| i have a thick alge growth on my live rock. i use ro water, prot.skimmers all values check out, the tangs or bleeny wont touch it , its a dense thick mat well attached to the rock any idea of gow to get rid of it. also anything that eats bristtle worms |
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The cause is most likely a high level of phosphates
and silicates in your tank. Check your tank with a
reliable phosphate test kit. For removal of
phosphates and silicates we recommend running a
phosphate remove like Phosban or Phosguard in
fine mesh bags in your sump according to
manufacturers instructions or better yet in a
fluidized reactor like a Phosban Reactor. As for
something that eat bristle worms try adding a
wrasse to your tank some wrasses are known to eat
bristleworms like the secretive wrasse or the
eightline wrasse. As with all fish research to make
sure they are compatible with your tank and its
inhabitants.
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| I am wondering why my nearly 1 year old reef tank still hasn't established pink or purple algae. I use RO water, and just started changing the water every 2 weeks rather than every month. It is a 55 gal. tank with about 50 lbs. of live rock with a 3" sand bed. I use a Kalkwasser solution for make up water. I think that I need more live rock, rougly 30 lbs or so, but am unsure why the algae hasn't grown or wether my make up water so be plain RO and just add liquid Calcium instead. What do you use on you main display tank and what would you recommend? |
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It is possible that your tank has a high level of
phosphates and silicates which can inhibit
calcification. Since corralline algae is calcium based,
anything that inhibits calcification will limit the
amount of corralline algae you see in the tank. This
is also affecting the growth of your corals.
Phosphates
and Silicates will also promote algae growth. We
suggest running some phosphate remover in your
sump in fine mesh bags. There are number of
phosphate removers on the market, we carry
Phosban and Phosguard and recommend both. We
also feel that running your phosphate remover
through a fluidized reactor like a Phosban Reactor
is most efficient.
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| I was wondering if the blue tort is available? how much it is and how much for shipping here in the bay area. |
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The Oregon Blue
Tort is one of our UCE (Upscales Collector Edition)
Corals, the availability of this coral is limited
and varies from week to week. It is best to call
ahead to see if we have any frags available. The Oregon Blue Tort is listed
at $50 / frag. Ordering and
Shipping Info can be located here. |
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| I have a 90 gallon set up that is coverd with aptaisa I recently purchased a copperband butterfly aprox. 3.5 inches I was told that this will help my problem I now have the fish about 2 weeks he looks as though he is doing fine but I dont see any improvement in the aptasia. Dose it take more time for it to start eating them. thanks in advance |
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Sometimes Copper Banded Butterfly (CBB) Fish will
take some time to adapt to their new surrounds and
wont eat right away. Keep an eye on the fish to
make sure that it is eating and its health isnt
declining. As for the aiptasia, it is not a given that a
CBB will eat aiptasia, some do and some dont. It
just depends. We have also had great success with
peppermint shrimp eat aiptasia. If these do not help
with your aiptasia problem we also highly
recommend using a product called Joe's Juice to kill
these pests. Its a white paste that is injected into
the anemone's mouth, they eat this paste and then
die. This is a product we try to always have in stock.
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| Hi I live in Oregon City, I was wondering if you carried star polyps, how big and how much. Thanks for your time Chris |
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We generally stock all sorts of Soft Corals, LPS and
SPS, It is best to check out the different sections of
this website for pictures of what we are carrying,
some of the more common and less rare or unusual
items may not be shown but you can always try
calling
us for availability and details about corals we may
have in stock. If we don't have something in stock
we will always try to get some specimens in for you.
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| How many hours a day should my lights be on? I have a 55 gal. saltwater tank with 4 x 110W VHOs and one Power Compact 96W Actinic. PLEASE REPLY, THANK YOU, TONY. |
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Generally you want to have
your Metal Halides on for between 8-10 hours a
day, with a period of dusk and dawn simulation for
about an hour before and after with only your
actinic lighting on, may it be VHO, PC or NO
Flourescents. If you dont have metal halide lighting
you can achieve the same effect by turning on your
actinics first for the dawn setting then turning on
your daylight lighting and turning them off in
reverse to create dusk. |
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I come to your store all the
time, and always
wonder what maintenance you do on your show
tanks. The water always seems to be so crystal clear
and no algae present anywhere. I use a 5 stage RO
unit for top-off and 10 gal water changes every 2
weeks on my 125 gal tank. The filters for my RO
unit are only a few months old, so I know my water
supply is fine. But my water isn't as clear(very small
particles floating around) and I have some algae on
the tank walls. All my tests show fine conditions,
and my bulbs are new. My filtration is all I can think
of. I have an overflow that empties onto a filter pad,
and an in-sump berlin classic turbo for skimming.
