I left my tank for 3 weeks, how do I clean it up?

[Amedais]

Hello again and thanks in advance for the advice. So I had a previous thread at the start of the month about the Army taking me away for three weeks and how best to prepare my tank and my wife to deal with it. I got a lot of great advice and followed it as best I could, being a tank newbie and all. Well now I am back and I am trying to play catch up.

There is GHA everywhere, its on almost every surface and 3/4-1" long. my wife kept the lights off as much as my three year old would let her. I am thinking of getting a Lawnmower Blennie, did some reading that they can handle the GHA?

I also came home to this breakout of brown stuff, its thicker in areas that appear to have less flow and looks kinda like cobwebs. Any recommendations to clear this mess up?


I am on an Army base so its an 1.5hr drive just to get to a petco and another 3hrs to anything else.

120g w/wetdry filter, 220g protein skimmer, 1 Ocellaris Clownfish, 1 Chococlate chip seastar, 3 Corralin snails (sp)
Thanks for any help.

[Amedais]

Ok I wanna apologize for the blast of pictures in your face. I thought I had reduced the size, but it appears to have failed.

[m0nkie]

for hair algae, set up a reactor for phosphate. run it until hair algae start declining..

for cyano, you can try the light out method. 3 days of no lights.. once a month for 3 months. there's a few threads on the exact procedure. I have tried it and it works, but takes a few months..

fish and CUC might help.. but don't count on them to clear up everything... maintain water change and run phosphate

[alb_56]

How old is the tank?

[pyithar]

Originally Posted by m0nkie

for hair algae, set up a reactor for phosphate. run it until hair algae start declining..

for cyano, you can try the light out method. 3 days of no lights.. once a month for 3 months

fish and CUC might help.. but don't count on them to clear up everything... maintain water change and run phosphate

+1. manual removal of hair algae will also help. some lawnmower blennies don't eat hair algae. my longspine urchins (diadema setosum) eat all kind of algae including coralline algae. my kole tang also cleans the tank all day. it also eats short hair algae (new growth) as well. i would also remove bioballs a few at a time and get more cured porous live rocks.

[Amedais]

Ok thanks, how much phosphate reactors go for?
The tank cycled for about 7 weeks with the 90 lbs of live rock. The clown and seastar have been in there for I believe 4 and half weeks after that. I had just put them in when I learned I had to leave.
As for the CUC. What's the recommended number of snails for a 120?

[dahos]

Manual removal and dosing vinegar took care of my hair algae problem and it was a cheap solution. I would definitely get a good cleanup crew as well. A phosphate reactor will help now and in avoiding it in the future.

I went cheap and am using a TLF phosphate reactor with a cheap little pump. You want a slower flow through it anyway. Try this.

http://premiumaquatics.com/products/...actor-150.html

I tried the lights out method with no real results, although it has worked for others. Not saying it doesnt work I just had no luck with it.

[dahos]

Better yet this one has a media cartridge which I would recommend. It is a PIA changing media in mine or trying to clean the sponges when they get dirty.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-gf...r-deluxe1.html

[gone fishin]

I remember your previous thread. Since you were away a number of things may have happened. A couple that spring to mind are overfeeding and lack of WC.

Before you get to carried away buying a bunch of stuff. Try manually removing as much GHA as possible. Check your chemistry and do some WC's. Also mom may have left the lights on longer than needed for your daughter. Try to get things back on a regular schedule and see how things go from there.

On a side note I would get the Blenny anyway they are just fun to watch.

[firebirdude]

I'm going to 2nd gone fishin recommendation on holding off on buying equipment. I don't know how old your tank is, but if everything was fine before you left, then you don't need equipment to fix your problem. Manual removal, water change and then lights out. All at once. Then just watch the feeding. The problem should take care of itself and go back to what it was before your "vacation".

[Amedais]

Ok I'm liking this idea, what's the best way for manual removal of GHA? Just reach in and year it off by hand? I don't think I have any scrubbers that can get around my rock fixtures to do the job right. And I will take that advice on the blennie. Fish ho!

[firebirdude]

I hold a siphon line in my hand and then just go in with my fingers. As I pick it off, it all gets sucked right into the siphon hose. On the other end, it goes into a waste bucket and gets dumped (water change) or and have it going into the sump with a filter sock on the end to catch the grass.

As for critters eating it, my experience, they usually don't touch it when it gets that long.

[gone fishin]

yeah just pluck of what you can. It is tedious and may need to be repeated. I will usually just pull it off and place it in a bucket on the outside of the tank. If you have some rock you can remove when you do a water change put the rock in your dirty water scrub it off with a toothbrush. dip it in some clean water and back in. It usually takes longer to get rid of the stuff than it did to get there, Go figure.

[Sk8r]

That's algae's not that bad. Just run a gfo reactor, and you should have it bare as an egg in a couple or three months. I've seen it solid dark green, no rock visible. Yours is actually in good condition. You might employ a pincushion urchin: they're kind of fun. Otherwise, don't worry too much. A little cyano---be sure you don't have windowlight shining on it part of the day. Otherwise, I've seen (and owned) far, far worse.