Nano Tank

First of all let me tell you I don't understand all the vocabularly that goes with salt water aquariums so I would appreciate it if you could put your answer in layman's terms.

I have a nano tank. It had alot of red soft algae growing in it. It was suggested I add no more nutrients, do weekly water changes & cut down on the lighting.

I must admit it cut down on the red algae, but now my corals & my sea anenome are not doing well.

I reduced my full spectrum light to 5 hours.

My question, What is the optimum of full spectrum light for a nano tank ? (7100k..... 18 watts) Whatever that means.


Thanks.

 

How small of a tank are we talking about here? 18 watts seems awful weak to have any kind of anemone or corals unless were looking at something under 5 gallons. What kind of lighting is it (I assume power compact??) and how old are the bulbs? Also where did you get 7100K bulbs?

~Will.

 

Your red algae is probably cyanobacteria. Grows in dead spots in your tank. What is your flow rate from power heads?

What kind of water are you using for water changes? Tap? or RO, or RODI?

How old is your bulb for your light?

 

flow rate A- 540 ( if this is even a flow rate )
10 gallons
RO water
7100K local aquarium store
new bulbs

 

Saltyfresh - 7100k lamps are towards the red end of the spectrum
you may be better off with lamps of at least 10,000k or 14,000K which are more towards the blue end of the spectrum (but your tank will not look blue so dont worry, they are not blue lamps)

cynobacteria - does feed off nutrients and favours slow flow areas in the tank
so in your 10 gallon, the addition of 1 more small power head (dont point it at the sand)
may help

do you have a hang on power filter? if so , consider adding purigen by Seachem, this will help strip the water of nutrients like Nitrate that feeds the cynobacteria


if you increase the colour spectrum of the lamp as suggested, and increase the flow
whilst syphoning out the cyno at future water changes
you will eventually get on top of it

and with creatures already in the tank , I would get the new higher K lamp and increase the light duration back to 8, 10 or 12 hours.

Steve

 

a flow rate would be gallons per hour. Most pumps say right on the pump label how many gallons per hour it will push. You have a 10 gallon tank....should be about 40 time turnover. So...10*40=400gph minimum for a reef. So with your powerhead and hang on back filter, you should be around this amount. If not, get a Hydor Koralia 1 (nice looking powerhead that pushes 400gph, try to buy used, they are slightly pricey) which would be perfect for a 10 gallon.

 

Hi, it seems you have one bulb rated at 7100k? If so that light is more for growing plants and Macro algae. If you only have that one bulb and cut it down to 5 hours the coral and anemone will eventually die. You really shouldn't have an anemone in that tank so if you can return it for credit I would do that. Coral (soft) need at least 8-10 hours of "high output" or stronger light than 7100k. A two bulb system should be employed of 1 bulb being 420 or 460 actinic light and 1 bulb being 10,000k daylight bulb. If you can afford it this fixture is real sweet (I have one on my 55 gal.) Get the two bulb fixture (They make a single also). I don't know how long your tank is but there is a fixture there you can use I'm sure.
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