Please help!

kidfressco

kidfressco

New Member


Hello,
i am a young 10g Saltwater fish tank owner.
Ive been with my tank for almost a whole year. Ive gone though allot of fishes 2Blue devil Damsels, 2 Chocolate chip starfish, 1 anemone, 1striped damsel.
And I always had a Algae problem.
What i have My fishtank in its current state
  • 10g Tank
  • Salt level is at 1.023/36 its kinda high
  • ph level could not be provided due to me losing the chart:(
  • Alk low
  • just added 5drops of buff
    Inside of the tank i have
    1 clownfish
    1 Blue Devil Damsles
    1 Fiji Liverock
    A bed of 1-2inch shells
    Equipment
    • 1 10g Whisper Filter
      1 Water Heater
      1 PowerHead With sponges attached at the bottom to pick up algae
      15w florescent light
    ProblemRed algea growing at the bottom
    Bright Green little long growth
    green on tank walls
I keep the Light on 12h and off 12h its near the window so i cover it so light dose not shine into the tank
If there is anything important i forgot to tell you guys about please tell me
To the person who helps me the most and improves my tank will get 10$ though paypal
**I don't have all the money in the world so the things that i need to buy need to be cheap**
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Well first...welcome to SWF.....Paying for help is not necessary here.
First I have some questions
What do you feed your fish?
What do you use for top off water (ro or tap)
Do you have test kits...if so what are your water parameters
what typr of power head is that?
Do you have a protein skimmer?
1. I do not think that filer is adequate for your tank
2. you may need to turn your lights down some
3. you may want more live rock
we will start there
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
You don't need to pay for help here.
A 10g tank is VERY volatile.
What kind of water are you using? Tap water will cause algae outbreaks, as well as insuffiecient lighting, old lighting, over feeding, too big of a bio load, high nitrates, etc etc.
I really don't think you need to worry about alk in your tank -- an anemone doesn't belong in there though. Your salt level isn't high. 1.022-1.026 is perfectly acceptable.
I also don't know what to think of the 1-2 inch bed of shells as this may just be a good play for detrius and nitrates building up.
Pics don't work for me at work (they get blocked) but there's a lot of info to be learned yet and really the best thing you can do is keep asking and reading different posts.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by jackri
http:///forum/post/3106871
I see you were posting same time as me meowzer :p
and I got to see pics
I forgot to ask
It seems you have no clean up crew (ex. snails, crabs)
Also your fish in the video seem ok, but what is the stuff floating aroound in the water?
 
kidfressco

kidfressco

New Member
What do you feed your fish?
A -At the momment i feed them Flakes, Freeze Dried Medly and Fourmula Two Marine Pellet mizzed into one
What do you use for top off water (ro or tap)
A- Tap water with aqua safe added
Do you have test kits...if so what are your water parameters
A- I have a Marine aquaruims Test Lab its kinda small.
what typr of power head is that?
A- I belive its 660 powerhead not sure tho.
Do you have a protein skimmer?
A- No i do not own one
1. I do not think that filer is adequate for your tank
A-Should i go up? to a 20g?
2. you may need to turn your lights down some
A-Go down in watts?
3. you may want more live rock-
A- Yes i was wondering can a liverock die?
we will start there
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
You don't want air bubbles in a saltwater tank.
Tap water may be feeding your algae
Your food may be helping feed algae
Your lights may be feeding algae -- going down in wattage will not help
A protein skimmer can help... but not the solution
There is just a lot that really can't be explained by typing and without being there in person to see (pics didn't work) but sounds like you have a freshwater set up and the problems you are experiencing with your setup are unavoidable with saltwater.
 
nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
the tank looks neglected. change out the gravel to sand, and add more liverocks. use ro water if u can. replace ur filter media often like bi-weekly. make sure u get flow throughout the tank, and change out ur light bulb since spectrum can change over time.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Yeah, when I mentioned turning down the lights, I meant the amount of time you run them...try running them for 8 hours instead of 12.
also you need to get frozen foods, like mysis, marine cuisine...flakes and pellets are known for helping to create algae.
BEFORE you do anything, you may want to do what NYCBOB said....get rid of the gravel, add Live sand and some more Live rock
You will have to siphon the gravel out though....you may want to consider giving your 2 fish to someone, and starting over...I don't know that they will survive a big change like that
 
kidfressco

kidfressco

New Member
Im going to keep my Fish i know that it sounds crazy but they have been through a allot and they can live thru it. When i get the funds i will buy more Live Rock and A clean up crew. Snails? I will get the gravel out and give them a small bed of Sand and little gravel pieces in areas. How dose this sound?
 
nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
a 10lb bag of livesand ~ $15
10 lbs of liverocks ~ $25
invest in the above two, and ditch the filter u r thinking of getting.
 
kidfressco

kidfressco

New Member
Sounds goood anything else I'm ready to turn this tank around.
I'll keep yu updated please help me fix this tank
 
marchingbandjs

marchingbandjs

Member
Where are you gettting 10lbs of LR for 25 bucks...
I think you will see a big change when u switch to sand and add more LR
Protein skimmers work wonders.
i have a new tank and i had bad diatoms and hair algae. Bought a protein skimmer and its been a week, minimal diatoms almost no hair algae. Now this could be other things too, but it started to diminish with the protein skimmer.
 
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