Newbie help Please

Below is what I have from the LFS recommendations.
45 bow
2-Marineland Penguin 350 bio-wheel filters
2-30 watt heaters
Maxi-Jet 900
Coralife delux series 36" with "2" 96 watt each white light and 2 Antic 03 Blue lights with reflector.
40 lbs LS
50 lbs Fiji LR
2 yellow tail Damsel ( will be removing after reading threads
1 green Chromas.
My tank has been running for 3 weeks with fish and feeding.
Temp 81
Salinity 1.023
PH 8.3
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30

I now has a lot of brown alage all over the LR and in the LS. I see brown hair alage moving/blowing in the LS.

1. Do you feel I may be close to cycle?
2. When can I add a clean up crew and what would you recomend?
3. When would I do a water change?

I want to move slow and listen to "your" advise as I learned not to trust the LFS ( after the fact ) and reading post. Thank you in advance for your time help and support.

 

Did you see your ammonia rise and then drop to 0, and the same with your nitrites? Your nitrates being at 30 could be due to over feeding. You will know your cycle is done when ammonia rises - drops to 0, then your nitrites do the same and then your nitrates.

I would ditch one of the filters, add a skimmer, and use 1 filter for only carbon. Do you have any media in the filter? Do you clean it? What water are you using? Never do a water change during cycling, a cycle can take up to 8 wks, I wouldn't add a clean up crew till the cycle is over as inverts are more sensitive to changes in the tank.

You are getting the algae because the tank is new and you are running skimmerless, the skimmer will help remove the organics and waste in the tank, filters don't.

I use a hang on filter for carbon, phosphate and nitrate media. I also use a skimmer. I would also recommend if this is going to be a reef tank that you add to your flow. One mj 900 will not do the job. I use 2 hydor koralia's and 1 mj 1200 in a 55g. I like the koralia PH's because they produce a lot of wide range gentle flow apposed to the mj's which is a direct flow.

 

Hey acurnew, your not finished with the cycling process. your nitrates are still to high and thats what is feeding the brown algae. every system is different when it comes to cycling,but when your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are at zero, you should have passed your cycle. you temp should be between 77-79 deg. and if your planning to have a reef tank, your salt should be at 1.0024 to 1.0025. as for all the equipment you have, I've had sumps all my reefer life and not exped with those, sorry

 

Agree, you have yet to cycle. Nitrate causing algae.

Yellow tail damsels do have a bad rep. You are probably going to have to remove them because such a small tank. I have a pair in my tank that I really like (colorful, busy, little fish). Have had them since startup. They never bothered anything when first introduced until last couple of fish, which they chased around a bit, but quickly gave up.

I'd say leave them in until/if they start to cause problems, unless you want to reduce bio-load to replace with other fish.

 

I would like to thank you all for the help and advice.

Nemo79: I do not know if my ammonia did rise and then drop to 0 as I was not smart enough at the time to check.
< quote > I would ditch one of the filters, add a skimmer, and use 1 filter for only carbon. Do you have any media in the filter? Do you clean it? < end quote > I like the advice of dropping 1 filter and adding a skimmer. Any recommendation? Both filters have bio balls and carbon pads. I have not touched them since start up...

lunatik_69: Thanks, I will lower the temp a little and raise the salinity. I have a refractometer coming soon...

omard: Thanks.

Tangster: Thanks, I do not have test kits for Ca alk and mag levels but know I will be getting them soon... Any recommendation?

 

I would go with the salifert test kits........maybe a corallife skimmer....an overflow box wouldnt hurt either that way you can add a sump under your tank and let the water from the tank drain into the sump underneath where your skimmer can be housed....then all u have to do is add a pump to the sump and send that water back into the display tank which will cause the tank to overflow back into the sump. hopefully this isnt too confusing

 

I love the aqua c remora skimmers, very easy to use. They also have a nano skimmer available now. For test kits I have used aquarium pharmaceuticals and salifert. Aparently on other forums people have been having problems with salifert lately. Don't get the red sea, or hagen test kits, they are very inaccurate.