kck@mips.COM (Ken Klingman) (01/18/90)
I'm a beginner to marine tanks and am currently in the 3rd week
of conditioning a new 55 gallon tank. We started with washed,
crushed coral, some cup rock (tufa?) for aesthetics, a trickle
filter, and 10 damsel fish. The ammonia and nitrite levels
are climbing nicely, as expected, and after some initial fish
loss (bought 4 from a seedy looking dealer and I suspect those
are the ones that died) and replacement all fish are looking
pert and chipper and are eating well.
I have two questions:
In the past few days the tank has developed multiple blooms of
what I suppose to be brown algae on the front glass (actually
plexi). There's about a dozen spots, each the size of a nickel.
Is this to be expected? Should I clean the glass? There seems
to be a fair growth of the same stuff on the crushed coral as
well. Should I worry? Incidentally, until I can finish a fancy
hood with lots of light I'm temporarily running 2 24" random
flourescent fixtures just sitting atop the tank.
The water is not crystal clear. The only filtration I'm running
is some pre-filter material at the top of trickle filter. I
think I eventually want to put in a foam fractionator since
from what I've heard it's a "good thing", but there's too much
variety available and I think maybe I should build one because
they cost a bunch and I've already sunk a fortune into this
thing. I've been thinking that a simple cannister filter with
activated charcoal filtering the sump in the trickle filter would
do the job of clearing the water in the meantime. Comments?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Ken Klingman MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.
kck@mips.com 928 Arques Avenue
{uunet,decwrl,pyramid,ames}!mips!kck Sunnyvale, California 94086
(408)991-7826