gaining control

[sadielynn]

I know that some where here I read on how to reestablish a tank but cant find it .
I have to reaquascape and get the red slime algae under contrlol I have a small 5 gallon tank that I could use as a holding I would like to drain the tank and remove all inhibitants and reaquascape as well as replace the sand I need to reaquscape to make the rock more stable due to the neighbors . How much of the old sand should I keep to resead the new sand. Also if I drain the h2o into holding tanks and will this make the tank safe for our fish to return to later in the evening . I would start this at around 7 am and hope to have the rescaping done and the water clear by around 5 in the after noon. I was hoping to manually scrub all the live rock and clean it up as well as to get some of the phosphate problems under control via a new sand bed and water change aprox 40- 50% with newly mixed salt water . I do know that if I need to add some rock the lfs has a cured bin (there are marks on this live rock so I know it isnt "fresh" and has been in his tanks for the better part of 4 months , ordinarily I would recommend the cooking method but his is cured for fact ) I just dont want to do a disservice to the tank or the inhibitants , I know that I may go through some diatoms but they should not be all that bad it is the red slime that has me fustrated . I do not want to treat with chemicals if I dont need to but will have the chemi clean on hand so that when the rock itself is scrubbed and placed in the tank that I will add it so as to be hitting it from 2 angles . I have infact cut the feedings in 1/2 and am working to get the tank to a good aquascape that works for us . As well as controling the bad algaes . Any inputs would be greatly appreciated . :maitre

 

[skipm]

You only need about a cup or so of sand to seed the new sandbed, you want to harvest this from the top 1/2" or so of your current sandbed. The stuff deeper down will cause a cycle plus most of the good stuff is near the surface anyway. Good luck with the "remodeling", Skip

 

[sadielynn]

Thanks Skip
I am mixing the water to start this this week end .
I have one more question by scrubbing the rock work , can that be rinsed in fresh salt water (new ready for h20 changes after appropriate mixing ) and will this help with the bad slime that I have going on or will I need chemi - clean ....Keeping in mind that I am working to cure the problem at the source .....over feeding ? The other thing is that I have not been able to do h20 changes because of the ankel fracture :roll: :evil: hubby wants nothing to do with the alt tank as he has not learned enough to do the changes or maintnence tho I keep telling him it is not that hard to do with practice comes patients with patients comes perfection :mrgreen:
after all he has me right :lol3: now dont die laughing at that comment :ha:

 

[Dickie52]

sadielynn,

Just how bad is this cyano problem??? I hope you are not going over board on the cure. These cyano out breaks are going to happen as your tank matures....

You realized that you were feeding too much and cut down.....

You realized that you needed more water flow and took care of that.....

You have been doing water changes to dilute the problem.....

Give the tank a dose of chemipure.....let it do it's thing.

Keep up the good water changes and give your tank a chance to right itself.

I fear the tear down is only going to cause a lot of stress to you and your tank, besides which, it will be like your tank is starting over

I am not trying to be a know it all, but I think you are over reacting to a common problem.

 

[sadielynn]

Thanks for the input Dickie
I am also going to take this opportunity to move the tank away from the area it is in now because of some neighbor issues. I also wanted to rescape and get the rock scrubbed down I know that I will certainly have some diatoms , as for the red slime it is now choking out corals and killing them :cry: so I want to redue and start from a neutral begining I think you are right that it is like a new start but I think that given this problem and being as bad as it is this is the best way to gain control . I respect your input and opinion but I feel that the tank will get worse than it is because it is still rapidly spreading

 

[Dickie52]

I had no idea it was that bad......

Sounds like you are making the right move!!!

 

[sadielynn]

It is all over the back glass the filter , it is choking out some shrooms as well as zoas so I felt it was best to go this route granit it is extreme but I feel it will be worth it hope fully I wll get it under control by scrubbing the LR it wont hurt to place the live rock in water that is new (made for water changes )

 

[Anonymous]

As in my last post - no worries here. Restarting the tank may involve a small recycle but nothing serious - I just did this with my 20 at school - you may remember because of the heater breaking. Everything in that tank died except my 2 clowns and my blood shrimp and the tank was totally wiped out. I let the cyano and algae bloom for a couple weeks - then did just what your talking about and did a massive water change (50% followed by several smaller 20%) cleaned all the rock off with a scube brush in old salt water, reaquascaped, let it cycle a bit more, with a hot mag on it with carbon, and finally this week I started adding frags to it and all seems well. As far a the sand goes I completely killed mine rinsing it completely with fresh water to remove everything. It will reseed itself with bacteria from the rock. And yes i still have a little cyano and diatom growth going on but I'm comfident it will recead. And as I said in an earlier post if you can place some of the worst rock in the dark for a couple weeks - a bucket with heater and pump and that will even make the change better in the long term.

 

[sadielynn]

Thanks John I remeber that .
Most of the rocks have some type of growth so I will scrub and rescape I bought new sand today and am airating some water till tomorrow mid morning I started this at around 8:30 pm and will add the salt around ten or noonish then airate for over night till saturday till I am ready to tear down . I will place the cleaned rock into some new salt water and attempt to filter for a bit while I clean the tank and equipment then once I am ready for the rock I will move it to the room with the tank add some water and start scaping I may even wait till sunday to add the fish into the tank but that depends on how quickly I can get the scaping done and the water cleared :roll: