Cyanobacteria and pH issues. help.

protein skimmer will need sometime to break in

 

Check the water source for a phosphate problem. I suspect that that is why your ph is a little low and the algae is blooming. If you are not now you should only use RO/DI water. As for the fish if the filtration can handle the bio load you can have any size as so long as it is not cruel. I have had a 6in panther grouper, 4in trigger, large carpet and a 4in spotted grouper in a 26 breeder drilled with a 20gal sump. I feed the hell out of them (3-4 feeder fish each daily) until I found out live food can be bad for their health if given to much. I would rather do the reef stuff now, it is something new everyday.

 

might want to look into a uv sterilizer too just throwing it out there.

 

welp, got the fuge set up with chaeto and DSB, been running for about 1 week now... the red algae is still coming... but it has slowed tremendously...

i dont have a lot of flow going from the fuge the tank... so upgrading that, gonna run a 300gph pump with head resistance should be about 200gph...

(i got a 100gph running about 50-75gph i'd imagine right now, barely moving anything)

the red algae isn't growing that much in the fuge, just a little bit here and there, so i'm guessing the chaeto has done a lot...

also i have an eheim canister filtering the tank as well... just added some good carbon to it today so that helps...

i got about 80 gallons filtering capacity on my 30gals of water for my 20g display i think that should do it!

just need to upgrade that pump... the protein skimmer just isnt' working period, i get no foam at all, as soon as i think it's starting to form it just disappears.

 

I had a bad cyano outbreak last week.

Ordered a Cuc from reefcleaners, gave John my specs. I ordered half of the crew that he recommended to boost my existing...

Went out of town and just got back, its almost all gone and my water is looking great. I did all the other stuff too though.

I tend to go by a philosophy i learned in sales which is i dont know which thing is going to work. But i know 8 things that might work... Im going to do as many as i can, as fast as i can to get the results that i want

You can look at the end of my build thread below to see what i ordered if you want. Good luck

 

What kind of skimmer?

 

how many pounds/ type or rock (porous natural rock or cement), no skimmer even a tiny side mount is a bad idea.....conches will mow over ciano, sand sifters of any types? grab a ball macro algae of some type small ball in your filter or sump will eat up all the nitr. and phos. that cyano and most hair algs. need without overtaking your tank plus you allready have a tang to take out that chance.....good luck.