Cleaning Tank

[Mr. Fish]

My 24 gallon has really gone to pot. Everything is covered in this dark green reddish algae. I have massive amounts of aiptasia on the rocks that I can't see right now because of all the algae, but I no its lurking underneath. My question is how the hell do I start cleaning it. I planned on cleaning it this afternoon, but got overwhelmed after seeing what was in there after cleaning the glass. I have a bta that's doing great, along with a pink skunk clown and a purple stripe dottyback, so I can't do a blackout or anything. I tried using an aiptasia killer on the aiptasia, but it did not work and actually increased their numbers by ten fold. Should I just take all but the bta's rock out and put it in freshwater or something?

Thanks

 

[Canadian Reefer]

Take each rock out and scrub the hell out of it with a wire brush and give it a good rinse. That should remove alot of your algae and aptaisa. After that you will need due dilligence with spot aptaisa control.

 

[pktech]

Sounds like cyano bacteria. Some say to use of lights, cut down on food in the tank & check the phosphate level. Or you can get that red slime nuker additive. I used the additive with no apparent side effects.

 

[Mr. Fish]

Sounds like cyano bacteria. Some say to use of lights, cut down on food in the tank & check the phosphate level. Or you can get that red slime nuker additive. I used the additive with no apparent side effects.

Its definitely not cyano, I have had that before this is not it. It looks like green hair algae with brown algae growing over that.

 

[Mr. Fish]

Take each rock out and scrub the hell out of it with a wire brush and give it a good rinse. That should remove alot of your algae and aptaisa. After that you will need due dilligence with spot aptaisa control.

When I used aiptasia spot control before it caused way more, wont that just happen again?

 

[Alysiak00]

beats me....why can't it just be like bees lol. kill the queen you get em all lol

 

[Mr. Fish]

beats me....why can't it just be like bees lol. kill the queen you get em all lol

I wish it was that easy.

 

[Mr. Fish]

What would happen if I took the rock out and put it in freshwater, or let it dry out? Could I put it back in my tank or would it have to cure again?

 

[Potsy]

If you dry the rock out, you'd have to re-cure it to leach out the organics, phosphate, and nutrients from dead and rotting critters. Look up "cooking live rock" (not what it sounds like).

Personally, I'd start over with some dry rock (I have eco rox from bulkreefsupply.com and love it). To avoid waiting through a long cycle with my livestock sitting in rubbermaids in the laundry room, I used Dr. Tim's One and Only bacterial additive. The stuff really works as I had never had any readings of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate after adding my fish and few large corals.