Water Quality

[nemo_remo]

please help me with some idea and informations. i am having salt water aquarium for almost a year. just a small 2ft, 72ltr tank couple of fishes (abt 10 fish, clown fish,foxface, damsels, etc) with some live rocks. lately i am having some problem with my water hardness,kH. its been dropping quite often within a month. i am using Sera kH up to raise the level but doesnt seem to work that well. its currently at 3dkH. as i calculated it should be around 9-12dkH-correct me if i am wrong. i am using top filter and active carbon. Previously it was ok-couple of months back. just lately the level has been dropping. my fishes seems to be fine but i am worried knowing that the level is so low. on my live rocks there is thin layer reddish alge/fungus like growing covering entire area where light falls- i read that this is good, true? any idea why is this happening? what should i do?
thanx

 

[OrionGirl]

Yikes---that's a boat load of fish for a small tank. Most likely, that's the reason the pH and buffering are crashing--that many fish produce a lot of waste, and the breakdown of all that waste will use up the buffers fast. How often are you doing water changes? What size?

As for the growth--is it hard, or soft? Hard algaes, usually called coralline algae, and often purple or red, is good. Soft, red growths that come off in sheets are bad--most likely a type of cyano. Either one can thrive in a poorly maintained tank, though, so isn't indicative of conditions.

Do you have test results? Salinity? Ammonia/nitirites/nitrates? pH?

 

[Pufferpoison]

Your really in need of a HUGE protein skimmer with that bioload. It would help out quite a bit. Your alkalinity, with proper water changes, should be much higher than that.

Like OG stated, we need some numbers. But first and foremost if your running that bioload with a tank that small, you need a BIG OL' skimmer to help break down those proteins.

Did i mention that there is one on the classified ads right now for sale

 

[Pufferpoison]

P.S.

that is a BOATLOAD of fish. I don't plan on putting that many in my 90G reef tank