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Hey All,

I have a 75 gal. FWLR tank that is in some need of inspiration (well me not the tank...).

It's been running for several years now and the tank and I have been through maaaaany adventures (ich, not enough algae, lots of algae, encrusting calcareous algae, all kinds of different inhabitants, etc.)

Through it all thre have been two mainstays that have survived the 10 years I've been playing with saltwater.

These two included a Humbug Damsel and a chocolate chip sea star.

I have had the Damsel since the beginning, when I started with a 20 gal tank and subsequently moved into a 55 and 75 gal tank. The sea star has been around almost as long, since I remember getting him when I had the 20 gal.

Here's what makes the tank go...

1 Prizm Deluxe Protein Skimmer
1 BakPak 2R+ Protein Skimmer
50 pounds of LR

76*F
Dual Satellite Compact Flourescent 48" (260 watts; Daylight & Dual Actinic bulbs)
1.021 ppt

I tried to get some pictures added to this post but to no such luck.

I'm currently battling a lot of green hair algae and some red algae in the tank. I dont have any snails and only a few hermits and emerald mithrax crabs, but they cant seem to keep up with the algal growth.

I'm tentative to get more snails because they just seem to turn into sea star treats...

So...suggestions?

What could be some livestock solutions?
Do I need additional filtration?
More skimming power?

well
you have enough light for corals

but usually we don't put corals with that type of star fish
(maybe leathers and mushrooms)

possibly the star is eating the snails
but you need snails to clean the algae

that fish is probably aggressive and territorial

so
what I would do
is just lose the star and the damsel
and repopulate
with corals and scavengers and new more mellow fish

hoping to get in many of that type of thing this coming thursday

=( I know...

But I can't just "lose" the damsel and the sea star...

then buy an algae scraper
and a less intense light

my two cents (and I don't know what brands Ned has so I'm going to try to be generic where possible)

I would add a foxface rabbit fish and more flow - a hydor korelia 4 or similar high flow gentle powerhead - anything that pushes 1200gph or more in a broad gentle flow. (the "maxijet mods" started this trend of high flow "sideways" powerheads mounting "boat propeller" style blades, but the Hydors are probably the easiest and most dependable commercial model)

(rabbitfish will chow most hair algae and hair algae hates flow)

Then look at nutrient export - hair algae means available phosphate and nitrate. You may be adding phosphate with every water change if your using tap water rather than ro or rodi water.
(flake food is another source of phosphate, especially compared to frozen)

Maybe add a phospate remover (I prefer the ferric oxide style ones to the aluminum based ones - brown ones over white ones basically) - I've used the Julian Sprung brand in a phosban reactor (basically an empty "fluidized bed" filter designed/marketed for ferric oxide phoshpate removers)
or a refugium full of fast growing macro algae - cheato etc - that gets harvested every week or two.

What are you using for substrate ? sand or crushed coral ?
How's your nitrates ?
Oh - how's your alk ? low alkalinity and algae go hand in hand...

I agree with Ned about your lighting - I usually don't run that much light unless I'm keeping corals, since it just begs for algae. I would consider running only half of your bulbs (or if you have 2 actinic and 2 daylight, maybe buy 2 50/50 bulbs the next time you need bulbs and just run those).

However - in a FOWLR, I find this manageable since there are no corals to coddle.
Worst case - you setup a few buckets - a small (5g) one of freshwater, small one (5g) of salt, and a big barrel of saltwater.
Grab a brand new toothbrush and a larger plastic scrub brush (also brand new).
take each rock out of your tank, scrub it like mad, dunk in freshwater, scrub more, dunk again in fw, repeat until rock looks clean.
Then dunk in sw bucket. then place in sw barrel (leave room in barrel for all your rock).
repeat for each rock. Change fw very frequently. sw shouldn't need much changing. after all rocks are scrubed - take a look at the tank.
Is there alot of detritus ?
detritus grows algae. get rid of as much detritus as possible.
(gravel vac, water change, micron cartridge on powerhead (hagen quick filter works well and I know I've seen those at Neds ! )


After a few hours and some very dry hands - you'll have a tank back at square one. Now you just need to keep it from happening again (which is where the stuff I mentioned way up top comes in)

actually yes

the foxface works with most fish
(probably even a mature damsel)
because fish seem to instictively know
they can't mess with a foxface (they are poisonous)

foxface will eat many nuisance algaes

your humbug damsel might ignore a large algae blenny also

and a sea urchine would be fine also

we are hoping to get
3 types of foxfaces,
algae blennys,
and red tuxedo urchuns,
on Thursday

I have 2 large foxfaces in stock

(and/or just turn the light off)

thanks for the info!

I have a mix of crushed coral and sand for my substrate.

My nitrates are 0
Alkalinity ~300
(Im using a Jungle Quick Dip Test kit, so I don't know how accurate these numbers are)

If I were to scrub and rinse the live rock using freshwater, do I risk killing off beneficial organisms within the rock?

Would I then run the risk of an ammonia spike?

I would love to add a foxface...but I dont have a quarantine tank set up right now...

I had a purple urchin a couple of weeks ago. And then then the chocolate chip sea star devoured him...

I have 2 power heads in the tank right now, but I'm not sure their gph. I took them from older tanks I had, so maybe I could upgrade.

I just wanted to say thank you for anyone who has taken the time to help me out.

If I were to scrub and rinse the live rock using freshwater, do I risk killing off beneficial organisms within the rock?
YES >>>> DO NOT PUT YOUR LIVE ROCK IN FRESHWATER
If you want to scrub it...
do so in SALTWATER ONLY !

Would I then run the risk of an ammonia spike?
YES

I would love to add a foxface...but I dont have a quarantine tank set up right now...
we're expecting about a dozen tomorrow
so they won't sell out
you can see how ours do for a couple weeks

I had a purple urchin a couple of weeks ago. And then then the chocolate chip sea star devoured him...
wow >>>> never heard of that

I have 2 power heads in the tank right now, but I'm not sure their gph. I took them from older tanks I had, so maybe I could upgrade.
we can always give you a special on a stronger power head