Whats next? 3 weeks old tank ...

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Reefcan

My 95 gal tank is been setup about 20 days, 100 lb cured liverock with some sand. never been changed water. Now the green hairy algae is growing crazy. there a sea hare/couple white urchins/2 shrimps/2 yellow gobies with 10 snails in the tank, hope can get rid of the algae. Am I doing it right?
Now the algea getting less very slowly, some of them grown very long,I have to pick them off by hand. I'm afraid of to buy any fish right now untill the tank is nice and clean. I tested water once a week, everything shows OK.
I bought couple rubblemaid containers with a water pump, try to change the water tomorrow. Should I ? what u think?
Is a refuge will help for the algae?
Should I just wait untill the algae is gone by itself ? When is safe to add fish? Kids want the clown fish so badly!!!
Thanks for any comment!

When you tested the water, can you list what you tested for, and what the readings were? The long algae you're referring to the Hair Algae. Read the Guide in my signature on Hair Algae. That should help you out a lot. The algae won't go away by adding critters to eat it as the cause will still be there. You need to remove the cause of the algae. As your tank gets older you will have less and less algae issues.

Waterchanges are always good. 25% is a good amount to change.

You can add a fish when the ammonia is at 0, the nitrite is at 0, and the nitrate is less than 5 ppm. You could probably add a couple fish at a time to a tank that size. Don't add too many fish too quickly though or you will create a lot of grief for yourself, and your kids won't like to see you netting out dead fish. Keep to 2 small fish or one larger fish per 2 weeks, and you should be ok. Test your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate before adding any new fish, and if they aren't as I listed above you need to get that corrected before adding more.