my A. percula pair finally spawned (after a year and a half ) . i have no green water , need advice

i noticed the spawn on 10/16 and by the color of the eggs im guessing they are 48 hours old . i will be hatching them into a 20 gallon brt . the broodstock tank is at 84f . i have been using the egg development pics on mofib for comparison to help with determining age . this is my first run with clownfish but i have been raising lysmata boggessi for a while now . the issue im having is all i have for micro algae is some old rotifer diet hd from reed . its starting to get a little fowl but its working for rot culture . i would like to use greenwater in this run but im fearful of the nh3 using this old algae concentrate . i have amquel but am not sure of the dosage / ratio to counter act the nh3 . my question is am i better off not using my old rot diet for green water and just paying extra attention to lighting or can i use it ?
any advice on protocol without greenwater , amquel ratio, or anything really would be greatly appreciated ... im a nervous wreck

I'm a big fan of RotiGreen Omega for clowns, it works great! How old is your RDiet? I'd be leery of using it in a greenwater application. 
 
I'm not sure what you mean about paying closer attention to lighting... Are you thinking about using live phyto?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I don't have any live phyto . what I meant was without green water I need to make sure the light over the brt is not to bright. any tips on doing this run without any tint or green water ? I will have to flush rots and replace them with enriched rots often I would guess. any info would be great . thanks tal

I've never tried not using greenwater. Basically, you're tinting the water so the larvae only see the rotifers that are closest to them so they don't waste chasing things that are farther away, saves energy. You can read more about it here: http://fishtalpropagations.com/StepByStep.aspx
 
I light my larval tanks with clamp lights clamped to the edge of the tank. You can see my larval tanks on this page: http://fishtalpropagations.com/BroodstockSystem.aspx  HTH

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I am familiar with the benefits of greenwater . my problem is I have no way of getting any new concentrated algea before hatch on Sunday . so I'm in a pinch . my rotifer diet is months old but still green . I am worried about ammonia if I use it . all I have for ammonia detox is amquel and havnt found a ratio to use . so I may just have to do this run without green water unless your aware of a safe ratio I can apply to amquel

Have you kept the RD frozen or in the fridge? It's good for  up to 2 years if kept frozen. If it's all you have I would try it, nothing to loose.
 
As far as amquel goes just follow the directions and you shoulde be fine.  http://www.kordon.com/kordon/amquel+/index.htm
 
Is this the pair's first batch?
 
Edit: I checked out the site: http://reed-store.com/shop.cfm/Instant-Algae-Products/Microalgae-and-Phytoplankton/ and it says RD can be used for greenwater so I guess you're good to go.  

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

thanx for the advice !
yes it is the pairs first and I am surprised they havnt eatin them .
my RD has been in the fridge not frozen .
it doesn't seem to smell any worse than it did when it was new .... ill give it a go .
tonight I noticed my A. ephippium spawned for the first time !!
when it rains it pours ...

Just my .02 but make sure to just use a little.    Being that its not a live product you will foul the water quite quickly.    Prior to Roti-Green I used Roti-Grow+ for my greenwater.  I have always just barely tinted the water green, and I mean barely.  It has worked so far.
 
 

I plan on using a drip to replace evaporation and maintain greenwater .
I will add the RD to fresh r/o and amquel with aeration in the drip vessel . maybe a drop per second or less .
I have a led strip to light the tub about 30in above the rim .
I have had issues getting the lighting dialed with my starry blenny fry .
I noticed fishtal has clamp lamps directly above his larval tanks . I'm wondering how brightly I need to light them ?
also is 24 hour illumenation ok for them?

Being the first spawn don't expect too much. It can take a few tries to get good results. I only light my clowns for 14hrs, they do get some ambient light in the morning though. Some people use 24hr lighting and are fine with it.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I use 24hr lighting for first 14-20 days and they do fine. I have read theoretically it gives them more time to feed which led to faster growth. I don't ever recall any formal studies though. I think the biggest key is to keep food density correct whenever the lights are on for whatever period you choose.

I have pulled the nest pot and started incubation last night . no hatch this am . I guess its another day...
doing some testing this morning I noticed a low dKH of 6 and ph of 7.8.
is this ok during hatch ?
I know people allow a low ph to help with nh3 toxicity. but this seems like a low starting point .
should I buff the tub or put it back on flow thru for a bit?

Did you use water from the tank the eggs came from?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

the brts are on a centralized system with the broodstock tanks . I filled the brt to about 10 gallons last night before I pulled the nest . about an hour ago one egg hatched . I then added some enriched rots . and started the amquel / rotifer diet / freshwater drip to add a little tint to the water .
I am trying to get my lighting dialed in by watching the larvaes reaction to my adjustments.
kinda tricky with only one to observe.

this am no more eggs have hatched . it looks like my aeration has slowed over night . about half of the eggs are fungused .
I have turned the air up pretty high to see if I can salvage the rest . I don't know how likely it is that they will hatch but the remainder looks healthy .
clown eggs are a lot more delicate to hatch than blenny eggs !
any tips would be great .
trying to figure out how much is too much air for incubation seems to be my issue

well the rest of the nest was taken by fungus . 
i think i figured out why i didnt get a good hatch . 
1: the aeration had slowed in the night and the eggs weren't being touched by the bubbles .
2: i didnt black out the brt so i think hatching wasnt triggered 
 
lessons learned !
the pair spawned again last night . this nest is 3 times the size of the last . 
i got this spawn on video and i need an id just to verify percula or occ.