What should I do, new HOB protien skimmer, HOB refrugium or both?

Kim,

Can you post pictures? I just want to see what all you have, how it is set up, possibly a room shot showing where your tank is located. Red Slim and some of the other problems you are talking about are easily cured with flow, light cycles and tank placement. Other things are stock, CUCs and water params but if you are doing water changes on the regular then WCs should factor out a problem with chemical levels.

I have seen and owned many a tank that have never had a sump and were quite pristine with very simple equipment. I have said it before and I will say it again though that in any tank, flow is the key. Red slime grows in low flow areas. Without seeing your tank its hard to put a finger on one things. But, a video would be awesome. Something to give us some sort of idea of what we are looking at.

First, rule of thumb is usually about 50x the turn over rate for SPS and about 30+ for LPS and softies, High side is best... So in essence, this would equal anywhere from 2,250 to 3,750 gpm in water movement. Normal powerheads such as the Koralias only do 750-1500 GPM each depending on the head. at this rate even an old school Koralia 4 at 1200gpm you need one on each side. Need you to take a look at your powerheads and the GPM on each of them and the direction of flow.

Second, for a sand bed in a 75 assuming you are keeping softies and LPS, you need at least 3" if not 4 or 5" in the back for a good enough exchange and break down of organics, If you sand bed isnt doing its job and your HOB filter isnt pulling enough out, then the rest is just sitting on top of the sand, in a low flow area waiting for the Red Slime to devour it. This goes back to my last paragraph. If there isnt enough flow to pick up nasties into the water column where they can be taken out by mechanical filtration then you have a breeding ground for RS algae.

Third, Photo period, I hope when you say your T5s are on for 10 hours a day you mean that the whites are on for a lot less. An 8 hour white light photo period is enough. If your room has daylight coming through windows at all times during the day then even a 7 or 6 hour photo period is sufficient. The type of light can hurt you too... Taking into account that you have already made sure your bulbs are good and have been replaced, a reduced photo period wouldnt hurt anything you have....

Without coming over and looking at the tank, there is my two cents... While a drilled tank is awesome, it isnt the end all be all, there are plenty of people that have them and still battle the same issues. Your skimmer, as long as it is being cleaned on the regular, and the HOB filters are being cleaned regularly you shouldnt have a problem. Usually when a skimmer is too small, or the water isnt being filitered properly, you will have a nitrate spike. Seems to me that your water is okay on test you are just having RS issues.

My best assumption would be your flow rate.

But if you can get those pictures it would be awesome!!

 

Photobucket.com is the best photo uploader.... You can upload to it and then it will generate a link to paste in the comment here that will link the photo... Hope this helps.....

 

Okay. It's late and I am on my phone but, after taking a look at your photos I believe that this could be a stunning reef tank. My 75 before the one I have now was one of my favorite tanks I have owned in my whole 10+ years of being in this hobby.

Now. First off. I am just going to point some things out. The power heads pointing at each other are not really doing you any good. Unless they are on a switch to operate back and forth, you are ultimately creating a dead zone, especially with they one angled partly upward. It kills what flow would continue across the tank and limits the full effect by them pushing on each other. Second, the HOB filter on the back doesn't look like it is working properly. The flow is far too restricted. There should be a waterfall pouring out and from what I see. There is a trickle. And last but not least, I would ask for a stock list. What fish do you have and how many of each clean up crew members are you housing. Many people that have trouble are often fixated on what they want to keep and not so much on what they need to be keeping. I really didn't see anything that would warrant that there was a sufficient enough of a CUC in your tank.

Now. With that being said (and I hope I haven't come across wrong) the first thing I would do if I could get my hands on your tank would be to open up the HOB filter, make that thing flow as much water through as possible. Don't restrict with gimmick phosphate pads and what not. Just keep the filter pads clean. Next, move the filter over to the center. This will give you a lot more flow right in between the mounds on the side. After that, take your power heads and mount them to the back upper corners and point them forward but angled toward the center. This will keep them from working against each other and open them up to circulate a lot more of your tank. Picture the water rolling like a barrel in the tank. This causes lift of the bad stuff and suspends it so that the filter (which is now pulling as much as it can out)can pick up what is stirred up. Yes it will stir up the front of the sand bed but, rack it back to where the font is low and the back is higher, ramp in essence... the heavier stuff will stay but the lighter fill will flow to the back, this is perfectly fine, there is no need to have a "flat" sand bed.

