more like getting restarted - new live rock/sand

[stan450z]

I want to start my aquarium from scratch again.

I am getting rid of my rock with artificial corals and crushed coral substrate for live rock and fine white sand.

I found somebody on CL getting rid of live rock and sand from about 180g tank. I have a 75. For $200 or half for $100. He mentioned that the only thing is that some of the live rock has green hair algae. (as well as nice purple and orange coralline algae).

I could also get new and cured live rock from my LFS- but at $8 a pound, you can see what I am up for.

My main concern is what to do with my fish during my process. Currently my livestock besides snails and crabs consist of 1 yellow tang and 3 damsels.

Do I need to take them out or can I just plop the new rock and sand into the tank? Should I just sell them and start from scratch? Should I just put the fish into buckets, plop everything in, do a water change, and put them back in when the cloudiness is gone?

Is green hair algae something I can just scrub right off, and then let my tang, snails, crabs, damsels, eat the rest off? The seller just said as long as I have no nitrates and cut the light I could just kill it off. My water is pristine right now. Perfect for quite some time now. What are your thoughts guys?

What is it that I should be worried about? As for my yellow tang, sadly, I probably dont care if it might not make the transition if there is another cycle or something. The thing has always acted weird and seems very stressed even if I had it for nearly 5 months! Everytime I walk up to the tank, the thing darts and hides behind a rock. The damsels love me and come right up to the water if I am feeding them, but the tang runs away. Not like anything I have ever seen. Maybe when I bought it, I should have gotten the less frisky tang. I think this one is a little psycho, lol.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Zer0]

Not sure about the fish and all, but so far from what i've heard, Tangs are only happy in larger tanks because they are crazy swimmers.. and they always seem really twitchy and scared. So it doesnt surprise me to here that the tang is acting that way.

 

[roka64]

I switched out my CC with fish in my tank. I did about 1/3 at a time about a week apart to allow the bacteria and bristleworms and other critters to move and propagate in the new sand.
If the rock is cured and there was never copper used in the tank, you should be able to move it into the tank. I would have some PWC on hand just in case.
As for the car of the tang, if you don't like it, take it back. Fish (to me) are no different than a dog, just because I can't hug it, it still deserves the best care I can give it....Ok, off my soapbox, and I hope this doesn't take away from the rest of your post.
Hang in there and you might be surprised....

 

[stan450z]

thanks. i think this is my plan.

1. take my structure out so it then becomes a FO tank.
2. capture the fish, and keep in buckets until the very end
3. clean and gently take out crushed coral substrate. (would like to resell?)
4. put in new live rock - after trying to scrub as much of the green hair algae off as possible.
5. gently pour in brand new sand to anchor the live rock. debating on just plain dead white sand, or with a mix of a small bag of live sand into the white sand.
6. let it settle out, and do a large partial water change.
7. put back in my fish.

after water is ok, and no sign of green hair after about 2-4 weeks i will add more fish. blacking out for most of the day and cutting nutrients and hope my CUC gets rid of all of the algae that i couldnt get rid of.

yes, i am considering taking back the yellow tang into the store instead of putting into the new system. got it a few months ago. dont really want $ back for it. debating on keeping it. i like it, its just a bit timid. always seems startled and when i add new fish i dont want any problems. i want happy fish.

 

[joy13]

The live sand you get from the store isn't really live sand. If you have live sand from an existing tank you will have all sorts live stuff in it.