Hi;

I understand your point. I just don't think I'm overfeeding, and nearly all
of the food I do feed goes into the fishes' mouths. I'm told that the
Remora HOB skimmer is a good one for a 55gal tank. But anyway ... maybe I
should try a nitrate remover?

"Charlie Spitzer" wrote in message
...
just because your nitrates are 0 doesn't mean that you're not providing
them. the mat is uptaking them, usually from the food you're feeding, and
you export it out of the tank by harvesting the algae. the algae uptakes
it
amazingly quickly, so i'd expect that not much be evident in tests.

regards,
charlie
cave creek, az

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
If your salinity and temperature match (or is within 1 degree
Fahrenheit),
water changes shouldn't stress the tank's inhabitants too much. How
often
are
you estimating?

Marc


Dave wrote:

Hi Marc;

Yes, but as I said before, I'm concerned that increasing the frequency
of my
water changes will stress the fish. What do you think ... should this
be a
concern?

And as I said before, I'm using RO/DI, from a Spectrapure unit.

- thanks again;
Dave

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
If you prefer to just vacuum it out and replace it with freshly made
up
sal****er, that is a better alternative, because you are sure to
avoid
adding
any spores into your tank. Hopefully you are using RO/DI?

Marc


Dave wrote:

Hi Marc;

That was the idea with the fine mesh bag I mentioned, but it seems
to me
I
read somewhere that unless an extremely fine filter was used,
algae
cells
will be put back into the water, in suspension, and the problem
will
get
worse. My impression was that something like ordinary filter
floss/cotton
batting/etc. wouldn't be sufficient. Maybe this isn't correct
.....

thanks;

- dave

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
You can set up a bucket in front of the tank, and take a
container
with
holes in
the base. Fill it up with cotton batting, and use your pump
method to
suck out
all you want. The batting will trap all the filth, and you can
safely
add
the
water back to your tank.

Marc


Dave wrote:

Hi folks;

I've had my marine tank set up for about six months. 55gal,
Remora
HOB
skimmer, 67 lbs live rock, 260w lighting (50/50 blue
actinic/10000K),
two
MaxiJet 1200 powerheads, two inch aragonite reef sand layer.
One
sailfin
tang, one maroon clownfish, one engineer goby, two bubbletip
anemones
(was
one anemone until it split last week). Five turbo snails and
a
red-legged
hermit crab. 5% water changes with RO/DI water (Spectrapure
MPDI-25)
once a
week. Temp 76-79F, pH 7.9-8.2, s.g. 1.025. No detectable
phosphates, 1
ppm
nitrate (Salifert kits). I've been using the Spectrapure unit
for
about
two
months; before that I was using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
Tap
Water
Filter.

Over the last month or so I've had real troubles with derbesia
algae. I
suction as much as I can out with my water changes, but it
just
comes
back.
It's growing along the back glass and is covering at least 80%
of
the
live
rock surface. Now it appears to be growing in places on the
sand.

My live rock is anchored down with PVC piping and ties, so I'd
rather
not
take it out to scrub it by hand. What course of action should
I
follow
to
get rid of the derbesia?

I've been thinking about using a waterpump and suctioning the
water
through
a fine mesh media bag and back into the tank, in order to trap
the
algae
in
the bag and remove it, but have been told that small amounts
of
the
algae
will get back into the tank in the form of smaller particles
(?),
making
the
situation worse.

I've also considered increasing the frequency of my water
changes,
suctioning out the algae as I've doing during my weekly water
changes,
but
am concerned about stressing the fish.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

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--
Personal Page:
http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com



--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com