Help Hair Algae

[clownfishlord18]

If you truly read the thread you see that cleaning it isn't a restart anymore than doing a water change is a restart


When you start a reef, you use bottle bacteria. We never did use any, it's just tank cleaning.

The thread answers every possible question including how well it works, because you can click on any entrant and see their follow up posts on the tank.

Sorry I have a few questions to get it off my rocks i have to scrape it with a knife right? But all my rocks have tons of coral on them so how would I do that. Secondly instead of rinsing the sand, can I just get new sand and rinse that before I start the rip.

 

[TokenReefer]

i have to scrape it with a knife right?

Shouldn't need this much force imo. A stiff bristled brush should do a good job

 

[clownfishlord18]

Shouldn't need this much force imo. A stiff bristled brush should do a good job

Brandon said that the brush would spread the algae and make it worse.

 

[Dburr1014]

20 gallon aio cleaner shrimp 6 Nasario snails, just laid eggs, 10 hermit crabs tank is eight months old not dissing anything no white light

Nassarius are more meat eaters, they will not help your algae.
I always liked Mexican turbos for algae.

 

[TokenReefer]

Brandon said that the brush would spread the algae and make it worse.

I've read that alot on r2r as well but that's how I did it before ever posting on this site. He's probably right but actually doing work can change from planning. I just turned off all flow. Scrubbed gently but enough to dislodge and chased all bits with siphon to be removed. Did it spread it? Perhaps, but I was aggressive and didn't wait for it to come back stronger. A series of this action works imo. Good luck!

 

[Dburr1014]

I don’t use white light at all in my tank

Use a flashlight for pics

 

[clownfishlord18]

I've read that alot on r2r as well but that's how I did it before ever posting on this site. He's probably right but actually doing work can change from planning. I just turned off all flow. Scrubbed gently but enough to dislodge and chased all bits with siphon to be removed. Did it spread it? Perhaps, but I was aggressive and didn't wait for it to come back stronger. A series of this action works imo. Good luck!

Thanks

 

[brandon429]

You just set rocks and corals on the counter, and work around corals with precision scrapes. Put peroxide on the cleaned areas after you remove the algae, not before.

for sure you can pre rinse new sand, it’s what I do

I buy a small bag of wet pack caribsea ocean direct, I pre rinse it, and I put it into my vase as a cloudless rip clean and it makes the vase live seventeen years so far with no invasions.

a lot of people use brushes to remove algae, we stopped doing that because knife detailing is better and because a dentist can’t get adhered plaque off teeth with a brush, they need a sharpened steel tool to do it

we did this change to lessen growback rates. Using brushes smashes small bits of algae into the rock work crevices, knife scraping and rinsing in saltwater and peroxide at the end does not smash little bits of algae into the rock work

 

[clownfishlord18]

You just set rocks and corals on the counter, and work around corals with precision scrapes. Put peroxide on the cleaned areas after you remove the algae, not before.

for sure you can pre rinse new sand, it’s what I do

I buy a small bag of wet pack caribsea ocean direct, I pre rinse it, and I put it into my vase as a cloudless rip clean and it makes the vase live seventeen years so far with no invasions.

a lot of people use brushes to remove algae, we stopped doing that because knife detailing is better and because a dentist can’t get adhered plaque off teeth with a brush, they need a sharpened steel tool to do it

we did this change to lessen growback rates. Using brushes smashes small bits of algae into the rock work crevices, knife scraping and rinsing in saltwater and peroxide at the end does not smash little bits of algae into the rock work

Thanks for the advice looks like i have a weekend project

 

[brandon429]

from the example thread, wanted to review some ways people mess up rip cleans vs the ways they win at them:

#1 is under rinsing sand. we're all trained by bottle bac sellers to fear bacterial loss, it's not true.

whichever sand you use gets tap rinsed for hours on end, hours, because we don't have a better way yet that constitutes clear work threads like we can see by searching out rip cleans. Tap water is limitless, I've seen folks try and rinse out sand using RO water or Saltwater, they run out early, and input unrinsed cloudy sand into the new tank we want completely clean/cloudless. don't fear bacteria loss. rinse sand for hours in tap, verify it in a clear glass cup of water as cloudless, no spood stirring clouds up the glass, then do a final rinse in saltwater to evacuate that tap water and the huge lump of sand is ready to install in the new tank.



cover fish if they're held in totes while the tank is disassembled, we've had some fish jump out.



