Bought a USED SW tank today need advice.

[Ricky@3rdshift]

Ok so I am fairly new to the SW world, but I ran onto a deal today I couldn't pass up.

I bought a running 5 or so gallon Marineland eclipse tank from a LFS for 20.00. It came complete with about 10 to 12 LBS of LR saltwater filtration and all. it was running when I bought and had been for almost a year. No fish at this time.

I emptied the sw into a plastic tub I use to hold SW and LR and left a gallon or so in the tank with the sand. It is just basic marine sand not of the live variety. transported the entire set up home. Great you say, well here comes the catch.

The Lr is completely covered with a slimmy film algee substance with airbubbles and such in the growth as well as a film over some parts of the sand. Should I set the tank back up as it was and let it run and try and clean it up or should I try and brush it off the rocks and try and clean the sand some how? I am wiping the walls down now with a damp cloth as well as all the fixtures and lids etc... b/c its dust dirty on the outsides.

Sorry for the long winded posts but I wanna get this thing the atention it needs asap.
If you need anymore details LMK I will post as I am checking back often for advice.
Ricky

[Hara]

The slimy green type algae is called Cyano. The sand is most likely live. Live indicates the bacteria in it..no more, no less. (some think it means crawling with creatures and growing things, but this is not so). In order to keep the biological life on the rocks and the sand, you will need to keep it set up and running. Now you just get broke in the hard way on saltwater issues. This is what I would do. Settle the tank in. SIphon off as much cyano as possible with airline tubing with a rigid piece of tubing at the end to make things easier. Shut off the lights and leave them off until this problem is fixed. Do a 90% water change. Make sure you use RO water to begin with. After you have done all this, there should not be much left to keep the cyano going unless your rock has die off (it shouldnt, but you never know). Keep the tank siphoned and the lights off and things should be ok within a couple of weeks or so.

[Ricky@3rdshift]

Ok kewl accept 1 problem. I removed all the water down to just enough for the sand I cleaned out most of the cyano with a screen and by hand. Only thing left that is visible is on the rocks. Should I wash or wipe them down them down before returning to the tank?

the tank has not been running or had water in the tank for about 1 hour at this point. I am going to pour some water back in the tank for now but just enough to kepe the sand good and wet. The guy I bought it from said it was just marine sand not actually bought live sand, but it probably does have some life by now.

[Hara]

Are the rocks dry? Or are they still damp?

[Ricky@3rdshift]

they were kept in SW fully covered in a seperate tub the whole time

[Ricky@3rdshift]

Sorry abut the double post, but i figured it was a getting started thread why not?

I filled the tank back up after wiping it down wit ha damp cloth. I have installed the LR back in as is and have got the filters running. I found out the light switch is stuck on the on position so I have it unpluged for now.

Since I have it running should I throw in a snail or 2 to help get the cyano under control? I can run and pick up a few turbos if need be tonite.

I 'm just really excited to possibly have a already running tank for my kids room I don't wanna jepordize anything or have to start over with the whole cycling like I am going through with my 55 at the momnet.

[nodoubt471]

the turbos probably wont touch the cyano- few things will eat it. i would suggest getting a small powerhead in that tank to help with circulation. ive found IME that the best way to get rid of cyano is increased circulation and regular water changes with RO/DI water.

[Ricky@3rdshift]

RO water is all totally new to me since I have only ben in sw tanks for about 20 Days now

I have the tank set back up now flowing with the filter I am making a run to wal-mart to get some filters and I may see what they have heads if any.

Ricky