Yes, it's a beast alright. One reason I was never that fond of the Remora set up. Sounds like Okguy has it figured out though. I recall seeing his set up when I purchased a couple of coral frags from him. I didn't even notice the Remora on his tank, that's how nicely camouflaged it was. Quiet too. I didn't find out about the Remora 'silencing' mods until after I cracked it and removed it.

Silencing mods?? Now you have my attention!! That Mag 3 is horrendously loud! Oh well, I'm going back to work out of province tomorrow, so it can be loud all it wants.

The silencing mod is for the injector compartment. If it's the Mag pump itself making noise I don't have a fix for that. The impeller is only a few months old. Do you have a rigid line connecting the pump to the skimmer or flexible vinyl? Vinyl would help reduce pump vibration/noise.

It's not the pump, it's the injector. I will have to Google some silencing mods on my next days off (Christmas). :)

From what I can recall the injector silencing mods are quite simple/straightforward. You simply cut a piece of foam or something in the shape of the injector compartment and slip the assembly in there to muffle the sound.

Getting a little off topic for the thread subject, but here's a link to some pretty good Remora C mods:

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/...ghlight=remora

I am still battling hair algae and some pockets of valonia. The display portion of my tank is about 25G. I added one emerald crab about 4 weeks ago. He has doubled in size since then but I have not noticed him eating valonia yet, that was the job he was hired for. Maybe I will add another emerald crab.


But I do have two urchins who look like this:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../DSC_3331s.jpg


They keep the algae to a minimum on the back side of the rocks but rarely come to the front where the algae is the worst. Maybe if they get hungry enough or I keep the lights off for a few days they will work on the front of the rocks.

I have peeled a few of the larger algae bubbles off by hand.

I am thinking of getting a sea hare to help out with the hair algae, I have read somewhere that some people have seen them eat valonia as well.

Thanks for the links Mike, I will take a look! :)

Your rocks look like they have a lot of detritus settled on them. Do you blow them off with a turkey baster? I find that is a key part of battling hair algae. Although I don't see any hair algae in the photo of your Pencil Urchin. You should be able to get rid of the hair algae without getting a Sea Hare. Have you read the Guide in my signature?

UPDATE:

I know I have talked about this on other threads, but figured I would record it here too as the battle continues...

So I have made a couple dramatic changes to my tank in the last 6 weeks, and have noticed a huge DECREASE in Valonia! :eek:

I changed my lighting to 2x250w DE MH. It currently has crappy Coralife 10000K bulbs that it came with, and crappy reflectors. That's ok because I don't want too much PAR, or my LPS will get roasted. I started the lighting slowly with two 1 hour spurts, eventually getting to two 2 hour spurts, and then going to one 4 hours spurt this was over the course of 3 weeks. That was too much and a couple corals started bleaching, I've knocked it back down to two 2 hour periods.

The other thing I changed was I started some Zeo additives. I bought the Zeo Nano Power package. The Pohl's Xtra and the Amino Acid LPS ran out after only 10 days, but I am carrying on with daily dosing (1 drop per day) of the Coral Vitalizer and the Sponge Power.

Now, I don't know if it's these changes or something else going on, but there sure is a HUGE difference in the Valonia. Worth a shot for anyone else giving it a try. I know from talking to a few people using the full Zeo system that Valonia was the last algae to disappear. So that's why I figured I would give the Nano pack a shot.

OR

Maybe the change on bulb Kelvin I made in December (I think it was?) when I was just running T5s finally did the trick? Or maybe the Emerald Crabs finally caught up? Or maybe the Kole Tang has actually been doing some trimming? I have no idea really...all I know is that SOMETHING is working! :lol:

The reef shoppe in Lloydminster has emerald crabs

sorry I missed this thread untill now. Emerald crabs are the key, 3 of them in your tank, and remove the large one manualy. Don't worry about popping them unless they are going sexual, they are a single cell algae from what I have read. There were bigh threads on them on RC and here about 7 years ago. for my tank I had them pretty bad, I poped all the big ones and then let the emerald crabs clean up the rest.

