10 gallon tank

[evil4g63]

I've been running this tank for about a month. It all started good with nothing in there but corals but I've added a lawnmower and a chromis and now it starting to grow hair algae. Is it because the blennie, I'm assuming it is. I have a skilter 250 turned into a refugium and a cascade filter. Lps, and softies and do 20% water changes weekly. Any advice would be good.

[BradsOcean]

lawnmowers will eat the hair algae. Keep up the water changes and don't overfeed. What are your phosphates at?

[evil4g63]

Haven't test it but I use ro/di water so I assume there aren't any in the make up water. The thing that I'm seeing is that I a have a lot of fish waste and I believe it's from the blennie. I don't feed the tank because the chromis won't even eat brine shrimp. Also in the fuge I've noticed some brown algae growing on the rocks and on the caulerpa itself, is that supposed to happen?

[nona]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14241291#post14241291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by evil4g63
Haven't test it but I use ro/di water so I assume there aren't any in the make up water. The thing that I'm seeing is that I a have a lot of fish waste and I believe it's from the blennie. I don't feed the tank because the chromis won't even eat brine shrimp. Also in the fuge I've noticed some brown algae growing on the rocks and on the caulerpa itself, is that supposed to happen?

Sounds like you have a very young set up. I assume the brown algaes are diatoms, which could be a healthy sign of the end of the nitrogen cycle. I think you add fishes to early. Specially the lawnmower blennie. They can be very hardy in a well established 40+ tank IMO. I'd add cleaner crew first. Some hardy hermits, and some astrea snails. Your refugium might be overloaded with caulerpa. Try to put only a small chunk in there and let it grow, and small rocks are also better than big ones. my $0.02

[decent37]

yea its something people do when they are new to the hobby you should let the tank cycle it takes a while and the lawnmower blenny will have a very hard time in such a small tank. so just do water tests alot for the next couple of weeks and I would do what nona says too good luck

[evil4g63]

the tank didnt took long to cycle because i used live rock another tank i have that's been running for 2 years, i used live sand and got water from a beach nearby. i tested everything before adding anything and it showed 0 nitrates 8.5dkh 420ppm calcium ammonia 0 nitrite 0 and ph 8.2. magnesium is around 1250-1300. all parameters showed ok so i added corals first with no problem. but it started lokking like this about a week after adding the lawnmower. that's why i was asking. i don't think i a have done anything wrong until now so why the hair algae. by the way the caulerpa doesn't look to good. should i just switch to chaeto?

[davenia7]

I love chaeto...
What's your light spectrum?? Wattage?? Age of bulbs??

[evil4g63]

i have 65 watt 50/50 power compact. new. i was thinking of getting t5's but my hammer, colt, ricordea, and zoas are opening so huge that i think i will keep usin power compacts. i don't plan on having sps with this tank. just lps and softies.

[evil4g63]

algae is under control. removed lawnmower and i'm doing 30% water changes weekly now to make it more interesting. I added a ???? wrasse, i was told it's a neon wrasse but really no clue and a clown goby. I was wondering, what do clown gobies eat? because my wrasse is eating brine shrimp but the chromis and the goby aren't eating anything. also for anyone thinking it's to many fish ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ph 8.2, calcium 400, alk 8dkh fighting to get to 9 and magnesium 1350, all tested yesterday. i haven't had to clean the front glass for a week and still don't have to. i think the fuge finally kicked in. also changed to a current 2*40watt light. much better!!! can anyone help me get pics here so i can show the progress. it always tells me the file is to big.