Melonbob's 46g build!

[Melonbob]

Well, just when the diatom incident seemed under control, I have what looks like the start of green hair algae EVERYWHERE! It looks like little spores landed all over the place and little tufts of green grass sprouted up where they landed. Called the lfs and they recommended a Sea Hare. After quickly reading a few posts on them, I figured I'd pick one up and if I had to feed him in the future, so be it. I had no idea this thing would be so big and FUGLY! Biff said they were so beautiful, thats twice she's done me in! (;

Anyways, he's being sloooowly acclimitized to the tank, and I'm anxious to drop this fat uggo in!

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah those sea hares will take care of hair algae fast. It's hard to keep them fed on seaweed sheets, so when he's done cleaning your tank, you can take him back to the store or give him to a friend.

And they are beautiful. And soft. And squishy. I like squeezing them. :D

 

[yote]

Just be careful not to squeeze it to hard Melon,you might get inked.
They are butt ugly,but they'll go through algae like money at the gas pump.

 

[Bifferwine]

Just be careful not to squeeze it to hard Melon,you might get inked.

Yes, don't squeeze them too hard. But a gentle squish every once in a while won't hurt!! LOL.

 

[Melonbob]

yuck, I will likely never touch him

 

[Bifferwine]

How about licking him?? ;)

 

[Melonbob]

Well, we finally dropped Uggo about five minutes ago, and he hadn't hit bottom before he was sucking on these little blooms on the front glass. This guys wastes no time, thats for sure

 

[Bifferwine]

Dude must be starving. They are awesome animals. Maybe I should get one as my next tattoo... Hmmmm...

 

[Melonbob]

Hey Biff! I'm going for some more ink Saturday morning! Starting a forearm sleeve!!!

 

[Bifferwine]

Post pictures of your tattoos here:

https://www.livingreefs.com/forums/off-topic-forum/3107-tattooed-show-your-ink.html

 

[Melonbob]

Posted my two leg pieces. They are 5 and 11 years old

 

[SAMMY]

Nice tank. I love the rocks and aqua scape. Keep it up

 

[Melonbob]

New pics of my new tattoo on the tattoo post!

https://www.livingreefs.com/forums/off-topic-forum/3107-tattooed-show-your-ink-22.html

 

[Melonbob]

Well, this is my stats for the week

SG - 1.024
Amm-0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Calcium - 520
Phos - 0
Alk - 13 dKH

A few things to note here. I did my samples before I topped off with fresh water, and there was alot of evaporation (about 2.5 gallons to top up) Could this have affected dKH and Calcium. Why does my calcium keep climbing? I stopped dosing it. Is it too high now? What about dKH? 13 too high as well? The reason I'm asking all these questions is because I have freaking Green hair Algae everywhere!!!

 

[Doc]

I must have lost the LONG post I put on here before, soooo I will try it again.

What kind of water are you using? It must be RO water only to do changes and top offs.

How often are you feeding and light cycles? cut them back. Once every two-three days for food and 4 hours a day for lights.

Get yourself two Mexican Turbos and a Sea Hare (Biff, you should be proud, you converted me)

Increase your water changes from 10% to 20% for a month. use a phosphate remover (I like phosguard, altho others like Phosban instead)

Use carbon in your sump or chemipure (I just found out about another produce for cleaning the water which is supposed to be better than chemipure, but it PRICEY. I will test it out before giving a testimonial

You will be OK in a month.

-Doc

 

[Doc]

BTW your calcium and Dkh parameters are PERFECT. Corals use your levels like steroids. It forces growth pretty fast with those numbers. I try to keep mine just like that, although I have been somewhat neglectful and let me Calcium go down to 410 and my Dkh was all the way down to 9 (shame on me). Don't worry, I dosed today.

-Doc

 

[Melonbob]

OK, I use RO water for top ups and changes. I do 10% twice a month. This is a new tank, so I expected the Hair Algae, now I just want it gone....lol. Bought a sea hare last thursday. I feed once daily, a very small amount. What I don't understand is that my phosphate tests come up 0, but the stuff is still all over?

 

[Melonbob]

Can I cut my lighting so much and not do in my anthilia? I'm also getting Green star polyps this week

 

[Namor]

out of curiousity, how many pounds of live rock is that in your tank?

(didn't know if you added more and we dont' have pics yet :) )

 

[Bifferwine]

Your phosphates are reading 0 because the algae is consuming it as fast as it can be produced. Like me and chocolate cake. You can put a slice of chocolate cake in front of me, blink, and it will be gone. You may THINK that there wasn't any chocolate cake there, but in reality I just ate it so fast you didn't get a chance to see it. Phosphates stay in the water column for an average of 7 seconds before they are taken up by algae. So you can have TONS of phosphates and still get a 0 reading on your test kit.

And with that, I'm going to go enjoy a slice of the chocolate ice cream cake I purchased last night...