I am brand new to Saltwater, buying a 180 that is currently running.

[DCapps]

Hello All,
Funny enough I own and operate a business called Reefer Rescue, but it has nothing to do with Reef Keeping HA! I was pretty surprised to hear the term "Reefer" as in a Reef Tank Hobbiest, I may be jumping in too fast, I have never run a saltwater tank. I have run several African Cichlid tanks over the years, and have recently been interested in starting up a Reef Tank. I found a setup that is up and running at a business that is going out of business this coming week. The tank is 180 gallons, and looks like it has clearly been neglected for some time. I am planning on going this weekend to tear down the tank and hoping I can get some pointers. As of now from what we saw when we went to look at it, there us a porcupine puffer, a wrasse, a trigger, and a baseball sized hermit crab that are currently in tank. My plan is to re home them to a local fish store.
My question comes with what to do with the rock and corals?
Can I re use the rock if I clean the algae off of it?
I plan on getting rid of the sand.
The corals If that is what they are are not the most attractive, so not sure if i want to keep those either.
My plan so far is to shut system off, remove filter components and all other components and box them up, drain water into big plastic tubs, remove the rock and put into the tubs, collect fish and crab and whatever else is living in there and put in another tub to go to the fish store, discard sand and nasty water. scrape and clean glass of the buildup. If I'm not keeping the fish I imagine there is no massive rush to set tank up and get it running in a time crunch. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[griss]

Welcome, we have a lot of very experienced reefers here. I’ve been in the hobby since the early/mid 80’s and there’s quite a few who have been in it longer than me.

From the pics, it looks like you have some leather/cabbage corals on some of the rocks. If you’re not in a hurry to set the tank back up, I’d donate/trade those into the LFS with the fish.

The rock, you could go either way. Keep or not. If you’re going to keep it (since the tank has been neglected) and you’re not in a hurry to set back up, I’d put it in a trash an of saltwater with a powerhead and heater and let any nutrients (PO4) leach out of it over time.

Or, you could just start with dry, live or a combo of the two rock when you setup.

 

[kharmaguru]

Yep I was thinking cabbage leathers too.

Some of that algae might just disappear when you get your nutrients dialed in but some of it looks like turf algae and might be a pain in the butt. I can't see any aiptasia which is kind of a shocker lol.

Getting rid of the sand is a good call and 180 gallons is a nice water volume to have stability. Welcome to your new addiction.

 

[DCapps]

Yep I was thinking cabbage leathers too.

Some of that algae might just disappear when you get your nutrients dialed in but some of it looks like turf algae and might be a pain in the butt. I can't see any aiptasia which is kind of a shocker lol.

Getting rid of the sand is a good call and 180 gallons is a nice water volume to have stability. Welcome to your new addiction.

I had to look up Aiptasia to see what you were referring to, I think there is at least one in there.

sitting on the main center rock towards the right side. I have a tendency to get pretty deep into hobbies! we shall see where this one takes me. I have always enjoyed aquariums, and salt tanks done right are just beautiful to look at and enjoy.

 

[DCapps]

Welcome, we have a lot of very experienced reefers here. I’ve been in the hobby since the early/mid 80’s and there’s quite a few who have been in it longer than me.

From the pics, it looks like you have some leather/cabbage corals on some of the rocks. If you’re not in a hurry to set the tank back up, I’d donate/trade those into the LFS with the fish.

The rock, you could go either way. Keep or not. If you’re going to keep it (since the tank has been neglected) and you’re not in a hurry to set back up, I’d put it in a trash an of saltwater with a powerhead and heater and let any nutrients (PO4) leach out of it over time.

Or, you could just start with dry, live or a combo of the two rock when you setup.

Thanks for the response, I do plan on setting the tank up this weekend if it is possible with what I am working with, If not I need to just work on cleanup and getting everything ready to get running again. I was just thinking if putting the rock that is covered in algae directly back into the tank is a step backwards, I need to find another game plan. I just don't know what the smartest way to go would be.

 

[kharmaguru]

I had to look up Aiptasia to see what you were referring to, I think there is at least one in there.
sitting on the main center rock towards the right side.

Nah, I think that's just a wee leather coral.

 

[griss]

Agree, that’s not Aiptasia, it’s a Sarcophyton sp. Leather coral.

FYI - in a tank this neglected, if there was one Aiptasia, there’d be 1000’s. I’m also shocked there aren’t any.

 

[Reefing102]

Welcome!

They’ve given some great advice. The algae may be turf or bryopsis. Hard to tell currently. Either way can be a pain. If you want to completely reset the rock, I would essentially nuke it with a Muriatic acid bath (please research this…Ppe is required). This method will kill everything, including any good bacteria so you’d essentially be starting completely over. Otherwise you can put it in some trash cans as mentioned and essentially re-cure it without losing the bacteria over a period of several weeks.