-scrape the inside of the tank clean with a razor or a rag with vinegar once you get the tank down to bare glass. I had folks do a great job on sand rinsing, but as they were lifting sand up with a small dust scoop they were dragging it up the walls of the tank (a scratch risk too) leaving trails of dried mud sand on the walls of the tank. they put back clean sand, clean rocks, then filled up to a muddy haze due to stuff stuck to the inside of the aquarium upon refill. be cloudless


rocks are never rinsed in tap water, those are the bacteria we're preserving. when they sit on the counter in air as you surgically detail them, that isn't harmful at all. rinse off your scraping by pouring saltwater over them, or set the scraped rocks in a 5 gallon bucket of clean saltwater/drawn off tank water from the takedown/ and twist-swish them roughly to caste off waste then they can be put back into the main new tank after the peroxide step.

don't forget to re ramp your lights. the same intensity that you've worked up to is the current tank's maximum PAR and it can burn corals on the totally clean tank. that light power likely factors heavily too in the algae growth. starting with a 40% light power cut, low whites and heavy blues, prevents bleaching and slows growback. I wouldnt get back to your original light intensity for about 3 months, try the lower means a while/corals still grow fine if they're being fed well, they don't need ultra high PAR we read about on these tanks of the month setups.

have your new tanks water set to match temp and salinity of the old tank. it's best to use all new water but if you need to save cash, you can take some of the current tank water and drain it off for reuse in the new setup system.


the reason the new tank does not cycle or mini cycle is because rock bacteria are all we need in any reef display, the sandbed bacteria were extra loading that your tank appreciates being gone, for a while, till they build up again slowly/this is what sandbeds do they store up waste.


you even have the option of not putting sand back at all, or waiting a while to put it back as it sits as a drying rinsed lump of cloudless perfection. for really bad invasion jobs it's nice not to have sand present until you get the rocks back into compliance. adding totally rinsed sand back to a running reef is not harmful, the grains fall down like snowglobe grains.

 

[clownfishlord18]

from the example thread, wanted to review some ways people mess up rip cleans vs the ways they win at them:

#1 is under rinsing sand. we're all trained by bottle bac sellers to fear bacterial loss, it's not true.

whichever sand you use gets tap rinsed for hours on end, hours, because we don't have a better way yet that constitutes clear work threads like we can see by searching out rip cleans. Tap water is limitless, I've seen folks try and rinse out sand using RO water or Saltwater, they run out early, and input unrinsed cloudy sand into the new tank we want completely clean/cloudless. don't fear bacteria loss. rinse sand for hours in tap, verify it in a clear glass cup of water as cloudless, no spood stirring clouds up the glass, then do a final rinse in saltwater to evacuate that tap water and the huge lump of sand is ready to install in the new tank.



cover fish if they're held in totes while the tank is disassembled, we've had some fish jump out.



-scrape the inside of the tank clean with a razor or a rag with vinegar once you get the tank down to bare glass. I had folks do a great job on sand rinsing, but as they were lifting sand up with a small dust scoop they were dragging it up the walls of the tank (a scratch risk too) leaving trails of dried mud sand on the walls of the tank. they put back clean sand, clean rocks, then filled up to a muddy haze due to stuff stuck to the inside of the aquarium upon refill. be cloudless


rocks are never rinsed in tap water, those are the bacteria we're preserving. when they sit on the counter in air as you surgically detail them, that isn't harmful at all. rinse off your scraping by pouring saltwater over them, or set the scraped rocks in a 5 gallon bucket of clean saltwater/drawn off tank water from the takedown/ and twist-swish them roughly to caste off waste then they can be put back into the main new tank after the peroxide step.

don't forget to re ramp your lights. the same intensity that you've worked up to is the current tank's maximum PAR and it can burn corals on the totally clean tank. that light power likely factors heavily too in the algae growth. starting with a 40% light power cut, low whites and heavy blues, prevents bleaching and slows growback. I wouldnt get back to your original light intensity for about 3 months, try the lower means a while/corals still grow fine if they're being fed well, they don't need ultra high PAR we read about on these tanks of the month setups.