Now. Those are the things that won't cost ya a dime. The rest of the story is we have to as reef keepers understand that there are some fish we want to have. And some fish we just must have. Same with the hermits and snails. Some fish are pretty to look at. Others serve purposes. You could really uses a bristle tooth tang. Kole, tomini, there are many to chose from but you have to have a fish that can act as it it's a scrub brush to keep your rocks clean. If nothing else, a hungry yellow will sometimes do the trick but a good bristle tooth is worth it's weight in good. Once you have a fish that will eat the green algae. It should make for less places for red to burry up in and live once you have the flow thing fixed. Then we should move on the hermits. Aprox. 1 per gallon. And this is no joke. Starting up and even as the tank matures. These little guys are pros at keepin things clean. I will pass over a fancy fish to make sure that there is plenty of them in the tank. Yes some die off. Yes they will kill each other. Yes you will wind ip with less over time but it helps to keep the. Stocked more than it hurts. Fighting chonchs also are wonderful at keeping the sand bed clean. They are a little pricey but Ina 75. Four of them would easily take care of it once it is clean. Another good critter after seeing the GHA in your tank would be an emerald crab or two or three. Just to mow over and trim it down. But once the food supply is gone these guys some times lost to starving and should be looked after or removed.

So. The TLDR version.... Rearranging the power heads and filter, make sure the filter is pumping as much as possible, invest in a balanced CUC right for the tank, and keep at it. If your water perams. Are fine don't fall for the bags in the filter gimmicks. Keep doing refuse water changes. Maintain a good PH and other levels and you should have this thing whooped.

 

I will edit this a little I the morning. I can already see errors. LOL

 

Sounds good Mann. Definately recommend a kole tang I've seen these guys demolish hair algae and they don't get big either.

 

Try zebra turbo snails. I hsve some and the slurp the hair algae up like spaghetti. The fish tank normally carries these guys. If they don't let me know I can try to get you some.

 

First off... Doesn't surprise me at all if your hermits are the ones killing your margaritas... They can and will. You will have to chose between snails or hermits. Both will work, I just chose hermits over snails, cooler to look at and I have learned to love their taste for cannibalism and love for killing (I know I am strange) but you can buy them for fifty cent each... its a trade off I guess.

Now that I have your attention with my weirdness... Filtration and flow is going to be your key to getting rid of cyno... You almost HAVE to get a better filter and skimmer.

You mentioned the BH-1000, If you must go to northside I would ask them to order me the BH-2000... Its a little more, but the benifits will be way better at ratings for 100-150 gallons. The aqua C remoras are some really good skimmers too.

For the HOB filter, The emporer 400 is rated for 80 gallons.. That isnt enough for what you are doing, most run two of these. BUT if you cant do that Aquaclear makes a new one that is rated for up to 110... This may be sufficent, if you keep the bioload low and have a good skimmer. My personal suggestion, is a canister. One rated for 150 somewhere about 500gph... You can house this either under the tank or beside it and they are not an eye sore. They also give you a better choice as to how you filter. The trays in each will allow you to run heavy pads on the bottom, lighter, on the next and then maybe something like phosban and carbon on the next two with ease.

To hear that you have a kole tank is good, he should start working, he really should have cleaned it up a lot by 2 weeks. I run almost all tangs, everyone that knows me knows my tank is stocked full of them. like 5 of em.. LOL I do not have any problem with anything green... =)

I would move the powerheads to the back upper corners and point to reflect off the glass into the center. Reason is like another thread here, many corals like high flow but they dont like direct flow. Koralia nanos, hate to say it but are a waste of money unless you are using them in like 5 gallon tank... I have 4 in a 20 long and they dont push water past the first 4 inches hardly... I used two koralia 3s on each side of my tank in the back under the rock work.

Sand bed, It wouldnt hurt to add more sand, being you do not have any other form of biological filtration, your sand bed is going to need as much help as it can. I believe in deep sand beds if you have to rely on one.. You will be relying on your sand bed to decompose what isnt picked up by the filter. Do not confuse rocks with the sand bed, they are different things. You cant over compensate a shallow bed for a lot of rock or a deep bed and with no rock.. You need a balance of both. If you can add a bag or two easily without making a mess or disturbing the existing I would, but do this slowly, like half a bag a week until you get it to where you want. Do not dump the whole thing in there at once and cover the existing, this could cause you more problems.

I know it sounds like we are tryng to run you out of the hobby by buying a lot of expensive toys but, in essence, it will reward you later. Get the biggest stuff you can justify, if you have a 75, get something rated for a 150... keep that water moving, I like to think that they more water that is moving the better, make it where your corals will grow strong bases and thick stalks. They will adjust even if at first it looks like they hate it. I just put a new one in my tank that stayed mad for 3 days before just getting over it and now is totally extended and swaying like crazy, polyps fully extended.

 

I laughed as I was talking about the hermits.... Brought me back to an old conversation and a short blog I wrote about them years back.. LOL

http://reefcave.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/hermits-warriors-at-heart/

 

Another idea to help pull phosphates out is some display Macro Algae. We use it in our Nano's and it does help a lot.
Just a thought =)

 

I would say try a mimic tang. They are different genus than kole tangs. But I'm no eure how'd they do together.

 

The marineland C-420 or 540 is a good filter. I had the 360 on my 55 heavy stocked cichlid tank. Man did it keeo that tank clean. C-360 is rated for 100 gal. at 400/hr. the next one up does 125 to 150 gallon.

 

The filters I'm talking about are canister filters.