kuza

With a tank that young, why are you wanting to replace the sand and rock? What's wrong with what you have now?

ill second marc on that why?? whats wrong

You really need to give more info to get some good advise here. Are you just wanting to change the way your rock is sitting? Are you getting new rock? Adding it to the old... Why are you changing sand?

I have problem with my LR they have hair algae i keep removing it and it keeps growing like weeds one of my zoa colony have it and some of my zoa died on that colony, i check all my parameters they are all fine and i dont over feed my LS.

Last time I got hair algae it do to the air intake on my skimmer being clogged and I had no skimming for a week. So check your skimmer keep pulling it out and if it continues I would consider a uv sterilizer or a phosphate reactor. It is not necessary to get new rocks and sand

ok thanks man.

if algae is growing rapidly then test of the water will show good because the algae is using the nutrients as fast as they are added or made. Did you use ro/di water when you set the tank up and are you using it for top off. It is getting what it need from somewhere. What kind of filtration are you using and what maintenance consist of? The more specific you are the more likely to get the right advice

Originally Posted by DJ in WV

if algae is growing rapidly then test of the water will show good because the algae is using the nutrients as fast as they are added or made. Did you use ro/di water when you set the tank up and are you using it for top off. It is getting what it need from somewhere. What kind of filtration are you using and what maintenance consist of? The more specific you are the more likely to get the right advice

Im using NSW i have a 15g sump with BM-NAC3+ and 4 inch sand bead and some LR with chaeto.

This pics is taken on 1-29-11 (6 months old) before the GHA growth.

30g reef tank with 15g Sump.

I do Water Change 2x a week 5% and 20% a month

Light:
6x24w T5 (4x actinic, 12k and 6500k)

15g sump:
Skimmer Bubble-Magus BM-NAC3+
4 inch sand bead with LR and chaeto
1 peacock mantis shrimp & his room mate clarkii clownfish

Fish & Other:
1 lawnmower Blenny
1 fire gobby
1 cleaner shrimp
RIP>1 marble starfish (just died yesterday afternoon) sad.....
3 turbo snail
3 nassarius snail

Corals:
brain, cynarina, blasto, micromusa, Hammer coral,
chalice, zoas, plate, bubble coral, GSP, Xenia,
maxima clam, shrooms and acan.

supplement:
Kent Accel
Kent Chromaplex
Kent Zooplex
Reef Buffer

My tank:






FTS:

Your tank looks great. I don't think you should do anything to change it, not the rock nor the sand. Let's see a new picture of the tank with the GHA growth you are discussing.

What I don't see are any cows - where are all the snails that keep algae at bay? Add 5 Mexican Turbos, 25 Astrea, 15 Ceriths, 2 Emerald crabs and a Serpent Starfish and I bet it will get under control once again.

I agree with melev. Although I'm still on the fence on emerald crabs... they would be perfect for your hair algae problem. If someone local has a sea hare in their tank find out if you could borrow it for a week. That would take care of it as well.

I would run your sump light 24 hours and shorten your display tank photoperiod. Even if you're not overfeeding lighten them for several days. I would even suggest feeding some phytoplankton. That doesn't seem to make since... but you'll see an explosion in pods because their young will eat it and then when they grow up some more they'll start eating on algae. This will also ease your mind on underfeeding your tank, because if your inhabitants get truly hungry they can seek out some pods and get a meal. I have a ton of them and consider them a part of my clean up crew.

Beautiful tank. I hope it gets back to it's amazing state soon!

yea id add a clean up crew. Great looking tank id wouldnt tear it up. If you continue to have problems after a ATS is a cheap small footprint diy solution to consider