Thinking of downgrading

There is blinds in the back.

 

The fish will be more comfortable with more rock and a taller stack.

Here is my 72 gallon.

 

Guess I might go to my wholesaler and buy some live rock and fish $2 per lbs of live rock, can't beat that. Wouldn't more rock, mean less swimming space?.

 

now thats a nice balance, nice hardscape

 

Maybe im not understanding, are you saying the sunlight is causing the algae?

 

Yes but... You want to stack the rock with plenty of caves, arches, hiding spots, so you fish can swim through them. You can use acrylic rods inserted into your rock, or use an epoxy cement to hold the rock together to get nice designs without the fear of the entire rock wall falling and breaking through the front glass (seen it happen). If you just throw the rock on top of each other and stack it like your laying brick and mortar (this is what i call a boring "wall" of rock) then you will have dead spots.

 

Of course, but they have more grazing area and more places to hide which allows them to come out more as it is easier to get to a hiding spot when they feel they are in danger.

Thanks Blue Falcon!

 

Well that is what I believe is the cause of the problem. Maybe it's my ro/di water, I haven't change the filter in 7-8 months. I make 1 gallon of water every 3 days and 30 gallons every month. Forgot to buy a TDS meter. It's can't be my metal halides, they are only a month old. I cleaned my canister filter. I tested my water for the 3 basics(nitrates,nitrite,ammonia) but not the other 3(phos, calc, etc). You see in my pic. My tank is in front of a window with closed curtains, but to the left there is a 2 large windows and a glass door in the middle.

 

does algae grow faster where the sunlight hits it? What does your clean up crew consist of? How often do you do water changes? Do you have a refugium?

*TDS meters are cheap, $15 maybe. I have had the same filters on my RO unit for the past year and read 1TDS. I wont change them until I read 10TDS. Of course, I dont really use much RO water since I havnt done a water change in about a year, but thats just how I run MY system, ecollogically balanced with a nice refugium and dose trace elements.

 

I can't tell, It's not hair algae, it's that green algae you see on the walls. Just 3 turbo snails atm. Once a month, sometimes when I'm in a good mood, once every 2 weeks. 25-30g every month. No. I'm going to buy BRS 5 stage replacement filter and a inline TDS meter.