restarted/restocking reef tank - questions

[jbrinker]

OK, tank has been up for 7+ years, however was completely ignored for about the last 2 years. Live rock is still "live" and, for the past 4+ months Ive been taking care of it again. I have lots of tube worms, about a dozen small hermits, handful of small snails and a couple big ones, and lots of various things living in and on the rock. (some sponges, fair amount of purple coraline, etc).
Oh, tank is a 55, 100+lbs of live rock, Hang on skimmer (back-pak), and a few powerheads for circulation. Lighting is NO flourescent - (2) actinic, (2) 6500K and (2) "18,000K" hagen bulbs. Ive been running the actinics from 7:30am - 10pm, and one 6500 and one 18K from 3:30pm - 9pm.
I recently decided to start with some livestock again. I added a very small sailfin tang and a cleaner shrimp. This was about a month ago. The tang died after a week or so, I couldnt get it to eat. It did pick at the rocks, and "graze" but wasnt interested in anything else. At this point the tank was in good shape, algae-wise.
Once the tang died, I waited a week or so, and decided to try a pair of ocelarius (sp) clowns. They have been doing great for the past month. The LFS encouraged me to feed them cyclop-eze (sp again). I have been feeding a small (half the size of a red pencil eraser) piece 2x a day.
Now Im starting to have a serious algae bloom - green hair. I've reduced the feeding by about half - still 2x a day tho. Ive reduced the time the daylights are on from ~6 hrs to about 4, and I now run only one actinic tube instead of two.
I've been using Wal-mart RO water (Culligan brand). I'm trying to pin down the reason for the algae outbreak, and how to deal with it. Nothing too light sensitive at this point, so one option is to just kill the lights for a few days.
The other option is, I dont believe I have hardly any of my janitor crew left. I originally had ~40 crabs and 40+ snails. Now about maybe 10 and 10, or less. Additionally, I was thinking that the "next" addition should be a grazer. Ive had yellow tangs before, but Ive had one (out of three over the years) that wend "psycho" and killed everything else in the tank. Thoughts about a good grazer?
My planned bioload is:
Pair of clows (now)
Cleaner shrimp (now)
Some sort of grazer/Tang
Dwarf Angel (Flame or coral beauty)
Possibly some blennies of some sort
Possibly Royal Gramma
I'd like to get back to keeping "softies" and zoos too, as I have kept some of those sucessfully in years past.
My Nitrates were 5ppm around the time the clowns went in. pH, etc all good. Temp 74. I use instant Ocean, mixed with walmart RO water. I change 10% every two weeks.
My thoughts are that the tank is going through a "Second cycle" due to:
1) increased bioload of two fish
2) Increased activity on the part of the cleaners due to uneaten food getting eaten
3) Possibly too long a photoperiod
4) Possibly crappy lighting
Thoughts? Advice?
My next major project is to add a sump/fuge in the basement. I have a Dolphin 900 pump and a 30 gal aquarium ready to roll.
Jeff

 

[tizzo]

Well, it could be any number of a couple of reasons. Adding two small clowns will not cause enough of an overload to have a visible effect like that.
The cyclopeeze recomendation, is OK, but I would not feed it every day and definately not twice a day. More will hit the substrate then the bellies of your fish. Are they very young/tiny??
Another reason could be your lighting. 65K is already a prime spectrum for plants, including algae, but if your bulbs are old then you are emitting even more of the red side of the spectrum and helping the algae thrive.
Have you changed out any filter media??
Do you have a skimmer??
And of course the fact that most of your clean up crew has died, was it all at the same time?? Cause that in itself would cause a spike.

 

[jbrinker]

Thanks for the reply-
No, the cleaner crew died through attrition over the past 3-4 years that I have mostly ignored the tank. (Amazing what lived, but a LOT of stuff did... And Im talking tank-in-garage little to no light, no water changes for YEARS). A bunch of snails lived, and crabs, and a lot of critters in/on the rock.
So, I started (~4-6 mos ago) with this "comatose" reef tank. New water, new bulbs, new (almost no) substrate. (1/2" of coral sand)
The rock has "come back" nicely, and last time I checked (before this latest outbreak) the nitrates were low (5ppm). I dont have a phosphate test kit (yet).
I too am wondering about the lighting... The 6500's were "it" a few years ago, but now it seems to be all about 10K. So perhaps that change is in order. I'm gonna stop at the LFS tonight and pick up a phosphate test kit. I have a sneaky suspicion that the activated carbon I ran for a couple days last week leached a ton of phosphate....
Oh, I do have a skimmer - hang on CPR Backpak. It does seem to work pretty well, although it doesnt surface skim. That will change when I get the sump built.
What is proper feeding for these clowns? They are young (~1") but not tiny. They do seem to LOVE it tho. I have been using some flake too, thinking of putting some nori or seaweed in occasionally, and cutting back on the frozen to every other day.
I was thinking of adding a "algae eating" fish of some sort. Ive not had the best luck with yellow tangs - one great one, one OK and one

[hr]
(these years ago). But they DO eat a lot of algae. Seems like the smaller the better they are. The biggest one (~3") was the mean one - although he was always FAT and happy.
Opinions?
Jeff

 

[tizzo]

I have an african flameback angel and it eats algae prolly better than my yellow tang!!
As far as clown feeding, if they are an inch you can very their foods with frozen. I have always used the San Fransisco Bay Brand, saltwater mix. Nice variety, cheap, and easy to find. But feeding every other day will be OK.
The lights, as I understand it, it that a 6500K bulb leans more towards the red/orange side of the light spectrum. Great for plant growing. As a matter of fact, reds and oranges are what benefit your front lawn the most. We now lean more toward the blue side of the spectrum in order to keep the algae under bay as well as bring out the colors more. If you have corals, a lower K rating will cause them to grow "faster" where as a higher K rating will cause them to be more colorful.
But either way, with old bulbs, the phosphers (white lining inside the glass of flourescent bulbs) wears thin and emits all the red, which is not good for anything in your tank.
(Flourescent) Bulbs should be replaced every 6 months.