crew#post_3324331

If you have hair algae, and still getting a reading of .5 phosphates..It’s off the charts high. You should be getting a false negative since the hair algae feeds on phosphates. To get a reading that high and have the algae is way up there in reality.
The problem isn't a CUC.
I agree.
What are you using for water?
Do you run any carbon or phosphate remover?
I also agree that you should cut back on your lighting and feeding.
While I agree that the problem here isn't your CUC, it's your water parameters, I will say that your CUC is inadequate for that size tank, as I have the same exact sized tank.
I have about 20 Nassarius snails, 10 Astrea snails, 10 Trochus snails and 5 Cerith snails, 2 cleaner shrimp, 5 peppermint shrimp. As for fish that I consider CUC members, I have a tail spot blenny, a Black Combtooth Blenny, 1 flame angel, 1 coral beauty angel, 1 sailfin tang and 1 blonde naso tang. I have a few stray hermits running around, but I hate hermit crabs.
My suggestion is this:
Add to CUC
Fix water parameters, if you're using RO/DI water, test it for phosphates to rule this out as the problem. It may be as simple as washing out the bucket that you make your water in.
Cut back on lighting and feeding and increase water changes (I'd do 2 a week) to allow the tank to fight off some of the algae on it's own.
If you're not rinsing your fish food, start doing so, this can cut back on phosphates as well.
Add Phosphate Remover to your tank (I prefer Purigen pads and a Phosban reactor or Phoslock).