Or…you can just reuse the rock, buy a hefty clean up crew and see what gets ate. Then take closer and clearer pics of the algae will help identify it to determine next steps. If it’s bryopsis it can be treated with Reef Flux or a similar fluconazole treatment. Not sure if there’s much for treating turf algae as mentioned.

Part of the current algae issue is most of the current livestock appears to be clean up crew destroyers (killing and eating the snails and crabs that help with that).

You can also try multi-day blackout periods to help cut the algae down.

My final suggestion would be to see what lighting is being used. Depending on the type of lighting may be able to change the bulbs to newer bulbs or change the spectrum to a less algae friendly spectrum.

 

[DCapps]

Welcome!

They’ve given some great advice. The algae may be turf or bryopsis. Hard to tell currently. Either way can be a pain. If you want to completely reset the rock, I would essentially nuke it with a Muriatic acid bath (please research this…Ppe is required). This method will kill everything, including any good bacteria so you’d essentially be starting completely over. Otherwise you can put it in some trash cans as mentioned and essentially re-cure it without losing the bacteria over a period of several weeks.

Or…you can just reuse the rock, buy a hefty clean up crew and see what gets ate. Then take closer and clearer pics of the algae will help identify it to determine next steps. If it’s bryopsis it can be treated with Reef Flux or a similar fluconazole treatment. Not sure if there’s much for treating turf algae as mentioned.

Part of the current algae issue is most of the current livestock appears to be clean up crew destroyers (killing and eating the snails and crabs that help with that).

You can also try multi-day blackout periods to help cut the algae down.

My final suggestion would be to see what lighting is being used. Depending on the type of lighting may be able to change the bulbs to newer bulbs or change the spectrum to a less algae friendly spectrum.

Thank you, I will get a better idea of what I have to work with and can report back this weekend. I know the lighting was LED, looked like two 6ft strip lights about 4” wide.

As far as the tank itself I plan on scraping it and cleaning really well before setting it back up. So I should be able to rod that of the algae. New sand will take care of substrate being clean, so that just leaves the rock. I like the idea of the cleanup crew. And I guess I can try and pick off as much as possible too.

As for cleaning the glass, razor blade scraper?

Where I am setting this up it will be basically a divider between two rooms, so display view from both sides. So the painted back I am going to have to remove as well. And finish the canopy and stand on the back sides.

 

[Reefing102]

Sounds like a great plan. A razor blade will work fine, just be careful around the silicone.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

You can also spray the rocks with regular drug store peroxide.
Let them sit a while, then a scrub with a stiff brush before putting them back in the tank.
Or into a container while you work on the tank.
Peroxide will kill algae & turns to water so it will not upset the chemical balance too much.

 

[DCapps]

As far as removing the leather corals, will I be able to just pull them off the rocks and put them into a tub of water to transport them to a LFS?

 

[griss]

As far as removing the leather corals, will I be able to just pull them off the rocks and put them into a tub of water to transport them to a LFS?

It's been a LONG time since I've kept leather corals. But, pulling them off would likely tear them leaving some of the rock that will either decompose or (possibly) re-grow.

 

[Reefing102]

I’d either turn in the entire rock or chisel off the rock around the base and turn it in that way.

 

[thegrun]

Try to reuse as much clean water from the old system as possible to lessen the shock of new water chemistry on your livestock. Once the water from the old tank water starts to get murky from stirred up detritus, don't reuse that water. Have plenty of new premade and preheated saltwater on hand to make up for the lost water. I would plan on pre-making 50% of your display tank's volume and have it ready for use. 5 gallon buckets with lids are your best friend for a tank move. Anything larger becomes very heavy to move, although for longer moves ice chests work well at maintaining water temperatures. You can use bubble wrap to help keep your rock with corals attached from being smashed against the sides of the buckets during transport. Start by filling three buckets 1/3 with water from the tank and then add the rock from the system to one of the buckets. Continue filling buckets first with water, then rock until you have removed all the rock. Save a couple of half full buckets of clean water from the tank for the fish. Once all the rock has been removed, the fish should be easy to catch. Some fish will burrow into the sand to hide so if you come up short on your fish count you may need to sift through the sand to find the missing fish. Once you have everything back at your home and the tank in place, first set up your rock. Try to minimize the amount of time the rock is out of the water. If aquascaping the rock takes you awhile, pour some of the saltwater from the old set-up on the rock to keep it wet. Once the rock is set fill the tank with all the old water and whatever new water is necessary. You can just dump the fish directly from the buckets into the new tank to prevent injuring the fish or adding stress to the fish by netting them. Then start circulating the water, get the heaters running and the rest of the equipment. Tank moves take much longer than one would first suspect. Plan on a very long day. Best of luck and keep us posted with your results!