Andrea's 29 Gallon Reef

[AndI3kAY]

So over the last few days I have gotten a new-to-me 29 gallon tank and stand into my basement, emptied, cleaned up (mostly) and set up.

I went out tonight and got 30 gallons of saltwater from my LFS, but they were out of the live sand, can i add sand after the water is already in the tank?

Also I got a bunch of live rock to go in my tank, but when i got it home I discovered that it has aiptasia all over it :/ so that is currently soaking in buckets if bleach. Since the bleach will kill everything in the rock, would a new piece of cured live rock from my LFS be enough to seed the old rock?

I plan to do a fishless cycle and use a raw shrimp in a stocking that most people seem to do, but i will not be able to get the shrimp until tomorrow or monday, does that mean my cycle will not start until i add it to the water?

There is also some white stuff on the glass that i cant seem to get off, anyone have any ideas?

Any help and suggestions would really be appreciated, thanks everyone!

[AndI3kAY]

Here is a picture of the stuff still stuck on the glass..

[carey]

Hi there! Welcome tothe salty side.

You can get by adding antoher piece of live rock to the base and dead rock and it will spread it's "liveness" to that rock, no worries. Some people start their cycle with nothing but dead rock so you'll be fine.

That white stuff is probably dried up coralline algae, just get a razor scraper and scrape it off carefully so you dont scratch the glass. Petco sells those scrapers for about $7.

I would add the sand as soon as you want to start cycling, unless the live sand has a color or texture you want you can just use plain not "alive" sand.

[AndI3kAY]

I was just at petco and they were out of the scraper things, could i possibly just carefully use a regular razor blade to scrape it off? Also do you have any idea how long to soak the rock in the bleach?

[carey]

If you can not cut yourself then sure, just use the razor at an angle, but please be very careful.

I would let them soak at least a day or two to be sure. Then a soak in fresh water to follow up. You want to make sure that the bleach is out of the rock before adding it to the tank.

[AndI3kAY]

I just want this stupid crap off my tank :/

[AndI3kAY]

Well after searching the internet and reading on here, i got almost all of it off, white vinegar an algae scrubber and an old debit card worked like magic! I finally have a nice clean tank!

[AndI3kAY]

Soooo why does my "29 gallon" tank only hold 25 gallons of water? Haha

[AndI3kAY]

I think i'm basically just talking to myself here, but i got live sand and a piece of live rock from my LFS today to start my cycle! Just waiting for everything to clear up.

Going to wait another day and then take my old live rock out of the bleach soak, then will rinse it a lot ad soak it in freshwater to get rid of any bleach. Can't wait till thats done so I can get it all in the tank and start aquascaping!

[Genski84]

I would never use bleach on anything that was to go into my tank. You can easily kill aiptasia by squirting it with scolding hot water (I use a dropper that comes from children's medicine) or use aiptasia x. It is unbelievable hard to get bleach completely off once it's soaked into the pores of the rock you're screwed. It will be seeping out slowly. If I were you, I would start over. Just get the sand you want. It doesn't have to be live although that helps. When you pick up your rock, inspect it the best you can in the tank. This is just my opinion. Don't rush it. That will ultimately end in a failed cycle and then a failed tank. You don't want to waste money and kill animals.

[AndI3kAY]

The rock i got for free, and it was covered completely with aiptasia, believe me i looked into many different ways of getting rid of it. But from what i've read it can be soaked in bleach, rinsed, soaked in white vinegar for a few days, rinsed and then soaked in freshwater for about a week, rinsing daily. When the process is dine i will re-evaluate wether or not i should put it in the tank. Sorry i guess my previous post made it seem like i was rushing and going to dump it right back into the tank.

[carey]

I know what youre saying as far as the aipastia. lol I have about 200lbs of rock right now in my 125g that Inuked with ammonia to get rid of them. Once they have a good foothold its over and you lose. I just nuked my biocube about 2 weeks ago as well, I use pure ammonia and it gets rid of them all, no ifs ands or buts.

I would definitely be careful though with the rinsing of the bleach, after you have soaked them in fresh water you might want to add some prime as well and try to neutralize any thats left. If there is ANY odor left then its not good to go back in the tank. I bleach my filter socks and after a wash cycle and another rinse cycle I let them air dry out back outside to let the bleach evaporate off, if any is left. You just have to be careful is all.

I have/had aipastia the size of my hand, I mean rally big ones that I couldnt possibly use an injector on. Dont feel bad about what you decided to do, better to deal with it now than 6 months from now when it has taken over your tank.

[Genski84]

Well good luck

[AndI3kAY]

Originally Posted by Genski84

Well good luck

Your starting to make me nervous, soo many sources on the internet made it seem like this was a good way to take care of it. Maybe you are right and i should just get all new rock..

[AndI3kAY]

Tank cleared up really well overnight! I really want to smooth out my sandbed, but the eczema outbreak on my hand is telling me not to stick my hand in that water :/

[Genski84]

Looks great! I have eczema problems as well go figure. That would be the saltwater and the bleach. I hope everything works out for you. Just do this, put yourself in your future coral or fishes fins Would you want to be swimming around and living in the remembrance of bleach? There are just so many other friendly ways of getting rid of that nasty weed anemone. I actually used the boiling water on one of my clients tank two days ago. Aiptasia x can get messy. If you need tips to get rid of it, feel free to ask. I can't tell you what to do but I can give you opinions based on experience. And when it comes to our "babies", you would never give them poison.

[carey]

If you rinse the bleach out there wont be any "poison" for your "babies". It's just going to take time and effort is all. If you put in the time then you will perfectly clean pest free rock. There are people who actually do acid soaks on their rock and its fine to use again after being rinsed and cleaned. I even went ahead and bought a gallon of mercuric acid to the very thing but people scared me away cause of the safety issues involved with acid, such as splashing. It never had to do with the rock being dirty or unsafe.

To be honest, I have never used a bleach soak to get rid of aipastia but I can speak from first hand experience with massive aipastia outbreaks that boiling water and aipastia X are sometime not enough. I even have gone so far as to borrow an electric zapper to zap each one. But when you are dealing with hundreds of them it just isnt practical and if you miss even one you will be back to square one.
By now they should all be dead so I would remove them from the soak and start with some fresh water soaking. It will take several days to get rid of the bleach entirely. If it were me I would then sit them out in the sun for a few days to let any remaining bleach evaporate off. And remember, a smell test to make sure you cant catch a whiff of bleach.

I wish some of the people who have bleached their rocks would chime in, I know you guys are out there. LOL

[AndI3kAY]

I'm going to remove the rocks from the bleach today before work. You both make good points about the bleach, I guess I will have to wait and use my best judgement after a few days of freshwater soaking.

How long should I wait to test my water? I put the live sand and rock in there on Sunday night, but I never did get the raw shrimp. Is that even something I still need or will the tank cycle without it?

[AndI3kAY]

Well turns out bleach soaking the rock was a bad idea after all, I scrubbed and rinsed and scrubbed some more and none of the aiptasia will come off. I think I'm giving up on it and will just start getting new live rock from my LFS.

How much live rock should I get for a 29 gallon? The rock in the tank is 3lbs.

[Bill0181]

1-1.5 lbs per gallon so if your tank is only 25 gallons than 25 lbs. of rock, which does not have to be the expensive live rock it could be base rock with a couple pieces of live rock to seed the tank much cheaper this way and fewer pests!