Need Red Algae help

Experience working with MARS units

I have worked at 2 two different stores with the Marineland MARS units for a total of about 10yrs (during high school & 2 college degrees). Although they look fairly nice for the customers, they are a fish keeper's nightmare! You have to have a very good UV-sterilizer because disease can be difficult to control b/c you basically have 12 tanks sharing the same sump & water so there is no way to quarantine new arrivals. If your sumps do not have protein skimmers, you need them too.

I would also advise not to put corals in the units unless you have very reliable, trained staff there when you are not. The problem is that the sumps need refilled daily - a little from evaporation & a lot from the water loss with every baggie filled with water & fish. Your staff will simply want to top the sump off w/ fresh which will cause your salinity to majorly go up & down. Unless the MARS units have upgraded from my time working with them, they have basic fluorescent lighting which will not be strong enough to support much. I would strongly recommend setting up a coral tank (40 breeder is a nice size) with just corals & maybe a few showy fish (also serves well as a showcase tank). This way your corals are more protected, can have their lighting needs addressed, and you can show customer what a tank can look like!

I'd be happy to help with any MARS troubleshooting if you have questions!

Kris

 

The keeping inverts in a separate tank will also allow you to medicate the units if you have a disease outbreak.

 

filter your water, update your bulbs, get a crew etc... Running a commercial saltwater section isn't like a hobby tank. You will have to do far more maintenance because you are generally overstocked. You might also be missing liverock etc... Running a fuge or just straight MARS system with a biowheel? If your only filtration is gravel, the plastic decorations and the bio wheel you are only going to have ammonia and nitrite removal, no anaerobic bacteria will form to reduce nitrates phos etc...get the staff out their cleaning and go bare bottom until your tank can handle nitrates and phos etc...takes awhile or a ton of water changes in a heavily stocked system. Lot of this gets done by sales though.

cleaner shrimp don't clean algae they clean parasites.
never medicate your MARS system remove fish and medicate separately in your hospital tank. You really want to be stuck with a tank you can't put inverts in?
don't mix inverts with fish, no point exposing them to carry parasites when you don't need too.
your nitrates and phosphates are high, the test is showing you what they are after all that algae consumes it
go bare bottom or get sand, gravel is for freshwater tanks.
Checkout a beginner's book on reefing, that should help give you a good background to work with, this is a good pick:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419632485