Simple question, Simple answer please :)

[B Mack]

Originally Posted by kcochran0010

Yes lol I am still a newbie. My tank is maybe 8-9 weeks old. I am going to get a lot of $h*t for this but I use tap water but I live in Louisville, KY and we are #2 on the water quality list so actually our water is not bad at all. My friends reef tank of 6 years is doing great and he has always used tap water! I always use prime to dechlorinate though. I will have to step up on the water changes. I only like to do them bi-monthly..

The water changes replenish all the trace elements and essential nutrients that are used up by reef life. 10% water change once a week will make a HUGE difference. If you have a LFS that sells RO/DI water, I would suggest you start using that instead of the tap water. Even really good tap water has unwanted materials in it. I understand, I did my first tank with tap water and actually had moderate success. It's only when I switched that I noticed the real difference. The tap water is def contributing to your red slime algae blooms because of the high levels of phosphates. Even manually lowering the phos won't be as good as using RO/DI water IMHO. Once your tank cycles and pulls out of it's normal spikes you should have less algae issues. Especially if you have a good cleanup crew.

[rayn]

This has got to be the longest answer to a simple question ever lol. Lots o good info though.
Do a good size water change and run some gfo in a filter sock and it will help. You're getting 0s because the algea is using the nutrients.

[kcochran0010]

I would love to use rodi but running to the pet store every week for water would be a pain and too expensive for me. I only work part time as a ups package handler and after my bills I barely have money to spend... specially on water..

[Arizonah13]

Originally Posted by kcochran0010

I would love to use rodi but running to the pet store every week for water would be a pain and too expensive for me. I only work part time as a ups package handler and after my bills I barely have money to spend... specially on water..

Sounds to me like you need a p/t job at your LFS ;-) Problem solved!

[Bigez]

Originally Posted by kcochran0010

I would love to use rodi but running to the pet store every week for water would be a pain and too expensive for me. I only work part time as a ups package handler and after my bills I barely have money to spend... specially on water..

It is expensive for now but once you get your algae blooms under control you can go back to once every other week or so for water changes. I don't know about your LFS but around here they charge a buck a gallon. So for a 10% you'd only be dropping 8 bucks.

Also are you using a dechlorinator with an ammonia binder? If your tap water has chloramine instead of just straight chlorine you could still have excess ammonia roaming around after the dechlorinator works its magic. If you have some time on your hands here's an article that was posted in reefkeeping magazine about chloramines. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-1...ture/index.php

Good luck. Hope everything works out in the end, I know what it's like to be on a college budget.

[sdc19982002]

no.

[cloak]

If your parameters are ideal, you can still have this problem...

I'm guessing the anemone has a mind of it's own?

GL.