Is this an algae bloom?

XSATC

New member
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Guy wants to sell me his tank at a pretty decent price. Is it worth fighting this if it is algae? Is it something else more sinister?

Thanks.
 
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Yep. That's algae. It can be treated. May take a little patience, some scrubbing of rock in saltwater, and a new sandbed (well-washed) but it can be dealt with. The rock is live, so take care of it and don't let it dry out.
 
if its a good price and there's no livestock I would grab it and cure the rock again and toss the sand, possibly add some food grade H2O2 so get rid of that nasty algae and then cycle the tank again (too much h2O2 can kill your rock and cause it to re-cycle) but I would do it and cure/cycle it again. I would not used rock with so much algae to start a tank. if you are only saving a few dollars , don't give yourself that trouble... Algae is a PITA !
 
How much other stuff could the algae be hiding in? Like the sump areas? The price is right and the size is perfect and furniture is in great shape... Just don't want to have the wife thinking I'm an idiot a few weeks down the road when I'm fighting recurrent algae problems. Lol!
 
I'd toss in a clean up crew, turn the lights off for at least a week + , and do some heavy water changes with some ro/do water.
 
LED intelligent lighting (I guess Chinese LED rack)
Reef octopus skimmer (NW-150-6530B)
Acrylic sump
Phosphorus filter
Bucket of Red Sea salt mix
ATO
Test kits
4 stage RODI system with tds
Brute can on rollers for water changes
2 power heads (not sure what type but looking to replace with gyre)

That's about all I can make out from the pics I took.
 
Lol! So, would a good CUC take care of this? I'm sure it'd need to be a pretty hefty CUC to manage all that, huh?
 
It looks like you are getting an entire system and some very nice Live Rock too.

The key to swinging the tank around would be patience (lots of it), and a good plan to remove the algae and the nutrients locked up within it. I recommend manual removal, including scrubbing with a brush, water changes, a fine tuned skimmer, and definitely lights out for a long period of time. Just keep in mind that the algae die off could cause more problems if you don't run the skimmer and perform water changes. By not removing the algae or allowing it to die of in the tank you are essentially allowing the nutrients to remain in the tank.

You can certainly add a CUC, but don't plan on them making a significant impact on removing the algae.
 
So when I get this, since there is no livestock, I'll bring the live rock home in the water it's in (broken down into buckets of course). I'm ditching the sandbed and go with a fresh one that I buy from the LFS. Then scrub rocks as best I can, and put back in then cycle. At that point, start water changes. Keeping the lights out will kill off what doesn't get scrubbed off the rock, correct, or am I missing some other steps here?
 
So I went and looked at the tank setup today. It's farther along in this algae problem than the first pics led me to believe, unless it'll grow out 6-12" in the course of a week. It seems pretty daunting, but on the other side, it's a full setup. Not sure it the Chinese led's will support nem's though, which is where I eventually want to take the tank in a year or so.
 
Personally I wouldnt trust a damn bit of that rock. Who knows what is hiding in some hole of that rock that you cant scrub and survies a lights out period because its a super algae.

Pull the rock, bleach the rock, rinse the rock with Prime (a few times) and start over. Sounds like you got a deal on a whole setup but that doesnt mean you should also have to suffer through the other owners headaches and mistakes.

Chinese LED's grow a lot more than you'd think. Clearly they grow algae really well :lol:
 
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