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Couple of Marine Questions

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unstable
Post subject: Couple of Marine Questions
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 10:20 pm
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Hey folks,

It's been awhile since I've posted...which I guess is a good thing because my tank has made it past the 6 month mark with no fish casualties...Lots of thanks to everyone here who has helped me make it this far.

I'm sure there are plenty of other people who have come and gone so I'll recap my setup before I get into my questions
Quote:
-35 Gallon Salt
-Live Sand & Live Rock..don't know how much.
-Fluval 305 Filter
-Red Sea Protein Skimmer
-Orbit Compact Flourescent Lighting..think it's 100 watt.

livestock
-2 Clowns
-1 Blue Damsel
-1 "Convict" Damsel
-1 Algea Blenny
-1 Goby

-1 Hermit crab
-1 Spider Crab
-1 sand sifting starfish
-some snails
question 1
How often should it be necessary to scrape the algae off of the inside of the tank? I've been doing either weekly or bi-weekly changes of about 5 gallons of water and sometimes it seems like the algea accumlates pretty quickly. I suspect I may have an imbalance of some sort causing it.

note: over time I've grown a little complascent with taking the levels on the tank because whenever I do, everything seems to be pretty well in-check...so no further data at the moment

question 2
How do mushrooms propogate? I purchased a live rock that came with this very short and small mushroom that was rather purple. Over time it grew to have quite an impressive cap...the stem didn't seem to get very large. The mushroom was actually quite short.

Then recently, it appeared that another very small mushroom was growing next to it. Not long after, the large impressive mushroom shrunk to a very small size and detached itself from the rock. I then noticed another small mushroom in its place. I figured the large mushroom was dead...the cap floated around on the bottom of the tank for a day and then it seems like it found a new home. I *think* it's still alive in its new home as it doesn't look shriveled up...but I don't really know...any insight on this would be cool.

I think that's about it for a moment. Everything is going pretty well. I've got a good amount of coralline algea throughout the tank which is cool. There was one very porous rock that I purchased off of a shelf at PetCo or something and that thing is riddled with coralline algea now too. I think the tank looks pretty great, but I'm not an expert...maybe I'll shoot some pictures of it for everyone to see and comment on whether it's good/bad/ugly.

thanks.


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Admin
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 1:34 pm
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Posts: 11354
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Location: Millis MA
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question 1
How often should it be necessary to scrape the algae off of the inside of the tank? whenever you want to see inside the tank
I've been doing either weekly or bi-weekly changes of about 5 gallons of water and sometimes it seems like the algea accumlates pretty quickly. I suspect I may have an imbalance of some sort causing it.
no.. it is a good thing... it is normal to get light brown diatom algae often... just wipe it down, let it go into the water, corals eat it!

note: over time I've grown a little complascent with taking the levels on the tank because whenever I do, everything seems to be pretty well in-check...so no further data at the moment
me too
but it is a good idea to at least check salinity with your hydrometer once a week...
when the tank is new...say the first 3 months, I would check EVERYTHING twice a week


question 2
How do mushrooms propogate? I purchased a live rock that came with this very short and small mushroom that was rather purple. Over time it grew to have quite an impressive cap...the stem didn't seem to get very large. The mushroom was actually quite short.
sounds normal, they just seem to grow on their own...
we even found CLEAR mushrooms once ... growing in a place in the tank that was always in a shadow

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Tyrsdottir
Post subject: Re: Couple of Marine Questions
Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:17 pm
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Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 1:09 pm
Location: Kingston, MA
 
unstable wrote:
Hey folks,

It's been awhile since I've posted...which I guess is a good thing because my tank has made it past the 6 month mark with no fish casualties...Lots of thanks to everyone here who has helped me make it this far.

I'm sure there are plenty of other people who have come and gone so I'll recap my setup before I get into my questions


-35 Gallon Salt
-Live Sand & Live Rock..don't know how much.
-Fluval 305 Filter
-Red Sea Protein Skimmer
-Orbit Compact Flourescent Lighting..think it's 100 watt.

livestock
-2 Clowns
-1 Blue Damsel
-1 "Convict" Damsel
-1 Algea Blenny
-1 Goby

-1 Hermit crab
-1 Spider Crab
-1 sand sifting starfish
-some snails
Personally, I think you should up your Clean Up Crew. The recommendation I most commonly hear is, between hermits and snails, about one critter per gallon.


question 1
How often should it be necessary to scrape the algae off of the inside of the tank? I've been doing either weekly or bi-weekly changes of about 5 gallons of water and sometimes it seems like the algea accumlates pretty quickly.

I'm kinda picky about algae on my glass, so I scrape with the magnet every day, and the razor once a week.

I suspect I may have an imbalance of some sort causing it.

I think if there was an imbalance, you'd be seeing hair algae and slime algae everywhere. If it was an imbalance, it would either be nitrates or phosphates. Always good to have test kits for this stuff around.


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