HPballer76's 72 gallon bow. first sw tank.

[carey]

Of course it's entirely up to you, just giving my opinion. lol

If youre up to the task then go for it. I know what you mean about a new tank, my 90g is still all clean and new looking. You do realize you will get diatoms and new algae eventually though unless you have changed things.

Going forward i would dip your corals when you bring them home, I didn't dip and ended up with thousands of flatworms. Took a few weeks and a few treatments to get them all. As far as algae, i would keep your lights on the minimum amount of time you can and maybe add a gfo reactor. About $45 at BRS plus the gfo and the pump. And the biggest thing would be to keep your feeding in check when it's full and running again. Do you use ro/di water? Redo your tank and use tap and you'll be back to where you are now. lol

 

[HPballer76]

hmm decisions, decisions.

its only a fowlr tank. so now worries about the corals. i bought the tank used and didn't really know what i was looking at. the flat worms were already there and i think part of the algae problem was from the old t5 lights that came with it. that should be fixed now with the led's. i only feed once every other day. i actually just ordered a carbon and gfo reactor from brs in my group buy order today also i always use ro. i've got the brs 5 stage system.

 

[carey]

They make a great product called flatworm exit. It literally starts killing them a second after it goes into the tank.. And yep, those older bulbs were probably contributing to the algae. Your feeding schedule is excellent too. Not sure why you had those issues.

Nice call on the gfo and carbon reactors. The gfo should be a huge help in combating algae. I'm actually going to buy a reactor and a bio pellet reactor sometime tonight from brs.

You could just go with what setup you have now and give it another go after you treat for flatworms and get the reactors up. If you run into issues AGAIN then I would think a breakdown and do over might be a good thing. lol

 

[HPballer76]

i actually have flatworm exit and has used it a couple times they just seem to keep coming back.

how do you think i should go about making the tank nice? should i move the livestock and some of the rock to the 29 treat for flatworms in the main tank and aquascape with the new rock and some existing rock then treat the rock that would be in the livestock before it goes back in the tank? how should i get rid of the algae? would i need to take out the sand and rinse it or leave it alone?

basically i'm willing to do whatever it takes to make the tank nice again i'm just not sure about the best way to do it.

 

[carey]

If you really wanna do the work, then I would take out the sand and replace it with new sand. You'll lose your bacteria that lives on the sand though. BUT it will give you a whole new clean sandbed. You could also rinse the bejesus out of the sand you have now

As for the algae, is it just the green stuff? I would pull out as much as you can manually. Taking the rock out and scrubbing them in a bucket of salt water should get some more off and then just toss it back in.

What I did to nuke my tank was to add couple cups of pure ammonia. It killed hundreds of aipatsia within a day. I then did 5 90% water changes over the next two days. And after letting it sit for a week or so, the ammonia left in the system was consumed by the beneficial bacteria. Was like a forced hard cycle. lol

You're in a tight spot with having to make this decision. It's a lot of work but in the end it should be worth it. I also think they make an algaecide for marine. If you have all the livestock out I don't see why you can't try some interesting products.

Glad to be here for you to throw ideas at, I know sometimes I just need to throw scenarios at some one and it helps me make up my min. lol

 

[HPballer76]

yeah pretty much just green hair algae with a little bit of bubble algae. i had some slime algae but it seems to be clearing up. theres also probably 20 or so aiptasia in there.

yes i definitely need someone to throw ideas off of. i can't decide what to do. i tend to travel at least once a month so i was waiting till i had time to be home long enough to do everything. i fractured my arm last week so ill be home and have the time now but having a cast on makes doing things difficult lol

I could get 80lbs of sand from reef rocks for 30 so that wouldn't be a big deal.

i guess what i'm not sure on is if i move livestock and liverock to a holding tank. get the main tank all clean with new sand and the new baserock i ordered how i should go about adding the rest of the rock and livestock back? if i moved all the liverock back in after cleaning and treating it would the hob filter be enough filtration to keep the holding tank going since i'm assuming the main tank will have at least a mini cycle which would keep me from moving the liverock and livestock back at the same time.

another thing i'm worried about is having food for everyone while in holding and after. my blenny is always munching on the hair algae along with the snails and emerald.


also im going to look at a 24 gallon aquapod tomorrow. it comes with the tank, stand, sand, and 30lbs of live rock. seller says that there isn't a scratch on the glass hopefully he isn't lying. all that for 140 obo. good price? if i end up with that i could use it for holding if that would be better than the 29 with the ac50.


sorry for such a long post. not sure if all of that made sense. i've got so many ideas going through my head its getting hard to put things together lol

heres a pic of the tank as of about 5 mins ago.

