Andreas' 33 gallon

[krausean]

Hi all!
I'm new to the forum and also (relatively) new to reefing. I ran a 29 gallon bio-cube about 3 years ago but ended up leaving the hobby...temporarily...

Now I'm back and hopefully here to stay

I recently purchased a running 33 gallon aquarium w/stand that had apparently been set up for 4 years (see attached pic). The glass has a lot of scratches but it will do for now...

I'm running two ATI T5's over the tank. One Actinic and one daylight bulb that were replaced when I bought the tank, about a month ago. These should do the trick for now as all I have is some softies and LPS.

At the moment I'm running a whisper 70 canister filter with SeaGel media.
My plan in the very near future is to set up a 10-20 gallon sump with a protein skimmer etc.
I'm currently taking advantage of all the great info on the Canreef forums to help with the sump build

About a week ago I purchased my first RO/DI system. I have been having some serious issues with algae growth in my tank. At first it was green hair algae and now I'm getting red algae as well. It seemed the best place to start was with the water that goes into the tank. Hopefully that will help!
I introduced an emerald crab into the system about two weeks ago and within two days 3 of my fish disappeared...lesson learned...the funny thing is that I bought a lawnmower blenny at the same time as the crab and I wasn't warned by my LFS that the crab might chop him (or other fish) into bits...I also lost a sand shifting goby (not sure of the name) and what I think was a yellow clown goby. I'm pretty sure that's what caused my recent severe red algae outbreak...

I do know that my 33 is too small for that Regal Tang...I'm planning on removing him shortly...

btw...what's the trick to attaching images without a link...I know nobody enjoys the attachment links

[gregzz4]

Welcome to Canreef
Maybe this will help you with your photos
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ht=photobucket

[krausean]

Thanks for the help!



It works!!

[gregzz4]

You're welcome

[lockrookie]

welcome back to the hobby

[krausean]

Thanks! It's good to be back

[krausean]

So I decided to upgrade my cuc today.
Got six Turbo snails and a sand shifting star fish. I'm hoping this will help with my algae problems.
I also finally picked up a turkey baster from Zellers! Made a nice mess in my tank and cleaned out my HOB filter after letting it collect detritus and blown off bits of algae for a while

Steps taken towards beating algae:
10 blue legged hermits
6 Turbo snails
RO/DI water filtration system
Turkey basting the heck out of my rocks

Anything else anybody can think of other than a protein skimmer (hopefully a near-future upgrade)?

[fishytime]

what do you feed and how much?.....you could also reduce the time your lights are on....you could consider running rowaphos in a bag in your HOB.....

[krausean]

My fish get Spectrum Optimum. I'm very careful not to overfeed. I throw in a few flakes at a time and watch the fish eat them.
My corals get a little less than 1/8 of a teaspoon of Coral Frenzy twice a week.

My lights are on for 9 hours/day right now. I will try cutting it down to 8 hours and see what happens.

I'm running SeaGel in my HOB which already has "phosguard" and carbon in it. My LFS recommended to run it in my HOB continuously. Is this a good product? Should I be running it full time?

Thanks for your suggestions!

[krausean]

Another trip to the LFS today!
Picked up six more turbo snails and a cleaner shrimp. I just like the look of the cleaner shrimp
My battle against the green hairy stuff is looking pretty good! The red algae problem I had is also gone with the tide!
I recently purchased a Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro test kit (Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity)

Here's my numbers:
Calcium-520ppm
Alkalinity-9.2 dHK
Magnesium 1440 ppm

Working on bringing my alkalinity up to about about 12 at the moment which from what I've learned should bring my calcium down...right?

My frogspawn has not been terribly happy since about a week after I got it. Polyps are extended maybe half way (if that). I give it about a week in one spot and then move it to a different location in the tank to see how it likes it, but still no luck. Is there anything in specific that I could be doing wrong? I have him in a fairly low current location which, as far as I know, is what they prefer....