Starting Over..

[wilsonreefs]

I haven't been on here for a few years, this is the story..
About 2-3 years ago I did a water change on my 240 in wall. I was putting the finishing touches on a top off of water. For some reason, I was stupid enough not to run the ato, but had my top off valve connected directly to a extension cord. Went up stairs and went to bed. Next morning I go down stairs to a horrifying mess. Yes, the who tank had overflowed into the floor, (not the bad part) but the water was going through my kalkwasser! The tank looked as if I had dumped about 50 gallons of milk into it. Yep, killed everything! I immediately put some acid into the tank but to late. I cleaned the tank out and was attempting to start over.
Mind you I had clams the were over 10" long, corals that were beautiful, and great fish. The tank was pretty much self sufficient until this. I was sick!
after I cleaned everything out I started everything back up with new water. About two weeks into it I had a outbreak of bubble algae. We all know why.

I took every piece of rock out of my display tank and sump (125g) went through the problem of physically taking each rock our and pulling the bubble algae off. Satisfied I had accomplished the task at hand I did a quick dip in diluted acid just in case. I then put the rocks back in and two weeks again, I had more bubble algae than before. Then I decided to take it down. I didn't, because after selling the fish and corals that were in it after the crash (I restocked thinking it was ok), I found a brittle star that with his tentacles spread out is about 10". Just couldn't kill him to tear it down.

So here I am almost 3 years later, I haven't run lights, heaters etc for that period of time. Now I'm wanting to get it going again.
1. Should I take the Brittle Star out and let bleach or muriatic acid through the system to clean out piping, pumps etc before trying to set it up again, ( trying to not have the bubble algae again), or
2. should I take the whole thing apart and start over? My pumps have been running this entire time so the water hasn't become stagnate.

I had about 300 lbs of live rock in the display and sump combined. Over half sat outside in a big tub for these 2-3 years.

On another take, I have looked at the SB reeflights (mostly because I can't afford the expensive lights) but I've tried calling them 3 or 4 times a day for the last two weeks and emailed them to their contact email address, but haven't heard a thing from them.

Any help, or ideas is appreciated.

Thanks,
Carl Wilson

 

[danromero87]

As far as Bubble alge goes, I have had good results with emerald crabs. while other people have said they are more of a pest, I have to say that they have never bothered my corals or fish. I would just run a reactor with Phosban and Purigen or even GFO. I do this with both my Nano and my 100 gallon. While I have a tang and foxface in my large tank for alge. My 10 gallon doesn't have anymore bubble alge because of the two emerald crabs.

 

[lolgranny]

I wouldn't use bleach or acid in the whole system. I'd take the rocks out and do a muriatic acid / bleach / dechlorination rinse and let them air dry. Then toss that back in and do a big water change and keep up from it from there. You have a lot of life in your tank I'd assume so I could see it being a smooth transition.

I've had the same thing happen to me, I know the feeling of the milky tank.


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[wilsonreefs]

I wouldn't use bleach or acid in the whole system. I'd take the rocks out and do a muriatic acid / bleach / dechlorination rinse and let them air dry. Then toss that back in and do a big water change and keep up from it from there. You have a lot of life in your tank I'd assume so I could see it being a smooth transition.

I've had the same thing happen to me, I know the feeling of the milky tank.


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I tried taking the rocks out with no luck. I was going to do the muriatic acid through the tank to kill out any spores in the tank piping, pumps, reactors etc. then, drain and run several clean water changes. I was just wondering if the lights being off for 2-3 years would kill of any spores in the whole tank including these and even the sand bed.
I really think I'm going to take the skimmer, pumps, etc apart and rebuild everything. Just didn't know about the piping and sand and rocks.

 

[lolgranny]

I don't think having the lights off will matter. I had a massive outbreak in one of my old systems. Very very bad, I could pull handfuls out at a time. I ended up winning after adding a magnificent fox face and a couple tangs. It was a 180gallon. Emeralds didn't work, but the foxface and tangs along with manual removal did.

I'd hate doing that in my house, but if that's your last result then go for it, I'd probably do bleach since you can get some dechlori and after you clean / rinse it out very well you can let everything air dry. Bleach will kill all of the organic in the tank.