Steve

That's interesting about them being single cell organisms. I do have 2 Emerald Crabs in there already, and I suck out as many as I can during waterchanges. It really is getting a lot better lately!

This tank is still in Kelowna, BC. I do have to make it to The Reef Shoppe though! :D

First of all, NO TANGS your tank is too small. Wait a minute, where have I heard that before?

Someone said to me the other day, "My tang has more swimming room in comparison to his size right now (3" Sailfin in a 60 I think it was) than he will when he is full grown in my 180g." I had no comeback. He was right. Similarly, I have noticed that my Kole tang has more swimming room in my 33g than he will when he's full grown in my 90. This is an interesting approach, although I'm not entirely sure which side of that fence I'm on since it encourages people to keep large fish in small spaces with little follow through in upgrading. You know, the upgrade that is always planned but never happens?

So the only zeo stuff you're dosing in this tank is part of the zeo nano pack (sponge power, LPSAA, Pohls Xtra and Coral Vitalizer)? Valonia is getting out of control in my nano as well, my crappy CPR bakpak isn't getting the job done so I'm doing rather large weekly waterchanges but algae is still pretty rampant in there. I have all those zeo products and am tempted to try them in there for fun, I can't imagine it getting much worse :razz:

Ya, I'm only dosing the SP and the CV now. I am getting a teeny bit of cyano from using it (there in the afternoon, gone in the morning), but I hear that's normal in the beginning. The Zeo forums suggested I use ZeoZym too, but I don't have a skimmer, so I asked them back about that, and haven't heard yet. I really think the change in Kelvin made quite a difference too. I changed the bulbs on my tank to higher Kelvin, added two Emeralds, the tang (who may or may not be helping), and then my tank went from end of December to middle of March without a waterchange. :eek: I started these Zeo additives in the middle of March. When I came back to see the tank in March (last time I saw it was NYE) the tank was significantly lower in Valonia. Now a month later and Zeo, an even bigger jump towards non-Valonia-ness. So...I'm led to believe the Zeo is helping too, but I think the biggest factors for me was the Kelvin change, and possibly the Emerald crabs, and possibly the tang. If the Emerald crabs and/or tang contribute to the control, they are slow to make a difference. Both are constantly picking at the rock. So...I'm not entirely sure. I did a lot of changes. :)

For bulbs, I was using one Giesemann Actinic+ and one Giesemann Midday 6000K. The bulbs were 10 months old when I changed them to one KZ Fiji Purple and one AquaScience 17,500K which is quite a blue combination. It's good for supplementing my current MH though! ;) The Valonia was at its worst during the 10 months of Giesemann bulbs, coming to a peak when I finally changed them out. I am fairly certain the low Kelvin was a significant contributing factor to the INCREASE of Valonia growth, I would not say the bulbs were the CAUSE, as the Valonia was already there when I put the Giesemanns in.

Myka that was me that said that. I had a 1" Regal in my 24 x 12 and in comparison to his size he has more simming room than an Adult regal in a 220 gallon.

like you said though will a person actually follow through with their upgrade or is there going to be a big tang in a small tank.


I do agree tangs need alot of swimming space and the only reason I bought him was because of me upgrading. Poor little guy would get lost even in a 70 gallon.

I have been having fairly good success lately using a dental scraper and either scraping them of popping them as soon as i see them. The trick is to get them when they are still babies and not sexually mature. Its amazing how many fish will eat any floating ones.

I was referring to someone else who said that, I know who it was, just don't want to post names. ;) I don't remember this story about your Regal. Of course I have a memory like a sieve...catches the big stuff, but the details go down the drain. Was there a thread about your tang?

I should start using a tool. I just use the end of my siphon tube to dislodge them. A little pick would work much better. Thanks for the advice! :)

No there wasnt a threa about the tang.

Make sure you give the rock a good little scrape. They seem to have a small root structure and appear to grow back if you dont get it all.