whhy is my rock growing green it is fiji

[kirtis]

it is suppossed to grow purple which it is doing alot, but i havenoticed in the last week, alot of green has started growing, also you guys tellme if this is too big of a filter to have on my 55 gallon tank http://www.petdiscounters.com/aquarium/filters/ml_emperor_400.html


lata

 

[Anonymous]

There's no mystery here. The purple coraline will look purple, the green coraline will look green. Most rock has a bit of both.
Jim

 

[kirtis]

oh ok , i just wondered cause the petstoer told me to never have green algae on my rocks

 

[Super Len]

That's a pet store for you

If the green is hard, you needn't worry; it's just green coralline, like Jim said. If it "fuzzy/furry," it could be the onset of a filamentous algae bloom. That's when the concern begins (albeit is a very common and retifiable problem).

 

[tazdevil]

Kirtis, if I remember correctly this is a brand new setup (less than 6mths old)? Welcome to your first hair algae bloom then

To a point, this is a sign of a healthy start up, but, make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Now, if it slime algae on the other hand,

, this is war. Coralline will turn white with lights off in evening, slime looks like,well,slime, and doesn't change color. Then you might try direct removal when doing a water change (suck it out), and be sure your not overfeeding/overstocked, or have high phosphates/nitrates.

 

[kirtis]

it looks just like the purple but it is green and it isn't dark and so much green it is like thin no it doesn' look like slime

 

[Anonymous]

That filter wouldn't be too big, but a bakpak or prism might be better.

Glenn

 

[kirtis]

what is a backpack or prism , oh that filter that emperor 400 i can get a brand new one for $36.00 is that a good price ?

 

[Anonymous]

It's a pretty good price. The bakpak2 or RedSea prism will run $80-100. But will do a much better job. Do a search on "protein skimmer" and see what you come up with.

Glenn

 

[SPC]

Kirtis, can you wipe this algae off the rock with your fingers, a toothbrush, or not at all?
Steve

 

[lionfish1]

as far as skimmers go try the PM Hot-1, www.precisionmarine.com I got mine at www.marinedepot.com , I have the same stuff lots of green coraline and some purple, my sandbed is full of life, tank is healthy as can be, 46gal up for 8 months, check all youre levels, if they are fine then youre tank is fine, cya.

 

[Mouse]

Kurtis, take that pice of S@*t filter and throw it through your LFS window. What are they doing selling you biological filtration for a tank with Live Rock. All that filter is going to do is create Nitrates which will turn your rocks green with algie. It is also debateable if marine tanks need mechanical filtration too, basically the only usefull way that filter can be used is to have somwhere to put chemical medea. I wouldn't feel bad about it though, i spent £300 on an Ehiem External Canister for mine. I now use it to drive the protien skimmer and house chemical filtration and a bit of floss which i change regularily, and the internal digi heater is nice but not as usefull as £300 worth of lights. But defenately get rid of those Bio wheels. Man you have to stop trusting your LFS, they are only salesman, and im afraid at 17 your an easy target. I have been keeping fish since i was 12, and i have to say i have probably bought more useless crap in my early days than things that actually provide benefit. See if you can get your money back, you can say that "the equipment they supplied you is unsuitable for the purpose for which it was sold" (legal speak). Inform them that they also sold you Live Rock and should have know that that was all the biological filtration you would need, and to use additional biological filtration ontop of this will only add to a Nitrate problem, and algie.

[ November 01, 2001: Message edited by: Mouse ]</p>

 

[kirtis]

i don't have corals, i am only gonna have fish

 

[Xphixer2]

Hi Kirtis, I had an Emperor 400 Filter System
on my 55+ tank for many years, so long in fact that it seized up. Too much sediment got into the impeller. I thought it was done for... until I cleaned it out and then it worked. I ran a 400 with my live rock for about 2 years. (then it froze up). I first bought it when I was doing fish only. I ran it with out floss, without carbon, and put broken pieces, crushed coral in the media chambers. all I can say is WOW. the life I had in the filter was amazing. I had all sorts of tube worms, annenomies, all sorts of pods.. I think it served as more of a refugium where pods could multiply. My live rock was great, corals great, tanks looked great.... then I went with a lit sump, culerpa, and no 400. I had a massive ph and alk shift due to being a lazy reefer

and now I have red slime.

anyway, the thing is a 400 would not be too much of a filter if you don't keep the prepackaged carbon in there too long. I think the floss/carbon would build up nitrate levels. just clean out the spray bars and once in a blue moon clean out the impeller area.
Rich

 

[Anonymous]

I agree w/Mouse to some degree. A powerfilter will rob your water column of a lot of the stuff that your corals would otherwise eat. They're handy for emergencies when you need to use carbon to help clean the water, but for a reef tank, you'd be much better served with a protein skimmer. The second problem with them is that while they are excellent biological filtration, they are waaaay to efficient at it for a reef tank --they will elevate your nitrate levels (mostly harmless for fish, bad for inverts).

If you're going to keep corals, let your LR do your biological filtration. I strongly recommend a protein skimmer (the best you can buy) over a powerfilter.

Green coralline is normal. My tank first grew a healthy crop of green coralline before the purple really got hold and took off.

Ty