Is this a bad idea?

[B33FST3W]

Ok, for the past couple of weeks I have had some problems:

First, my nitrates shot up to high, so I added a skimmer and then did lots of water changes. This resulted in my current problem, one of the water changes I did was with tap water (bad idea, I know but I thought if I ran carbon in it for a day it wouldnt be that bad, I was VERY wrong). Now my tank is COVERED in all kinds of algea (hair, brown and cynao) and I have done lots (like 6 or 7) 10% water changes with the water they sell at the LFS (the sign says its just RO water but I asked and they said it was RO/DI). The algae has only been getting worse even tho I have done all these water changes.

So, what I want to do is:

1. take all the fish/inverts out of the tank and put them in a holding container.
2. take all the live rock out and clean it (mostly just scrub off all the bad algae)
3. siphon out the top layer of sand and replace it (and probably go deeper with the bed)
4. fill it up with RO/DI from a unit I am hopefully purchasing soon (this week depending if I can get the budget to allow me to)

What I want to know is, if I do this, will the container I have my fish in cycle and kill them all? Will the tank cycle when I add the fish back in and kill them? Is there a better solution to my problems?

Thanks for reading all this,

Stew

 

[jeffbrig]

With 7 10% water changes, you've removed only 52% of whatever you introduced with the tap water. That's assuming that your purchased water is perfectly clean. Unfortunately, you have no control over the quality of the water you're buying from the LFS, and you're probably not testing it either. An RO/DI system is only as good as it is maintained. If the membrane is torn and the DI is used up, it may be only slightly better than tapwater (carbon filters would remove chlorine). In all honestly, the only way you'll guarantee a clean water source is to make and monitor it yourself.

Cleaning the rock, coupled with a large water change (using a known good water source) would probably go a long way towards solving your problem. And spring for the RO/DI, you'll save money in the long run, and probably get better results as you go.

The fish should be fine in a separate container for a few hours (siphon off some tank water to get them started). I wouldn't disturb the sand bed unless absolutely necessary. Even then, just the top if the algae needs to be removed. Once you've completed the water change, acclimate the fish like new introductions. If the sandbed remains intact and the rocks were kept in water, you shouldn't have any ammonia spikes.