Neglected Reef Tank

[ibrowserz]

A family member set up a reef tank about a year ago and didn't change the water in it for a long time. I'm going to take the task to clean up the tank and get it up and running properly again. There's a BUNCH of algae everywhere, on the powerheads and everything.

I have some knowledge of freshwater tanks, so I think i'll be fine with doing the research, but what would be the first thing to do/prioritize? I'm planning on doing a bunch of water changes over the next few weeks but I doubt it will all go away very quickly with water changes.

There's a clownfish, and some coral in there so I don't want to really "nuke" the tank. I've read that that's an option but would basically be starting all over and have to cycle the tank again. Any advice would be much appreciated. I can post a picture of the equipment they have when I go visit tomorrow. For now, just going to be doing research.

 

[Sk8r]

First thing, get some salt, get a refractometer, and check the salinity: s/b 1.024 to 1.026. If that's off, top off evaporation with salt water to raise it, or add ro/di fresh water to lower it. Second, get a gfo reactor---they don't cost too much. That will nuke the algae and help everything. Change the medium monthly until the algae fades out. Beyond that, identify the corals. I assume they're softies, because stonies would not be quite as tough. Purchases: gfo, gfo reactor, refractometer, reef salt, and alkalinity test. The alk should be about 8.3. Do a 10% water change for new salt water every week.

 

[ibrowserz]

So if those parameters are correct, then the algae will go away?

If the alk is low, will water changes bring it back up? What if it's too high? Reed tanks actually sound a lot simpler than what I thought they would be.

 

[Bono]

Can you give us some details like size of tank and what equipment you have?

 

[gone fishin]

I would suspect at this time water changes should keep your alk in the ball park. If it is to high it will eventually come down on its own, I doubt yours will be really high.

I would also add to manually remove as much as possible prior to doing a WC. In time it will go away but as stated earlier it will more than likely be quite awhile.

There is a great sticky at the top of the forum called "setting up". With your freshwater experience some of it you may know but there is a lot of info in that one sticky. Good luck on your quest and welcome to the forum.

 

[Frostyfishman]

I'd be curious to see a picture.

 

[sticky polyps]

If its green hair algae I would get a lawnmower blenny and read up on the forum to get lots of good info.

You can do it!

 

[ibrowserz]

Well, as promised, I snapped a couple of pictures of the tank. Sorry, phone camera isn't very good, but it will have to do.

There's purple algae everywhere, what looks to me like diatoms, and some form of hair algae in some places.

I DON'T want to introduce a new fish until the tank is stabilized since it's so bad in there. I took a picture of some of the equipment too. One is a light that hangs on the side of his sump and it has a bubbler going through it. Another thing is a "Reef octopus coralvue" bubbles going up to the top and water is collecting in a cup. Third thing is a BRS reactor, it says gfo on one side and carbon on the other. I'm assuming it's old so i'll change it out according to Sk8trs suggestion.

Is there anything else I need? What should I do?

 

[ibrowserz]

Looks like the pictures arent showing up, and I can't edit the post for some reason you have to right click and open in new tab to see, I uploaded them to imgur it's a safe website

 

[TimeConsumer]

The purple stuff is cyano. Green stuff is GHA.

Bubble thing on the side of the sump is an upflow algae turf scrubber.

Reef Octo is a protein skimmer.

Reactor is a reactor.

Sk8r has good advice. Focus on water quality first. Once it is stable user the GFO and water changes to pull out the nutrients and starve the algae out.

You can also pull out a few rocks and go to town on them with a wire brush. I've done it several times.