brown on rocks and coral

elitesurfer · #1 11-23-2009, 09:00 PM

> Make sure your temp is at around 78 degrees.
> Use the hydrometer to test the specific gravity. This tells you how saline your water is. Aim for 1.023. Instead of dumping the salt into the aquarium directly, use a spare bucket and mix the salt in pure water.
You need to circulate the water you're mixing and aim for temperature a bit higher than that of your tank. So, you will need a heater and powerhead for this. Use your hydrometer to test the salinity once the temperature is at around 79~80. Aim for higher specific gravity if you have lower amount in your tank and vice versa.
You shouldn't be using tap water for the aquarium. So, you'll have to look into buying filtered RO (Reverse Osmosis) water. If you don't have a RO filter unit, look into buying water from your local fish store (LFS) or superstore.
> The two fishes you have are clownfish and royal gramma.
> Visit http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/ for useful info on how to maintain your tank you've recieved and a lot of information about saltwater aquarium.
> To post images, you can upload your pictures to website like tinypic.com and tag the url with

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muck · #2 11-23-2009, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elitesurfer

> Make sure your temp is at around 78 degrees.
> Use the hydrometer to test the specific gravity. This tells you how saline your water is. Aim for 1.203.

I think you mean 1.023.
Personally I like to aim for 1.025 (specific gravity of natural seawater)

elitesurfer · #3 11-23-2009, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muck

I think you mean 1.023.
Personally I like to aim for 1.025 (specific gravity of natural seawater)

Woops thanks for catching that. Wouldn't want to misguide up a new reefer.

clownbob · #4 11-23-2009, 09:16 PM

The temp in the tank is 78

The specific gravity is presently at 1.022

My hydrometer has the numbers 1.020 - 1.024 in red. I was going to get it to the 1.024 line. Do you think I should go to 1.025? Will this help with red/brown algae problem?

muck · #5 11-23-2009, 09:27 PM

Does the red/brown algae look like this?

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/cyano.html

clownbob · #6 11-23-2009, 09:37 PM

kind of like that - there's a darker part on the right of the picture that looks more like mine - could be the lighting. there is a red slime on the glass behind the rocks (can't clean without moving the rocks).

clownbob · #7 11-23-2009, 09:49 PM

When I was cleaning the algae off the glass with the scraper I brushed into a piece of rock and it made it real white. Is that harmful? Can I use a BBQ brush to gently wipe the algae off the rocks?

The only coral in the tank are two small (approx 2 inch wide pieces of 1 - 1/2 inch high) fingers. They stick straight up and completely covered in the algae.

elitesurfer · #8 11-23-2009, 09:54 PM

If the brush isn't contaminated, you can give it a try but siphon out all the algae that tries to float away.

elitesurfer · #9 11-23-2009, 09:39 PM

If it IS the stuff in muck's link, changing temp and salinity aren't gonna help. 1.022 isn't bad but you can push it to 1.025 as muck suggested.

clownbob · #10 11-23-2009, 10:13 PM

Question: Is there a way I can have the thread go directly to the newest page instead of having it always start at the beginning of the thread?