JBJ 28 HQI help needed....

[rlf_racing]

I purchased a complete setup from someone on craiglist about 3 weeks ago. It was severely neglected. It has about 25lbs of live rock that was covered in hair algae. The only live inhabitants was a lone tomato clown, a cpl snails, and a coral banded shrimp. Sides were complete covered in cocaine algae. When i got it home i completely cleaned the tank with vinegar solution. Got all the algae off the sides. Scrubbed as much of the hair algae off the rocks.

Now 3 weeks later. I got the temp issues resolved. Changed the bulb. Not liking the color of the bulb. Its a 14k coralife. Puts out mostly a yellowish white light. Still having hair algae problems. Done two water changes. The first was a 15 gallon and the second was a 10 gallon change. Im thinking of tearing completely down this weekend and starting from scratch.

My questions are as follows;
1: What do i need to make this a successful tank without the headaches as it has been. I used half the water that was originally in the tank. Made new water that was distilled.
2: What am i possibly doing wrong?
3: what are some suggestions for additional equipment that i could use to make this work? IE, lighting supplement, skimmer, ect ect..

Keep in mind Im on a low budget and don't mind going slow to make this work.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Rob

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[rlf_racing]

I could really use some help and suggestions on this please

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[Po Pimp Daddie]

whats going on dude,

yea sounds like you got a hell of a problem goin on there....well first things first i would completely start over. take everything out the tank and clean the tank real good. as far as your rock goes, there are a lot of methods to kill off everything on it. i prefer boiling it. that will get rid of any possible pests algea and stuff on it. i would go and get new sand, and only save maybe like 1/4 cup of your old water to put in the new water to start the cycle a lil quicker. now onto lighting, i use the phoenix 14k 150w bulb in my tank, ushio also has a nice 14k bulb. they both have a nice blue tint to them. the stock skimmer for the nano cube is junk. it took me a year to figure this out. dont make the same mistake i did as i am battling the hair algae also. i just purchased after a lot of research the aquamaxx hob-1 for my tank, i have had it on there for a week or so and this thing is a beast. best investment i have made for my tank so far. your algae is prolly being cause by high phosphates as i was in my tank. a good skimmer will help, a phosban reactor is the best. but since you are on a budget, get the 11 oz CHEMIPUR ELITE and run that in your media basket instead of the carbon. any other questions my dude just hit me up with a pm...holla

 

[rlf_racing]

whats going on dude,

yea sounds like you got a hell of a problem goin on there....well first things first i would completely start over. take everything out the tank and clean the tank real good. as far as your rock goes, there are a lot of methods to kill off everything on it. i prefer boiling it. that will get rid of any possible pests algea and stuff on it. i would go and get new sand, and only save maybe like 1/4 cup of your old water to put in the new water to start the cycle a lil quicker. now onto lighting, i use the phoenix 14k 150w bulb in my tank, ushio also has a nice 14k bulb. they both have a nice blue tint to them. the stock skimmer for the nano cube is junk. it took me a year to figure this out. dont make the same mistake i did as i am battling the hair algae also. i just purchased after a lot of research the aquamaxx hob-1 for my tank, i have had it on there for a week or so and this thing is a beast. best investment i have made for my tank so far. your algae is prolly being cause by high phosphates as i was in my tank. a good skimmer will help, a phosban reactor is the best. but since you are on a budget, get the 11 oz CHEMIPUR ELITE and run that in your media basket instead of the carbon. any other questions my dude just hit me up with a pm...holla

Great suggestions. My only questions are now. What do i do with my livestock while the tank cycles? I have 3 fish and a clean up crew. I know they can't be in the tank cycles. Im getting sand tomorrow from a fellow reefer. And will pick up a few lbs of live rock to help speed up the cycling process. I will also try the chemipur elite. I am in time going to setup a fuge in the back. But it will all be a slow process. Is there a way to make the stock skimmer work till Im able to afford a better one?

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[Po Pimp Daddie]

I'll tell ya what, you can go to petco or petsmart and get a cheap 10 or 20 gallon tank for like 12 to 20 bucks. Throw your livestock In there with your current tank water heater n stuff. As far as the skimmer goes, Just make sure you change the air stone once every 2 to 3 weeks. Anything beyond that and it doesn't work at all. Also if you can do like a 3or4 gallon water change every week. It will help keep all your levels in check and your phosphates down, of course after your cycle is done.

 

[rlf_racing]

Yeah ill pick up a small tank tomorrow while Im out. Guess its a good thing i kept a lot of hardware from my tanks in the past. Wow i didn't know that air stones went bad that quick. Ill pick up a cpl extras of those. Maybe i should sell the large tank that is just collecting dust and won't be setup anytime soon. That way i can get the few extra things needed for the 28. By the way pimp daddie thanks for the input and nice tank you have. I hope mine will turn out just as nice.

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[rlf_racing]

What's everyone else's thoughts on these issues I've got??

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[Po Pimp Daddie]

no problem dude, sometimes threads on here get over looked. i try to go through each one and give what ever help i can. yea the air stones are crappy, i thought hey this skimmer is gonna save me a lot of money, it was fairly cheap and it seemed to be doing its job. well until i got my new one i had no idea how crappy a unit it was. people always told me it was junk and i kinda brushed it off. i wish i would of switched sooner. good luck dude, keep us updated

 

[rlf_racing]

Well an update for what is going on with this tank. Broke it down over the weekend and setup a temp tank for the livestock. Kinda a blessing for what happened. Now Im going to update the lights to leds, make a better media basket, and possibly a better looking stand if time allows. The hair algae just got way outta control. Going to inane sense cook the rock in complete darkness for a while till its all gone. Hopefully it'll work. Or Im going to get all new rock.

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