 

[carey]

Shame to mess with it, looks pretty nice and mature from my point of view.

If you start with all new sand and all new rock and just have an AC for filtration I think you may be right about a mini cycle.

I wish i could get an aqua pod for $140! As long as the lights are good and it's seals are fine it's a great deal.

 

[HPballer76]

yeah it is. it was running at the previous owners house for a couple years before i bought it.

maybe i will just try manually removing as much algae as i can, do the flatworm exit a few more times and get some peppermint shrimp and lemon juice for the aipatsia. all that plus the new reactors might get things under control. in reality i guess its not that bad, i'm just picky lol. i also might add a 24w uv sterilizer. found one locally that has a 6 month old bulb in it and comes with a brand new bulb and the pump to run it for 35 bucks.

and yeah i'm pretty excited about the aquapod. if i get it i will definitely make a new build thread for it. the bulbs in it i was told are 8 months old. should i just replace those before i do anything with it? i don't want to end up with an algae problem in that cause of the lights like i have in this one lol

 

[carey]

When I get a used tank I pretty much change out the bulbs first thing. Cheap and easy and you know exactly how old they are. lol

You will really make a dent in your algae issues if you go ahead with your plans to yank it out and use reactors. A uv is usually not needed but for that price I would give it a try.

 

[HPballer76]

got my reactor in today. hopefully will get it up and running tomorrow. need to make room for it in the stand lol.

also for about the last week or so i have been running my refugium light 24/7 by doing that, there doesn't appear to be any algae growing in the dt. it is however growing in the fuge now.

this is what my fuge looked like when i first set it up.

and this is it as of about 5 mins ago.

should i take the cheato out and rinse it in tank water to try and get some of the slime algae off of it and scrap the glass during my next water change? or should i just let it be and be happy it isn't growing in the dt? hopefully the gfo will stop it from growing all together so i don't have to worry about either.


on another note my eight line wrasse killed my fire shrimp today

 

[HPballer76]

also my 50lb box of base rock should be here tomorrow from reef rocks so maybe doing some aquascaping this weekend. i plan to put 30-40lbs in this and then 10 or so in the 24 gallon.

 

[HPballer76]

just setup my brs dual reactor.

i did about 3/4 cup of carbon

and 1 cup of gfo.

the reactor with the media in place.

the pump running the reactor. it is in the return chamber of my sump for now cause that was the easiest place to put it. when i have time i want to move it to the first chamber with the skimmer.

the reactor sitting beside my sump.

and all the craziness going on under the tank.

my only complaint with the reactor so far is that the push connect fittings are kind of finicky. you have to get them in just the right spot or they will leak..
unfortunately i don't have a phosphate test kit so i can't tell how effective the reactor actually is at removing phosphates.

 

[carey]

There is a calculator on brs website that will tell you exactly how much of carbon and gfo you need for your tank.

I was planning on getting the same unit but it went out of stock before I could buy it. :-(

 

[HPballer76]

didn't know about the calculator. looks like i was a 1/4 cup off on both lol. oh well its a good starting point.

any recommendations on what i should do about the algae in the sump?

 

[carey]

leave it be. thats what you want the sump for so it doesnt grow in your DT.

You will probably notice it die down a bit after you have the gfo running for awhile anyways.

 

[HPballer76]

yep thats what i am hopping for! thanks carey!

 

[carey]

good luck! let us know if the dual reactor works out, I've been wanting one forever and am so pissed I didn't get it now that I finally decided to buy it. It looks like good quality too.

 

[HPballer76]

i will! it seems to be really nice. i got the flow dialed in so that just the top of the gfo is tumbling. my only complaint so far is the hoses took a little time to get the push connectors just right so they didn't leak. first time i turned it on water sprayed everywhere lol

 

[HPballer76]

heres the rock i got from reef rocks. this was there 50lb box. i put the maxijet 1200 box in the picture to give you an idea of size. the maxijet is also the pump i am using to run my reactor if anyone was wondering.

 

[HPballer76]

redid my aquascape today. i added 40-43lbs of base rock from reef rocks. the other 10 will go into the 24g.

here it is before.

and here it is after.

let me know what everyone thinks about the new look.

i'm hopping i didn't disturb the sand bed to much. i tested for ammo about 2 hours after i finished and it was 0. should i check again in a few hours or anything else i should look out for?

i also added another 1050gph koralia for some extra flow.