Thanks for your help! |
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Our display tanks all basically
run on a philosophy
of keeping the tank low in nutrients. The tanks are
all on stand alone systems so they are not tied
together and completely independent. The
skimmers are rated larger than the size of the tank
its running on. The overflows have fine floss filter
pads for trapping detritus and excess food before it
flows to the sump. In the sump there is also
another section of fine floss filter pad for catching
anything else. The water is then run past some fine
mesh bags with carbon (if mesh bags are not use
we recommend and use the carbon through a small
fluidized reactor)
for removing yellowing agents, heavy metals, and
odors. Next we run a small phosphate reactor for
removing silicates and phosphate (which inhibit
calcification, and therefore coral growth and also
promotes algae growth.). There the water is run
through the skimmer which utilizes a Ozone
generator to help oxidize dissolved organics and to
clarify the water. And
finally as the water is returned to the tank the
return pumps have elbows on the intakes and the
intakes are placed so that they do not pull in any
bubbles from the sump to keep micro bubbles from
entering the display tank. |
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| I am having a problem with slime algae I think? Do you have any suggestions on how to remedy the problem. Or what may be the source? |
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Slime Algae is actually a bacteria (cyanobacteria)
that is airborne and can enter your tank from
anywhere, generally a healthy reef will not allow it
to grow but an unhealthy reef can provide a home
for this bacteria to reproduce and get out of
control, we usually see the cause as insufficient
water flow and detritus buildup. Most of the time it
can be removed by simply siphoning it out of the
tank while scrubbing on any surface to which it
might be attached. Increasing water flow in that
area can help prevent it from coming back and
removing detritus, Detritus buildup is an issue with
overfeeding and insufficient cleaning. Reduce
feedings so that excess food is not settling to the
bottom of the tank and siphoning detritus out of
the tank on a regular basis, while also vacuuming
the sand regularly will also help since detritus can
buildup in the sand. For the more stubborn cases
we do carry a couple different medications/
chemicals that are effective in removing the
existing cyanobacteria from the tank, however
without proper husbandry practices it can return.
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| I would like to start a saltwater fish aquarium in my home. I've done a lot of reading and am ready to begin. Can you guys help with getting me set up? I'm a little confused as to the best filtration system to use, for example. And I'm leaning towards an all-glass, rectangular aquarium. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks. Tracy |
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You are more than welcome to stop in with us and
we can discuss design options that will suit your
home. We do recommend acrylic tanks because
they are highly customizable and are lightweight
and have no chance of leaking since the seams of
the tank are welded together. Filtration is variable
depending on the style of tank you want to have.
SPS corals require a different type of setup and
filtration versus soft corals, HIgh light, high
skimming are a general philosophy for SPS while
soft corals like to have a higher nutrient tank and
some people prefer not to use a skimmer on those
type of tanks. We recommend you spend some time
looking at a few different setups to get an idea of
what you envision your tank looking like in the end
and we with walk you through the right equipment
the first time. |
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| Hello I just wrote an e-mail to you asking if trade-ins were welcome. Thanks, Lisa |
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We do on occasion take a fish
in for trade or coral
frags and colonies depending on what kind and
species, health of the specimen, and our availability
to house it. It is best to call and speak with us to
find out if we are able to take it in before stressing
out the animal by moving it. |
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| I've recently noticed my Calcium level was getting very high and wasn't dropping even when I wouldn't dose any calcium. I was advised to check my carbonate hardness, I did so and it was pretty low. Now I use Kent Superbuffer DKH to fix the the DKH problem. I add it about half a day after my doser runs out of water (which is ~ every 5 days) now I'm adding huge amounts of Calcium just to keep my calcium around 300 and by the time my doser is empty my DKH drops to 7 - 8 I would like to keep it about 10. It's turned into a terrible cycle is there anything i can use to keep a good calcium and DKH level without these fluctuations? I think it killed my sandsifting starfish continually adding all these chemicals. Thanks, Matt |
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Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and Salinity all have a relationship. When you Alkalinity falls extremely low, it can kill or harm fish and corals. Usually calcium will fall to a low level also, but occasionally, with low alkalinity you can end up with high lvls of calcium, this is because of an ionic imbalance. Raising your alkalinity will cause your calcium to fall in line, you want to shoot for a lvl of calcium from 380-480 and Alkalinity from 8-12 dKH. If you are having a hard time maintaining these lvls it could be because magnesium lvl is low, you should maintain magnesium above 1350 ppm, keep in mind you have to keep a salinity of at least 1.024 in order to maintain this lvl as only so much magnesium can be dissolved at a given specific gravity. If all of theses lvls are where they should be and you find you are still having a hard time keeping your calcium and alkalinity up it might be time to step up the dosing schedule or invest in a calcium reactor.