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[wilsonreefs]

My thinking on the lights being off for several years would kill out any spores etc. The bleach would be for the piping, pumps, sand etc. Mainly, would the lights being off for so long be enough to kill out any spores in the live rock? I don't want to leave them in the tank for the bleach bath.

 

[lolgranny]

My thinking on the lights being off for several years would kill out any spores etc. The bleach would be for the piping, pumps, sand etc. Mainly, would the lights being off for so long be enough to kill out any spores in the live rock? I don't want to leave them in the tank for the bleach bath.

I can't say for sure, but the reason I said I don't think it would matter is because I got rock years back from a buddy. He had it in a tank with no lights as you do for almost a year as he was planning on setting up another system. He didn't end up doing that, I took the rock because I figured it was good and cured and shouldn't have any unwanted algae. I was wrong, months later they began showing up everywhere.


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[wilsonreefs]

Not what I wanted to hear... LOL

 

[lolgranny]

Not what I wanted to hear... LOL

I know lol. I'm sounding like a downer !!

How did you clean the rocks when you took them out last?

If it was me I would do this.

Siphon out all the old sand, take out the rock and do a muriatic acid wash. Rinse. Then do a bleach wash. Rinse a couple times. Dechlori rinse. Air dry. Put the rocks back in and light the lights up. Give it a week or so and add some fish. If you have any spores left the chances the fish will get them off the rock before they seed will be high imo.


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[juanfdezdc]

I recently also went through a tank breakdown, in my case a heater malfunction that killed everything in my 100 gallon tank.
So what I did was first to take everything dead, take out 20% of the water and start to pull out of the tank everything and start cleaning and cleaning, rock by rock. And I was doing a lot of water changes, everyday about 20%.
So after a couple of days of deep cleaning the tank looked fine but of course all the ammonia, nitrates, etc.. was to the roof. But with patience is now up and running again.

So I wish you good luck with your restart. My recommendation would be to start taking out of the tank all the live rock and start to clean it. Clean, clean and water changes.

 

[Green Chromis]

:fish1: Hi, if the only problem you are having is Bubble Algae, then buy yourself a couple of bottles of Vibrant, it will kill every trace of Bubble Algae you have. Read up on it, it worked for me, and it may take a while, a couple months to eliminate all of them. But it sure beats killing all your live rock, and starting a new cycle that takes a year or more to return to the mature tank you have now. I used Vibrant to kill a Red Turf type Algae, and at the same time I had a lot of Bubble Algae in my Fuge, it killed both the Turf Algae and the Bubble Algae. If you have Chaeto in your Fuge or Sump, you will need to remove that to. :fish1:

 

[JPMagyar]

As with most posts on the internet, you will find a great variety of opinions, and of course being a typical American male I have one of my own . . .

I have a 240 gallon aquarium that experienced a loss of almost all corals last winter. There was no one reason, but mostly neglect due to issues in life. Anyways, I pulled out all the dead colonies and had one pocillipora left along with most of the rock. Within weeks the entire tank was covered with bryopsis and valonia. At some point in time I decided I wanted to start over so I took out about 3/4 of my rock and put in 40 lbs of new rock from KP Aquatics;

KP Aquatic

I also added:

6 large Mexican Turbo Snails
6 Emerald Crabs
2 long spine urchins

I had 1 piece of coral, my pocillipora.

One month later my tank was spotless. No bryopsis, cyano, or valonia in the display. I do have some valonia in my overflow where the algae grazers can't get to it.

My advice . . . throw out most of your rock. Siphon off as much sand as you can then add new live sand in a thin 1-2 inch layer and new live rock from KP Aquatics and wait 1 month before adding fish and another month before trying a coral.

No chemicals, no acid washing, no re-using dead polluted rock

Anyways, just another thought.

 

[wilsonreefs]

My question revolves around the fact that my tank has sat without any lights, life (except a bristle star) and no heaters for almost 3 years. I have kept the water topped off, and all my pumps have continued to run. Sometimes the water temp hit in the 60's. Thinking that it ran all that time, are the bubble algae spores dead? Or, are they lingering inside my piping, protein skimmer etc? That's why I'm wondering if I should put acid through my complete system.
Do I have problems with my live rock from the crash 3 years ago?
Thanks everyone for the help so far..