Restarting my tank (1 Viewer)

[Meyeronfire]

Just looking for a few suggestions here. Ive decided to go ahead and restart my tank. Due to school time has not been on my side lately and along with power outages (which have now been resolved) my tank has gone for lack of a better word but SH*&. I have had massive outbreaks of some kind of red spongy algea along with hair algae and some dust looking stuff on the SB. I currently ordered all new RO filters and a DI resin and a bucket of salt. Currently there are no fish in the tank and a few corals that are left a friend is going to keep them for me untill everything has cycled. I want to know if I take out all my LR and place it in the sun to bleach and kill everything will it become live again? I was also wanting to know if it would be a good idea to keep my old sand and clean the detrius or just buy new sand.

Setup includes
72 bow with 20 gal fuge
4X54 T5 lighting
MP 20 with rio pump return
Octopus skimmer rated for 160gal.
ROWAphos in a TLF reactor

I dont think the tank is salvageable at this point, I think a 4 day power outage with no circulation brought it toward a crash and major bacteria outbreak or else I would work hard with water changes which has been attempted but no luck. Please give me a few suggestions on how to restart.

 

[flexrac]

you can put in the sun to dry out, but then it won't be of any use to you for a while. it will be full of nitrates and amonia, plus phosphates. you will have to cure it again. and cycle it in a seperate container, not your tank. and do water changes and test parameters.

 

[Meyeronfire]

ALright, any estimated time frame im looking at before nitrates, phos, and ammo will subside? And will coraline grow again on the LR? I have about 90lbs of LR.

Thank you for the reply.

 

[flexrac]

everything will grow back, but it will take time, it's just like buying base rock. the whole process should take a month before you can put it back in your tank.( Note: i left mine out in the sun for a week.) you could always just place them in a big garbage can with saltwater and a powerhead with the lid on it. this will be safer. the rocks will turn white from lack of light, but you will keep everything else alive. algae will die but not your snails etc. the process is called cooking your rocks.

can you take a pic of your rocks so i may them?

 

[Meyeronfire]

Ok cool thank you for your input Felix. I will post pics on this thread soon. I am going to be redoing my sump with a different design this time and would love input from you guys.

 

[RGH69]

If there are still some corals I would think that it probably looks much worse than it is. Instead of going though a couple months (or more) getting everything matured I would try to save all of you bacteria.

• I would pull as much algae as you can off the rock
  Then get a container large enough to hold all of it and put it all in.
  Fill it with filtered tank water to hold it until the tank is clean.
  I would also do the same for the sand.
  Then clean out the tank. Reset the tank
  Add sand, Live Rock and water.
  Check Nitrates after a few days (I bet it cycles pretty quick)
  Get your protein skimmer going strong
  Then get a massive cleanup crew and let them naturally clean the rock.
  Do at least a 20% water change

After a week or so The water should be pristine and you should be able to get going again. By using good RO/DI in the process you should be able to eliminate the nutients that are feeding the bad algae.

 

[flexrac]

show us the old design, then we can help with the new. wish jamie was around, he is a great sump builder. no one can find him though.

 

[Llama]

I swear I saw him post recently.

 

[Llama]

August 4th!!!!

 

[tmgrash]

Hmm, I guess I go against the majority. Why not just leave it in the tank, fix your parameters with water changes, etc. and wait for it to cycle? I dont see an advantage to these alternative methods, only disadvantages. Leave the rocks in your tank, you keep your good biodiversity, control your parameters to get rid of the unwanteds (like unsightly algea) by keeping your parameters in check. The process will not be any longer than sun frying your rocks or "cooking" them.

Just my two cents, but I think biodiversity in our tanks in a thing we lack and should strive for. The more the marrier.

 

[Meyeronfire]

I agree with you tmgrash, Im just worried that since the power was out after 4 days things just cant seem to get back in check, believe me I dont want to restart but I feel like this is the only option.

Ill take some pics of the old sump design and post. Do guys know any good videos on youtube or websites I can visits for some Ideas. Im not really looking at to much space. I have a 20gal high under the tank right now but would really like to fit a 20 gal long...

Thanks in advance for everyone's input.

 

[Meyeronfire]

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[Meyeronfire]

I think I may also try a DSB in the fuge this time as well. Input? Possibly raising the skimmer a bit?

 

[tmgrash]

I think regardless of how long you were out of power your not in that much trouble. Algea goes away when its food source is gone. I was out of power for 8 days during IKE, some bad things happend but the majority recovered.

 

[fishcraze]

If it's my tank, I'd do the followings (some of these suggestions are pretty extreme, but just my way :

- Make new saltwater mix, enough to refill the tank/sump 100%. Make sure to have the mix airated for at least overnite and check salinity/dKh etc.. to match your tank normal levels.

- Remove the rocks with lots of algea & scrape as much algea (esp the hair algea) as possible and wash them with the existing tank water. Be careful not disturbing the sandbed while removing the rocks so that you can use the existing old tank water to wash the rocks with. Dont wash with freshwater since it will kill all the helpful bacteria. You could also leave the rocks as-is and let the algea die off naturally with no light, but I prefer mechanical remove most of them to speed up the process. And definitely I won't sun-dried my rocks! Need to keep the bateria alive.

- If there were a lot of die off during the outage and the DSB is old, then i'd dump the sandbed and replace with a new sandbed (if you want to go back with sandbed in the main tank) - i know it's a little extreme but sand is pretty cheap.

- Refill the tank (i'd replace 100% especially if the DSB are disturbed/removed) and put all the rocks back in.

- I'd put a DSB in the sump (esp if you decide to go with bare bottom in the main tank) since DSB is really helpful in the long run.

- Let the tank cycled for 2-3 weeks with NO light on. May throw in some algea eaters to clean up any remaining hair algea on the rocks. I'd add sea urchins since they really good at this and since no corals in the tank so you don't have to worry or piss at them knocking rocks all over!

- Skim wet if possible.

- Do 20% water change after 2 wks and check parameters. Since the rocks are already established so i think it shouldnt' take long for the tank to cycle.