have your new tanks water set to match temp and salinity of the old tank. it's best to use all new water but if you need to save cash, you can take some of the current tank water and drain it off for reuse in the new setup system.


the reason the new tank does not cycle or mini cycle is because rock bacteria are all we need in any reef display, the sandbed bacteria were extra loading that your tank appreciates being gone, for a while, till they build up again slowly/this is what sandbeds do they store up waste.


you even have the option of not putting sand back at all, or waiting a while to put it back as it sits as a drying rinsed lump of cloudless perfection. for really bad invasion jobs it's nice not to have sand present until you get the rocks back into compliance. adding totally rinsed sand back to a running reef is not harmful, the grains fall down like snowglobe grains.

So could i trash the sand i have and pre rinse new sand from my local fish store. As you where saying about the Bacteria My rocks are still white so i don't know if my bacteria is still there. And how would i keep my cocoapods alive i have a mandarin that only eats pod's

 

[brandon429]

add a bag of pods as seed after the rip clean.

algae barn sells them/other places too

your rocks don't have to be pigmented with color to be full of bacteria, you already have a running and stocked reef/that proves bac are there

 

[clownfishlord18]

you re add a bag of pods as seed after the rip clean.

your rocks don't have to be pigmented with color to be full of bacteria, you already have a running and stocked reef/that proves bac are there

Is there a step by step video for how to do it.

 

[clownfishlord18]

add a bag of pods as seed after the rip clean.

algae barn sells them/other places too

your rocks don't have to be pigmented with color to be full of bacteria, you already have a running and stocked reef/that proves bac are there

Just finished doing a big clean took out all my rocks a scrapes and brushed

 

[brandon429]

Are those the after pics

 

[brandon429]

In the thread we showed each page a total sand rinse for hours, verifying it was rinsed and totally cleaned rocks with zero algae, you did that part right, in different pics?

 

[clownfishlord18]

In the thread we showed each page a total sand rinse for hours, verifying it was rinsed and totally cleaned rocks with zero algae, you did that part right, in different pics?

No I just took out the rocks and cleaned them next is the sand

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just finished doing a big clean took out all my rocks a scrapes and brushed

You got it down this far- see if addition of cleanup crew will help reduce further but this is barely a scrub cleaning as rocks should be near white.
What is your phosphate and nitrate level?
Are you using tap water from faucet or RODI water?
Is tank at or near a window?

Consider white lights off for 3-5 days
Snails to add:
Turbo snails as suggested by DeBurr
astrea snails
Trochus snails
fighting conch snail
Cerith snails

1-2 pencil urchins

10 carribean blue leg hermit crabs (these are Tiny)

Even consider sea hare

 

[clownfishlord18]

You got it down this far- see if addition of cleanup crew will help reduce further but this is barely a scrub cleaning as rocks should be near white.
What is your phosphate and nitrate level?
Are you using tap water from faucet or RODI water?
Is tank at or near a window?

Consider white lights off for 3-5 days
Snails to add:
Turbo snails as suggested by DeBurr
astrea snails
Trochus snails
fighting conch snail
Cerith snails

1-2 pencil urchins

10 carribean blue leg hermit crabs (these are Tiny)

Even consider sea hare

Phosphates are .03 in the water call, but I tested the water in the same bed and it was above 1. Nitrates are at zero and it is near window maybe gets 2 hours in light I have no white light my tank. I have 10 Caribbean blue like hermit crabs and 6 nassarius snails

 

[clownfishlord18]

You got it down this far- see if addition of cleanup crew will help reduce further but this is barely a scrub cleaning as rocks should be near white.
What is your phosphate and nitrate level?
Are you using tap water from faucet or RODI water?
Is tank at or near a window?

Consider white lights off for 3-5 days
Snails to add:
Turbo snails as suggested by DeBurr
astrea snails
Trochus snails
fighting conch snail
Cerith snails

1-2 pencil urchins

10 carribean blue leg hermit crabs (these are Tiny)

Even consider sea hare

That was after a scrup clean need a harder brush thought