red algie

[alex.m]

Hi everyone! I've had my tank for a couple of months. had a bad expirience with me being totally impatient. As soon as guy in the pet store said i can bring back their damsels and add other fish to the tank i was so happy and bought 3 fishes and a cleaner shrimp..... Of course only enjoyed it for less then 12 hours..... they all including a poor shimp were dead in a morning...... Sad,,, but i learned my lesson i hope. had to do a major water change got all the chemicals back to normal (it took awhile but i was patient this time) and today I was told that I can get a new fish!!!!! and i got me a Maroon clown..... (just one fish this time) I am very happy....... again...... and i hope it will still be alive tomorrow morning. My question though is about red algie that i have all over my tank. looks like little thin hair. It makes a tank look horrible. What do i do to get rid of it???? Thank you all for your help!!!!!

 

[birdy]

Hi Alex, welcome to the forum.
Sorry about your first attempt, patience you will find is the biggest virtue in this hobby. About your algae problem. Please post as much info about your tank as possible. Water perameters, LR, substrate. Type of water( RO/ Tap), type of lighting. Basically your whole setup.

 

[alex.m]

Used tap water mixed with instant ocean . had 7 damsels for the first 30 days ( they all survived) Use a canister filter Reno filstar XP skimmer is Prizm Light is pretty poor i think... I have a single strip with suggested $36 light bulb "triton" interpet. As of water today solenity is 0.021 Ph is 8.4; ammonia,nitrate and nitrite are 0 if that what you mean by water parameters. started with LR and LS. I am sorry but I'm very very new in this. What is RO water and where do i get it. Sorry again but i lived in US only 7 years so I'd say 75% of terminology I am not really familiar with b/c of language barrier. Thank you for a respond.

 

[alex.m]

Here it is

 

[birdy]

Saltwater keeping seems to have a language of its own, so don't feel bad if you don't know what we are talking about and if you didn't see it the top of the page has a sticky for all the abbreviations.
Your levels look good, you will probably want to get a test for phosphate because phophates are a big factor in algae growth.
RO water is Reverese Osmosis, it is basically a filtering system for water (many people have them in thier homes for drinking water). It pretty much takes everything out of the water so you know that your water is not feeding algae problems. Many of us have our own units, and most of them also have an additional DI filter, which pretty much takes all the bad stuff out of the water. If you do not want to buy a unit then check with your LFS many of them sell this type of water, also many grocery stores sell it also.
If you are just planning on fish then your SG is okay, but if you are planning on having any inverts then you will want to raise that SG to 1.025 (could be part of the reason your shrimp died)
Good luck, Carla

 

[alex.m]

Thank you very very much!!! Is there a difference between RO water and distilled water? And you think adding SG will not hurt a fish? how about my light? sorry for too many questions at once!!! thank you

 

[birdy]

For a FOWLR, a NO bulb is just fine, to raise the salinity in your tank to so slowly over several days, instead of adding plain water for topoff add saltwater and it will raise the salinity.
Distilled water is fine for a salt tank, I would recommend that you use a fresh water test kit and test it for Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, I have heard of people getting bad distilled water ( you can get bad RO water too, that is why most of us have our own units)

 

[alex.m]

Thanks a lot You are really lot of help!!! thanks again!!!

 

[nathanp0515]

Distillation and RO are 2 totally different processes, however, most distilled water from the store has a list of the filtering methods on the label, and most of the time Reverse Osmosis is listed.
Nathan