Help restarting a tank...

[Blk_Gto]

HI guys,

First some background. My friend has had her tank for quite some time now and all was going well until she decided to add live sand to the bottom of her tank. Well, all went not so well and the tank looks like crap now. There is green hair algae growing on many of the rocks and she cannot seem to keep fish/corals alive in the tank. Strangely enough, the cleaner shrimp keeps on kickin. We have brought the water into the local fish store to be tested and they cannot find anything wrong with the water.

We have agreed that the best action to take now may be a restart. I have never had to restart a tank before so any advice would be great. My recommendation so far is:

1. Take out all the water
2. Wash the sand in cold water
3. Place all the live rock(pretty much dead by now...) into a tub without light and run the protein skimmer on it until all the algae dies off.
4. Once the rock is clean of algae, place it back into the tank w/ some newly bought live rock. Place some of the live sand from my tank into it also.
5. Start out w/ damsels again...

Does this sound bout right to you guys?

 

[ReefLion]

If you are thinking of removing fish, just remove them for a while to a dealer tank or a separate tank and let your system settle down. I would not consider any "re-start." I would consider scrubbing the rock and rinsing in saltwater, along with successive water changes until the tank looks decent again, then re-introduce a fish every week or two.

As an aside, there is never a need to cycle with fish, and in any case your rock is not "dead." Based on your test results the bacteria are still processing plenty of waste. Even if it does need to recycle, the rock alone will take care of that.

Did she add all the sand at once? In general I would add only very small portions at a time. Maybe a cup or two every few days.

Tim

 

[Blk_Gto]

Yep... she added it all at once.

Well, her tank has been in this state for about 3 months. I don't know what else to tell her. I really want to get rid of the algae but the only way I can think of to do that is to not give it light and let it die off.

 

[Leopardshark]

Your plan sounds good even do I wouldn´t restart the tank.
I would run a big skimmer and lots of carbon and polifilters.
Adding damsels to cycle is not a good idea because you will want to take ´em out of the tank and it will be a tremedous task
Good luck

 

[Blk_Gto]

Well, the main reason that I am thinking of starting all over is b/c we have frequent water changes and a shorter photo period for the past 3 months. All that has been in the tank is one cleaner shrimp and the algae is still there. I feel that once algae has developed in your tank, it's almost impossible to rid yourself of it. If you feed the tank, algae grows more. If you don't feed the tank, your lil critters die which also causes more algae. It's a lose-lose situation.

I guess the consensus i've gotten so far is to take out all live rock and scrub the algae off with freshly made salt water. That's easy since there are no corals on the rock. After that, should I just leave the photoperiod at 9 hrs? Also, should I throw in a few flakes to "feed" the tank? Any other suggestions? Thanks for all the help guys. This is valuable information that'll come in handy if my tank ever goes bad.*cross my fingers*

 

[ReefLion]

I think there is probably a faq on this subject above. The keys long-term are using RO/DI water, good skimming, adequate rock, and a healthy sand bed. There are lots of other details that could cause problems, but taking care of those helps prevent or minimize most blooms.

Now that you have one, remove as much as possible on a regular basis as nutrient export, and keep up the normal good routine.

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Blk_Gto-

seems that what most likely happened is the sudden flood of nutrients into your tank,from either die off in the sb from the transfer into the tank, or the large increase in bio activity from it's introduction, led to a relatively large increase of PO4-and you probly still have quite a bit of residual PO4 in the system, in addition to the daily production of same(possibly also NO3, if the dsb hasn't fully matured yet, anoxically speaking).
while the NO3 issue will resolve itself, you'll have to help w/the PO4 :wink: (this months aamol has a good article in it by randey holmes farley about PO4 removal,etc. )
i don't think you need a photoperiod over 8 hrs./day, if the spectrum and intensity are correct.
i'll bet that once you take care of the nutrient issue, everything will fall into place-patience is also needed :wink:

hth

 

[Blk_Gto]

i'll bet that once you take care of the nutrient issue, everything will fall into place-patience is also needed :wink:
hth

Thanks Vitz!!! Now how would you recomment taking care of this nutrient issue? With constant water changes and the scrubbing of the live rock? Also, after the above two are done, should she still feed the tank while it's trying to rebalance itself? Take in mind that there are currently no fish in the tank but if adding one will help, it can be done.

 

[reefsRcool]

i had a similar epidemuc outbreak of algee when i moved everything into my new tank. lots of water chenges maybe starting with a huge one. are you using Ro/DI water if not that is probably a huge part of the problem right there. your rock is fine, i would pull off what you can algee wise but IMO scrubbing rock does more harm then good. you will remove some benifical organisms that way to. look into an algee eating fish too do you have enough room for a tang? what size tank are we talking about here.

 

[Blk_Gto]

Yes. I was thinking of maybe some sort of crabs that eat algae. Unfortuantely, we're talking bout a 20 here so a tang is out of the question.

 

[Anonymous]

i'll bet that once you take care of the nutrient issue, everything will fall into place-patience is also needed :wink:
hth

Thanks Vitz!!! Now how would you recomment taking care of this nutrient issue? With constant water changes and the scrubbing of the live rock? Also, after the above two are done, should she still feed the tank while it's trying to rebalance itself? Take in mind that there are currently no fish in the tank but if adding one will help, it can be done.

welcome-

remember-it's a nutrient issue(fish produce nutrients :wink: )the suggestions others have added here are good ones-but understanding why they're good will also help you deal with this as time goes on-for it's the 'neverending' issue.

imho-a multi-pronged 'attack' is the easiest, and most effective:
eliminate sources-the quality of your makeup/topoff water is the easiest way to start-use either rodi, or distilled, water.

removal of nutrient from the water column through;protein skimming,kalkvasser,removal of the organisms that uptake those nutrients(algae harvesting)occasional carbon, macroalgae harvesting

proper processing of the initial nutrient sources(dsb-which does take time to develop this capacity)-macroalgae harvesting

avoiding unnecessarry contributions to the 'overload'-don't overfeed :wink:

each of these does it's part, in it's own different way,and again, they do take time-there's a very good reason for the cliche' 'good things in a reef tank happen slowly-it's the bad things that happen quickly'.

a reef tank at one year old is still brand spankin' new.. :wink:

fwiw-try not to fall into the trap of adding an animal to clean up a tank(with a few exceptions-though clean up crews are not necessary)you cannot remove something by virtue of adding something :wink:

hth

 

[Blk_Gto]

thanks for the advise. I may have been misleading but her tank has been set up for over two years. I am going to tell her to try the following to her 20 gallon tank...

1. 5 Gallon water change twice a week
2. Run carbon a couple hours a week.
3. Plug in the bac pac and skim away.
4. Daily removal of as much of the algae by hand

Since there is no fish in the tank, no food will be placed in the tank. In my opinion, food is needed to build up the sand bed. Should a couple flakes be placed into the water every day? If not, when is a good time to start adding food? Thanks!

 

[ridetheducati1]

We should also address the other aspect of algae growth.

LIGHT.

Please explain light setup. What type and kind of light? Age of bulbs? Photoperiod? Excess sunlight?

Light + water + nutrients = Algae


You will be more successful attacking the nutrient side of the equation. However, considering the light just may give you the upper hand.