A Few Questions

[tazzmanian123]

Ok, I have made many mistakes & have invested more cash because of these shortcommings on my tank. Its been hard lessons, but I will still proceed forward to accomplish my goal of a beautifull reef tank. With that being said, have mainly used this forum for all of my reef tank knowledge. Thanks in advance for all the continuing support.

My 46g bow has been up since march of 2007. I have had numerous issues that have been or are being dealt with still.

Water parameters:
sg 1.025, ph 8.2, am 0, no2 0, no3 0, mg 1140ppm, kh 60ppm according to hagen master test kit. ca 430 by salifert.

I have a few snails & crabs, & 1 peppermint shrimp whom I havent seen in 3 days, but have seen 2 translucent molts on ph's.

I have been fighting hair & bubble algae almost as long as tank has been up.

I have been reluctant to purchase any fish/coral till these issues get resolved.

After researching some more here, I learned something again today. Sorry for noobish mistake, but am still a reef noob.

Thought I was doing proper maintenance to tank. Have an ato with ro/di, do 10% water changes once a week, check water parameters every time, have a sump/fuge, & now a quality skimmer. Clean glass/ph's.........here it comes.......Never have vacuumed sand bed. Never knew I had to vacuum bed.

Ok, with that said....(Goes and hides in corner).....Do you all think I have to much LR....about 80 to 90lbs in tank?
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/100_0753.jpg

2nd question about fuge. The fuge portion of my sump has sand/LR rubble & Chaeto. The Chaeto doesnt look real good, but is not real bad either. It covers the top area of fuge, & lets no light to sand/rubble underneath it. Also, just noticed detrius build up all over underneath. Should I take sand/rubble out?
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/100_0736.jpg

I would think there would be more coraline in tank by now, but alas there is very little on tank, & some seems to be fading on LR.

Here's a few pix of algae im fighting:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/100_0745.jpg
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/100_0744.jpg
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/tankpix003.jpg
Bubble algae...best pix can get with my camera.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/100_0740.jpg
Unknown....
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa187/Tazzmanian123/100_0741.jpg

Any help is greatly appreciated, & thanks for taking a look.
Also need to know what everyone uses to check alkalinity with?
Judging my water parameters, I see there are some things being out of wack. Have Tech M-mg, but really do not know where to start to get chemistry back in shape.

Dose mg to get it back to acceptable level, then work on ca/kh?

Thanks again for help all.

[kraze3]

I dont think you have too much LR. I believe that you cant have too much LR as long as there is room for fish to swim etc. I also recommend you DONT vaccuum your sandbed. Unless you are just trying to get a layer of algae off the top. Getting some nassarius snails will help keep your sandbed aerated and nice and clean.

As far as your fuge/sump. I would leave the LR in there. Try to siphon out whatever algae you can for now. My cheato is clumped into a ball rather than spread out to block all the light.

I cant see well from the first bubble algae pic but too me it doesnt look like bubble algae. If you do in fact have bubble I would try an emerald crab or two to rid the tank of it. They are reefsafe so you dont have to wrry about them in the future. The last pic of algae is Neomeris annulata. Its not really as much of a nusiance as other algaes and its very bright. I had a little bit for a while and im pretty sure my mexican turbo mowed it down. Either that or he ripped it out and away it went.

Check here for some visual pics for IDs
http://melevsreef.com/id/

[taillonjohn]

wow, you need some reef experts to help, I have a hard time understanding how all the params work and fit together.

The only thing I can say is dont vacuum your sand. Dont know where you saw that, but its not correct to vacuum the sand.

[TheOtherReefer]

If patience is a strong point of yours I would recommend to cook your rocks to remove ALL ugly algae. Since you have no corals or fish you could run the tank without lights and not hurt anything. The tank will have to be covered and in total darkness, sump too. The chaeto will have to be remved also because the sump has to run dark. This process can take up to 2 months but you will NEVER see unwanted algae ever again. The process is a bit more involved, but with a few rinse buckets you should be fine. Do a search early for Cokking Live Rock and there will be a few threads that will be helpful. Cheers!!

[NirvanaFan]

I would start by removing as much of the hair and bubble algae as possible. Personally, I would leave that last algae (I like the look of it, and it's not a PITA). Next I would cut your chaeto in half and give/sell half of it. This will allow what you have left to get lots of light and grow. I would also try to get rid of all the bad algaes in your sump.

If you can sell your chaeto, I would buy some more snails to beef up your clean up crew.

[cur10u5g30rg3]

I was going to recommend the same thing, thin out your chaeto and add a phosban reactor. You could possible look into the type of salt you are using for a possible source of phosphates. Sometime that fuels the algae.
Add a handful of snail to help control your algae is another good option.

[tazzmanian123]

Thanks for responses. I have between 8-15 snails more or less doing a fine job at what they can handle.
Trochus,cerith, & nassarius.

Got a young emerald crab a little over a week ago, & he hasnt stopped grazing since introduced into tank.

Also have between 4-7 blue legged hermit crabs w/ extra empty shells in tank.

Last tank inhabitants are a peppermint shrimp, & 2 burrowing crabs....havent seen these for 4 days now, but havent got an ammonia spike yet either. So i assume they are still alive.

Have had a phosphate reactor installed for a week now with no noticeable results.