starting over

tim jenkins · 03/15/2015, 08:08 AM

After years of too little care and life getting in the way, my "reef' tank has only small fish and no coral. No matter what I do I cannot get the water to improve. Green algae everywhere dispite skimmer and very little fish/feeding. I also have world record coralline algae.

I feel sand bed is comprimised so thats goona go. Need help with what to do with great live rock but covered in algae. Was gonna vinegar it and leave out in the sun, etc. Is that best?

Gonna vinegar the whole system. It's a 350 display, 200 sump/fuge and 100 gal sump.

Anyone ever do a project this big? Any advice? I figured it beat the alternative of lettinig an LFS comeini an take tens of thousnads of dollars of gear away to be done with it, which was my other thought. My 500 FOWLR is going great so I keep a tank alive.

wm jim · 03/15/2015, 10:01 AM

I have had several people tell me in this same situation it was as simple as adding some tangs to eat the algae. Cheapist and easiest thing to try at least.

eddiereefs · 03/15/2015, 10:15 AM

Turbo snails are the best for green hair algae. Get a wide hose, siphom the sand bed out with the water, scrub the rocks with a tooth brush in the dirty water, this will allow u to not kill the life, and get turbo snail for the rest, when everything is stable u cant slack on regular water changes

tim jenkins · 03/16/2015, 11:11 AM

Algae was more green film type. All copepods dead. Even hermit crabs. Something evil in there. Hoping with skimming I can save the rocks.

stechs02 · 03/16/2015, 12:44 PM

Tim – I just did this to my 150G reef. The first thing I did was get all my equipment cleaned up and looking like brand new. My live rock (about 200 pounds) was covered in coralline algae and had some bubble algae. I was never really over run with algae but my live rock wasn’t very porous because it was about 10 years old. I think I was suffering from old tank syndrome. The steps I took are below.

Soaked the live rock in diluted bleach (about 1 gallon of bleach to 20 gallons of water) for 24 hours. This kills anything living on the rock and cleans them up.

I then did a Muriatic Acid dip for 30 minutes to remove any phosphates/unwanted metals from the rock. This seams like a big/dangerous task but ii was rather easy to perform.

All my live rock looks great and I’m about ready to get my system running again. I really took the time to get the equipment I wanted and make everything a convenience. I’m actually really excited about starting back up. This is the first time I know I have no pest in my tank so I’m going to take extra steps during quarantine to make sure I have a disease free tank. Good luck!

tim jenkins · 03/17/2015, 09:44 AM

My 500 FOWLR has crushed coral which I stir when cleaning. It never has great numbers, but I avoided the Old Tank Syndrome my reef got.

tim jenkins · 03/18/2015, 10:43 PM

try this link to see pics and progress...http://www.cincyreef.com/showthread....31-last-chance

tim jenkins · 03/18/2015, 10:43 PM

tim jenkins · 03/18/2015, 10:45 PM

here is the link to see pics and progress. Vinegar goes in tomorrow night
(no kids around to complain about the smell)

http://www.cincyreef.com/showthread....31-last-chance

03/15/2015, 08:08 AM	#1
tim jenkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 65	starting over After years of too little care and life getting in the way, my "reef' tank has only small fish and no coral. No matter what I do I cannot get the water to improve. Green algae everywhere dispite skimmer and very little fish/feeding. I also have world record coralline algae. I feel sand bed is comprimised so thats goona go. Need help with what to do with great live rock but covered in algae. Was gonna vinegar it and leave out in the sun, etc. Is that best? Gonna vinegar the whole system. It's a 350 display, 200 sump/fuge and 100 gal sump. Anyone ever do a project this big? Any advice? I figured it beat the alternative of lettinig an LFS comeini an take tens of thousnads of dollars of gear away to be done with it, which was my other thought. My 500 FOWLR is going great so I keep a tank alive.

03/15/2015, 10:01 AM	#2
wm jim Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Blue Ash Ohio Posts: 56	I have had several people tell me in this same situation it was as simple as adding some tangs to eat the algae. Cheapist and easiest thing to try at least. __________________ 300 gallon display, 200 gallon display, 200 gallon for lions 180 refusium and 50 gallon sump with 22 total tangs about 10 other types of fish. Tangs are by far my favorite fish. Current Tank Info: 300 and 200 mixed reef and fish mostly tangs and angels with a 200 gallon of lions with a 180 gallon refusium and a 50 gallon sump all tied together

03/15/2015, 10:15 AM	#3
eddiereefs Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 575	Turbo snails are the best for green hair algae. Get a wide hose, siphom the sand bed out with the water, scrub the rocks with a tooth brush in the dirty water, this will allow u to not kill the life, and get turbo snail for the rest, when everything is stable u cant slack on regular water changes

03/16/2015, 11:11 AM	#4
tim jenkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 65	Algae was more green film type. All copepods dead. Even hermit crabs. Something evil in there. Hoping with skimming I can save the rocks.

03/16/2015, 12:44 PM	#5
stechs02 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 68	Tim – I just did this to my 150G reef. The first thing I did was get all my equipment cleaned up and looking like brand new. My live rock (about 200 pounds) was covered in coralline algae and had some bubble algae. I was never really over run with algae but my live rock wasn’t very porous because it was about 10 years old. I think I was suffering from old tank syndrome. The steps I took are below. Soaked the live rock in diluted bleach (about 1 gallon of bleach to 20 gallons of water) for 24 hours. This kills anything living on the rock and cleans them up. I then did a Muriatic Acid dip for 30 minutes to remove any phosphates/unwanted metals from the rock. This seams like a big/dangerous task but ii was rather easy to perform. All my live rock looks great and I’m about ready to get my system running again. I really took the time to get the equipment I wanted and make everything a convenience. I’m actually really excited about starting back up. This is the first time I know I have no pest in my tank so I’m going to take extra steps during quarantine to make sure I have a disease free tank. Good luck!

03/17/2015, 09:44 AM	#6
tim jenkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 65	My 500 FOWLR has crushed coral which I stir when cleaning. It never has great numbers, but I avoided the Old Tank Syndrome my reef got.

03/18/2015, 10:43 PM	#7
tim jenkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 65	try this link to see pics and progress...http://www.cincyreef.com/showthread....31-last-chance

03/18/2015, 10:45 PM	#9
tim jenkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 65	here is the link to see pics and progress. Vinegar goes in tomorrow night (no kids around to complain about the smell) http://www.cincyreef.com/showthread....31-last-chance