Been gone for awhile

[Shawn_epicurious]

Hello everyone, I have been gone for quite awhile. My tank never turned into what I wanted it to… some of that is my fault… some of that is the industries fault! There are some very unscrupulous people in this industry. The 1st guy I bought my tank from was one of them!!!! He talked me into to putting things in my tank that would either take over my tank or would just kill everything in it. Just so he could sell me more… When I saw the apple he put in my tank without my knowlege, yeah, I fired his butt!. And yes, it was my fault for listening to him without doing more reasearch. ……and now finally to my question…

I have things in my tank that are trying to take over…. GSP… leathers….

You have no idea just how hard I have tried to remove some of them… like the GSP…

How do I start over on my tank? Do I have to like… empty it? Sanitize it… replace all of the live rock? Or is having a fish tank options that will just eat everything I don’t really want?

I am at the point where I am almost ready to just sell my tank. I live in the Houston, Tx area… 1st I went thru a winter storm that knocked out my electricity for three days and then I went thru a hurricane and had no electricity for 4 days… I lost almost my entire fish population across that period… some very expensive fish that were otherwise not just surviving, but thriving………

I still enjoy having the tank : ) Should I just give up on the corals and just let it be a fish tank? How do I get rid of all the the leathers and GSP? Are there things that will just eat all of it? After losing everything from those storm, I got mad… and yeah stopped doing my normal level of maintenance, so now I also have a green bubble Algea problem I am working on. I out in a bunch of emerald crabs (not enough) and have been using Pods.

I know I just packed a lot in here… sorry, but I need some help. My tank is almost 10 years old…. I am not a rookie : )

 

[KrisReef]

Make a plan, what coral to keep and what has to go.

If you have to remove rock and dismantle the scape, tackle that job head on an be ruthless.

(My mom's name was Ruth, I miss her.) If you have invasive coral like GSP, mushrooms, pocilliopora, Kenya trees or other leathers, photosynthetic sponge, Organpipe coral, palys, zoa's and any of the others (it's a long list) then you need to decide if you are ok with them overruning the tank, or if you are going to rip them out by the roots, or scrape them out, and get busy. You can do a few rocks a day if you have a huge tank, but you have to be careful to go completely scorched live rock removing everything that needs to go. Don't show any mercy, keep alive and trade in what you can but if there is no one who wants to take these invaders from you then toss them in the trash or risk pluging up the drain pipes but the stuff has to go.

Once you have completed ripping out the problems you can let the tank run for a few weeks with the lights on to make certain that you got everything cleaned. Think of it as an artificial major cyclonic episode that totally scours a shallow reef, removing all living coral and leaving behind bare rocks, cobbles and a little sand. Then, like in nature, you can start replanting corals that you want to keep and as that starts to thrive you will enjoy the new reef.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

I was pretty sure this was the type of response I would get : ) Thank you!

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

I have scrubbed rocks with GSP using a wire brush… I have left a few in the sunlight out side for days… It comes back everytime

 

[Fish Fan]

I have scrubbed rocks with GSP using a wire brush… I have left a few in the sunlight out side for days… It comes back everytime

If you really want to eradicate everything, you can bleach the rocks with the GSP or whatever you're trying to get rid of.

Bleach Curing Dry Rock for a Saltwater Reef Tank - BRStv Reef FAQs

There are three main methods for curing live rock for a saltwater reef tank: natural, bleach and acid. Our focus today is using bleach for curing dry rock and we answer three direct questions. 1. What is a bleach cure? 2. When is it appropriate to bleach cure rock? 3. How to do

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

If you really want to eradicate everything, you can bleach the rocks with the GSP or whatever you're trying to get rid of.

Bleach Curing Dry Rock for a Saltwater Reef Tank - BRStv Reef FAQs

There are three main methods for curing live rock for a saltwater reef tank: natural, bleach and acid. Our focus today is using bleach for curing dry rock and we answer three direct questions. 1. What is a bleach cure? 2. When is it appropriate to bleach cure rock? 3. How to do

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I am not certain I want to do this. My rock is all live wet rock from the sea. If I am going to kill the rock, I think I would prefer to empty the tank and just start over with new live rock. I do appreciate the advice : ) I had not heard about this bleaching method.

 

[Fish Fan]

I am not certain I want to do this. My rock is all live wet rock from the sea. If I am going to kill the rock, I think I would prefer to empty the tank and just start over with new live rock. I do appreciate the advice : ) I had not heard about this bleaching method.

Yeah, bleaching the rock will make it like dead, dry rock again, so if you have an otherwise high quality rock, you may not want to use bleach on it

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Yeah, bleaching the rock will make it like dead, dry rock again, so if you have an otherwise high quality rock, you may not want to use bleach on it

That’s just it… I don’t think I can call it high quality anymore… after the 2nd storm and no electricity for days… I kind of lost it for awhile with maintenance… frustration. Green bubble Algae, overrunning GSP, other overrunning leathers… I know how hard I worked at removing just the GSP…. I don’t think it will ever be possible to get rid of that final molecule of GSP….I am winning the fight against the green bubble Algea. Unless there is something out there that will eat that last molecule of GSP. I don’t know what else to do.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

If I do decide to just start over…. Sanitize the whole thing… how long would I need to leave it empty before I know for certain the last molecule of everything is actually dead?