Hey Guys

Hello all,

My name is Jeremy and i live in Virginia. I started my reef tank up about 7 months ago. I have a 72 gallon bow front tank with 265w pc lighting. 100 lbs of live rock and 100lbs of live sand. i use a 100g corallife super skimmer and have a megaflow 2 sump with a quietone 1100 gph pump. I also have a r/o di unit. i treat my tank every other day with purple up and phyto plankton.

corals: leather tree coral, some sea mats, and just got a new one i couldn't identify yet.

My fish are:
yellow tang, sebae clown, blue damsel
i had a scooter blenny that dissapeared and i expect a hitchhiker crab got it. i have only seen it once and it was all white and 2x the size of my emerald crab.

i lan on getting 3 or 4 more fish max.

also have:
electric flame scallop, sebae anemone, emerald crab, conch, 2 margarita snails, 6 zebra turbo snails, 4 cerith snails, 10 blue leg hermits, 4 nassarius snails.

my main struggle right now is controlling red hair algae and i guess everyone gets the green algae film on glass whish sucks to clean.

 

Indeed, welcome!

 

Welcome aboard Jeremy, Have you checked your No3 and Po4 levels?

 

Ya know, something just dawned on me. I used to have algae problems a lot, but ever since I added a refugium and the algae in there has gone wild, I literally had my hair and bubble algae DISAPPEAR in my main tank!

Everyone always asks if you've checked your nitrates and phosphates when you have an algae issue, but I wonder if a simple refugium couldn't solve everyone's problems? Of course you have to have the means. Not everyone can do it unfortunately. But the fuge and sump I added back in November have been probably the best things I have ever done for my tank.

And trust me, I have a Yellow Tang so I feed a LOT!!!

But at any rate, welcome, it sounds like you are taking things slow which is the way to go. And hopefully we can help rid you of your algae.

 

i have always had 0 nitrates and nitrites and phos since starting the tank since i got all that live rock from an established aquarium and also the live sand. i suspect part of it is due to a bit of over feeding and simply cause i have the lights on 12 hours a day.

i dont see where i would have room to have a refugium. one interesting fact is inside of my tank there is an built in overflow to where the drain and return piping is. well i looked insider there a while back and there was a ton of very long thick green hair algae. I suspect due to the fact that this area always gets alot of light and isn't touched by the fish. before i cleaned this area all up i had no red hair algae probs. now that i have cleaned it, it has been a nusince. could that area almost serve as a refugium? if not i am not sure how i could add a refuge in the sump. there isnt much room with the skimmer and pumps there.

 

Ditto on the over flow chamber. My tank has no algae growing except my corner over flow, which faces the french doors, which gets indirect sunlight. I have long hair algae and bubble algae growing there.

 

Huh, that is really interesting. I suppose that yes, with algae growing in there then yea, it COULD be like a mini fuge. I never thought of that! It appears we have the same setup. Mine is also a 72gal bowfront with the overflow built in onto the side like that.

The thing with mine is, and the reason why I can have a fuge, is I have my tank setup diagonally in the corner. It's not sitting flat against a wall. Therefore my fuge is sitting behind the tank, supported by two overturned Home Depot buckets. I'm guessing yours is flat against the wall?

 

Welcome Jeremy! And thanks for the tip Brandon/Luna- yet another reason my little 30 needs a 5.5 fuge!

 

yes, mine is flat against the wall. maybe i will try just letting the algae grow in there for a while to see what happens. in the mean time i will work hard to control that red hair algae with gravel vacuming what i pull up.