trying berlin system

[FOREIGNER]

waiting for a Tunze 9010 from marine Depot, bare bottom tank, plenty of circulation,,,how much live rock would i need??55 gal

[Travis L. Stevens]

The more the merrier, especially in a bare bottom setup.

[FOREIGNER]

do you think that since I only have about 70 lbs on tht 55 w/o substrate that is causing algae issues?

[Travis L. Stevens]

It could be a variety of things causing algae; overfeeding, excess nutrients, too heavy of a bioload, improper biological filtration, etc. What are your current water parameters?

[FOREIGNER]

ok...i have 1 purple tang, i clown fish, 1 pajama cardinal, 1 firefish, and 1 scooter blenny. I fee very sparingly, every other day...

[Travis L. Stevens]

Not too bad for a 55g. The Purple Tang is a little over the top in my opinion, but to each is own. What filtration methods do you currently have on the tank and what are your water parameters?

[rustybucket145]

70lbs in a 55 is plenty. Look at other causes for your algae. Do you use tap water? How well is your skimmer performing? Have you considered a fuge? I feel that for algae control a fuge is the best bang for your buck (next to a skimmer).

[FOREIGNER]

well, right now i have a prizm skimmer, i apologize, it was the first skimmer i bought and i recently found out how worthless they are, it overflows back into tank on occasion but i didn't know any better instead trusted the LFS owner,,however upon advise from this web site i purchased a TUNZE 9010 which was expensive but i hear good things about them. i have an aquaclear 500 with carbon and phosphate sponge which i am starting to clean weekly but had not previously
i am purchasing a test kit today, which one should i get??
i use an aquarium pharmaceuticals DI unit until it changes color
i have several LPS and softies and star polyps, everything is very healthy and coral growth is actually good. have not lost a fish or coral in about 2 years...just the darn algae and a little cyano but i syphon it out...sorry for the long post

[FOREIGNER]

TUNZE is on back order and not received yet by the way. i have 2 koralia #3's and also 2 penguin poweheads so a good bit of flow
i would love to have a fuge but i doubt i have enough room on my stand to have one

[rustybucket145]

Have you considered a Hang on Back fuge?

[FOREIGNER]

how much room do those take? i would be interested i have a very nice growth of Caulerpa Racimosa from a little twig that came in a piece of live rock, it has grown to 10 times the size

[rustybucket145]

They come in many different sizes. If you can prune the caulpera it will benefit the tank in the way of nutrient export much the way a fuge does. But it will not provide the pod breeding grounds like a fuge does.

[FOREIGNER]

how about that purple tang? too much for a 55 gal?? i have had him fr about 3 1/2 years and i am sort of attached to it...what else could i get as hardy as him but not as large

[FOREIGNER]

what do you mean prune the caulerpa??

[rustybucket145]

I just copied this from a post I made earlier but I believe it explains your question. It relates to a fuge but if you have macro growing in your tank you can accomplish the same thing.


The whole point of the fuge is to export nutrients through the absorbtion of nutrients and removal of plant matter. Let me try to break this down for you.....

Nutrients enter through the food you feed.

Fish eat food and process nutrients.

Nutrients leave fish via poop-shoot

Nutrients float around in water column until absorbed by algae or exported via skimmer.

When the algae (or plant) absorbs the nutrients it is 'holding' it for you.

When your tang eats the algae (which is not bad) you are simply re-introducing the same nutrients back into the cycle.

So what to do???

Here's what I, and most people with fuges do. I have chaeto in my fuge (which is very similar to any other type of algae for this situation). I remove well over a gallon of chaeto from my system per month. I prune it from the size of a basketball down to the size of a baseball. It will be back the size of a basketball within a very short time.

When you remove these cuttings, think of it as emptying a big black cup of skimmate. By removing them you are exporting a ton of nutrients that would otherwise be re-introduced into your system via tang-poop or simply by dying and decaying.

Exporting the nutrients this way will lower your nitrates, phosphates and contribute to the overall quality of your water. I promise from my experience, the more you cut it back the faster it grows.

[FOREIGNER]

i will try this, with the older growth first right? thanks