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| I have a 75 gallon tank that has been running for just over a year now. I was running 2 hamilton 150 watt double ended 14k metal halide bulbs. It was time to replace them and I bought w blue 20k aqualine bulbs. I meant to buy 10k but made a mistake when ordering online. My problem is now I am getting brown diatom and a litte red slime. I have two massive power head and the return. The tank has pretty good flow. I am more concerned with the clear bubbles that seem to be attached to live rock and my corals with some sort of stringy substance. I never had these bubbles before. I also run 2 96 watt blue atinic bulbs. Are the bulbs the issue? The bubbles seem to be growing in numbers. They are all over. I have tested my water parameters since the beginning. ph is 8.2, nitrates 5.0, nitrites 0, calcuim 450, alk 3.0 salt 1.024 temp 78 degrees, phosphates .1 I use the red sea test kits. Thanks for any help you can give. ANthony |
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First off, your nitrates and phosphates seem a little high than we like to see. Try lowering them with water changes using RO/DI water and running phosphate removing media. Doing this will help with your diatoms. The other algae you are describing sounds like cyanobacteria (red slime algae) which is usually caused by insufficient flow and a buildup of detritus (waste, which also seems to be indicated by the high phosphates and nitrates) doing water changes, will help and be sure to vaccum your sand/gravel areas to keep waste from collecting. Bulbs usually have no effect on cyanobacteria. And since you move to a higher kelvin bulb (from 10k to 20k) you are using bluer light which usually inhibits the growth of algae since they crave red/yellow light for growth. |
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| why wont my fish eat? is it because i have a 20 gallon tank and only 4 fish? |
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I am not sure what you are asking, Are you trying to say that you think you have to many fish in a 20 gal tank? That is possible with 4 fish, depending on their size, if there is aggression it can cause fish to not eat. Or are you asking if you need more fish in your 20 gal? There are certain fish which do better in schools and that might help to start a feeding response. Without knowing which fish you cant get to eat and the tankmates its hard to give out advice. I would ensure that the tank water quality is good and give the fish time to become accustomed to the tank and provide a variety of different foods (without overfeeding) to see what will spark its appetite. |
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| what time do you close on weekends |
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Our Store hours are Monday - Friday 10am - 7pm and
Saturday and Sunday 10am - 5pm. All times are
Pacific. |
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| i have a 10gal reef that is loaded with green alge ihave tried kent marine phosphate sponge i want to know how toteardown the tank and startover but keep the liverock /sand living also how do i clean alge of rocks with featherdusters without killing them thank u |
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Try using some algae eaters like snails, rabbitfish to take care of the algae you already have, manually removing algae will help too. And to prevent algae from returning trying lowering your phosphates with a ferric oxide based phosphate reducing media like Pura Phoslock or Kent Maximum Powerphos, or PhosBan. |
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| I recently added a medium yellow tang, a six line wrasse, 4 firefish and a diamone goby to a 29 gallon tank that had been establishing for a month and a half with two green emerald crabs and various snails andcrabs. My water quality continued to be ok. Within a few days though, only the diamond goby, tang and one firefish remained. I had seen the tang isolating and hitting the fish with its barb. i took the tang back to the fish store, feeling they had sold me something too large and aggressive for the other fish. Today after the tang was out, the last firefish died. The fish store says it is probably because of bristle worms I picked up from live rock harvested locally in Florida from the Gulf of Mexico. Everything I have found on bristleworms says they can be dangerous to coral, anemones, but not fish. What do you think? |
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While Bristleworms can
become a bother
and a pest, it is highly unlikely they aggressively
attacked your fish. Bristleworms can reach plague
proportions but they are a scavengers and will only
become a problem if they run out of food to
scavenge. Thats usually when they attack corals,
clams, etc. But bristleworms stay in the sand and
rocks, so its highly unlikely they would be able to
reach your fast moving fish to attack them. The
problems you were having were probably not
related to bristleworms but to the fact that you
added a significant amount of fish in a short period
of time to a small tank, that wasnt setup for very
long. Also a yellow tang unless it is very small is
not a suitable fish for a 29 gallon tank. Tangs need
lots of swimming room and they produce lots of
fish waste. Your tank probably didnt not have
sufficent bacteria and filtration to accommodate a
sudden load of fish like you added. I would
recommend checking your ammonia, nitrite, and
nitrate. Keep an eye on theses levels as you add
fish. If you encounter high levels on any of them,
perform some water changes on your tank to bring
those levels down. Also watch for aggression from
your fish towards other fish, like you said your tang
was attacking some of the other fish, this was
probably due to the limited tank space, and the fish
felt threatened. Stick with some smaller fish, add
them slowly and keep an eye on your water quality.
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