I have some Questions

[Dayna]

can anyone please help me..

1) Do you vaccum/syphon your sand while doing a water change?

2) What do I gotta do to get my mushrooms to start multiplying?

3) it seems like I cant get any algea growth in my aquarium. What would be the cause? and how would i start to get some?

4) to double the amount of coraline do I add calcium?

5) is there such thing as over skimming? should i have my skimmer running 24/7?

6) I have a film on top of my water, it kinda looks greasy and bubblely, what would this be?

Thanks so much

Oh and i have a 90 gallon with 60-70 pounds of live rock.
here is a pic http://members.shaw.ca/xonair/Aquarium/tank.jpg

[Dayna]

bump

[Dubbin1]

1) Do you vaccum/syphon your sand while doing a water change?
Some people do some dont. I do.

3) it seems like I cant get any algea growth in my aquarium. What would be the cause? and how would i start to get some?

4) to double the amount of coraline do I add calcium?
How long has the tank been setup?

5) is there such thing as over skimming? should i have my skimmer running 24/7?
No and Yes

BTW nice looking tank

[flycut]

1) I don't think anyone does anything to their sand, critters should clean that for you.

2) I think you have to frag the not shure on this one.

3) How old is your tank, algea takes a bit of time. What is you photoperiod and what kind of light do you use.

4) I think calcium helps coraline but I neved added any and have a good coraline growth. You don't seam to have any calcium demanding corals, water changes should keep you calcium up.

5) Don't know, don't use a skimmer, just a sump/fuge.

6) To help get rid of that film, point a power head upwards to agitate the surface, should get rid of that surface scum. The best is an overflow that constantly skims the top.

Nice tank, you might consider getting rid of those 3 stripe damsels, unless you realy want to keep them. Adding other fish will prove difficult with those guys settled in.

[Dayna]

The tank is about 9 months old now. Lights are on for about 10 hours a day and i'm using Phazer IV 4 compact lighting system

I had a pulsing zenia, but has since died. :(

I'll try point the powerhead upwards

And believe me I want those damsels OUT. I just dont know how. They are getting more and more aggresive and bite everytime you go into the tank.

[Yukon]

Hi Dayna. I'll answer some for ya:


Originally posted by Dayna
can anyone please help me..

1) Do you vaccum/syphon your sand while doing a water change?

Depends if it is a deep live sans bed. I have a 2 inch shallow, so I vac a few times a year.

2) What do I gotta do to get my mushrooms to start multiplying?

You can slice and frag. I've found that reg water changes make them multiply by themselves much faster. More info on fragging in mush forum. Mushroom gurus there.

3) it seems like I cant get any algea growth in my aquarium. What would be the cause? and how would i start to get some?

Reg water changes for me.

4) to double the amount of coraline do I add calcium?

5) is there such thing as over skimming? should i have my skimmer running 24/7?

Most run them all the time. I unplug mine for hours during the day while watching TV. Too loud for me.

6) I have a film on top of my water, it kinda looks greasy and bubblely, what would this be?

Powerhead pointing at surface will help. You'll always have some though. I like your tank. It looks new, and that is the best time in my opinion.

Thanks so much

Oh and i have a 90 gallon with 60-70 pounds of live rock.
here is a pic http://members.shaw.ca/xonair/Aquarium/tank.jpg

[flycut]

I got my damsels out with alot of elbow greese. I took out all my LR and half my water, then tried to net them. What hard work that was. But eventually I got them. Alot of people talk about traps and they seam to work. If you do a search you will probably find some. As far as algea, you could try adding 2 hours to your photoperiod, and make it 12hours long instead of 10. Do you have some actinic lighting in that system, algea seams to grow better with actinic suplement. Good luck.

[Dayna]

thanks for the info guys!

[chrismunn]

why in the world would you WANT algea to grow? tell me what your doing so i can get mine to stop growing! lol, i think you can vacume the sand, dont suck it up though. that would be kinda hard, i wouldnt recommend it, you might kick up a major dust storm and when it settled it would be all over your rocks, it might bother your fish, and it would get sucked up in your filter, but dont listen to me, ive only been a reefer for about a year now hehe

[chrismunn]

ps ... nice set up!

[Dayna]

well i dont want TONS of algea but i want some so make my reef a lottle more natural, also so my yellow tang has something to much on.

I do have 2 actinic compact bulbs. I want a more "natural reef" look to my tank but its not happening. :(

[Dayna]

does anyone know if using RO water helps create that natural reef look with the water perimeters it has?

[bertoni]

Using RO-DI water can reduce the risk of dumping contaminants from tap water into the tank, so I bought my own unit. Coralline needs calcium and alkalinity, as well as "food", to grow. This article might help you with the calcium part:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm