Live to dry?

[drblakjak55]

??Size of tank. How old? GHA just part of the normal cycle of tank maturation. Wire brush it off than turkey baste the rocks every few days. It goes away over a month. Or rent a sea hare. Amazing to watch mow down a field. But gha gone than sea hare gone.
Aptasia? Tens, hundreds? Inject with kalk paste. 3cc syringe 18ga half inch needle. Should do at least a dozen. Than I like to cover the little hole his foot is in with cement. Filefish, Peppermint Shrimp so so.

 

[24/7ReeFTime]

What is a sea hare and can I get it at my LFS

 

[BeMoto]

What's your water parameters? What's in the tank, how long has it been running? Let's see some pictures! Maybe its not to bad....

 

[Daddy-o]

For Aiptasia?

Yup, the vinegar will kill them and algae.

 

[24/7ReeFTime]

What's your water parameters? What's in the tank, how long has it been running? Let's see some pictures! Maybe its not to bad....

55g tank HOB filter and skimmer now sump.
1 clown goby 1 y
ellow sleeper goby 2 Talbots 1 spotted hawkfish and 1 Aiptasia eating filefish.
15 snails 7 hermets 1 emerald crab
Green hammer frag
Zoa frag
Xenia frag.
45 lbs live rock 40lbs live sand
Around 200 Aiptasia

I wish not to bad described my tank right now

 

[24/7ReeFTime]

Here’s the pics. They are under white light for picture purposes.

 

[Daddy-o]

Drop those rocks in vinegar and be done!! My self, I would empty the tank and start over.

 

[24/7ReeFTime]

Drop those rocks in vinegar and be done!! My self, I would empty the tank and start over.

Would that not cause a crash

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Would that not cause a crash

I think he means take everything out and totally restart. You can reuse everything, you just need somewhere for the fish to go. It wouldn’t cause a crash, everything would need to cycle again.

 

[Daddy-o]

I dont see any other way than a complete restart including washing the tank.

 

[Pickwun]

Ok and how can I get rid of green hair algae

Wait.
Chasing algae is a whole lot like chasing pH. The more you do to fix it the more you have to do to fix what you fixed.
Pick one system (from the many you'll find here), and stick with it. Every time you change you're starting over. I've learned that the hard way.
About 2 years ago my pico was covered in green hair. 6 months ago I couldn't keep the walls clean. Now every few weeks I use the magnets to clear off a little haze. I quit doing stuff, and it took care of itself.

 

[arturoo1977]

Your tank has a lot of aiptasia... I think a complete reset will be a good idea.

If I were in that case, this would be my plan:
1.- Get a used 20 gal tank or a plastic container that large.
2.- Take 2 or 3 large rock pieces and bleach them as previous posts described.
3.- Setup the 20gal or container with those pieces of rock and cycle it.
3a. - While cycling, take special care of current tank as you reduced your bio filtration. Be ready for emergency water changes if parameters goes wrong.
4.- When new setup completes cycle, transfer all your live stock from one tank to another., but gradually, not all at once. At least one week between each transfer. Check for parameters and be ready for water changes.
5.- Once all livestock has been transferred, bleach all remaining rocks and sand from your tank and clean glass and equipment with bleach and vinegar. Rinse everything very well.
6. - Setup again your tank with sand, rock and equipment and cycle it.
6a.- During this time, check your temporal tank as bioload could be large in relation to rock/bacteria population.
7.- Once cycled you can transfer your livestock again back to home, but again, not all at once as your tank will be newly cycled.
8.- During final livestock transfer you can also transfer rocks and shoot down your temporal setup.

Very important: As you may see during all process, never transfer any rock, sand or equipment from your current tank to your temporary tank without bleaching it before, if failing here, you may transfer your pests to your temporary tank and problem will not end.

To perform all this process you will need (maybe buy):
1.- Temporary container.
2.- A filter (could be a simple powerhead with some kind of mechanical filtration)
3.- Maybe a heater.
4.- Lots and lots of patience.

Happy reefing!

 

[Pickwun]

Oh, you've hardly got any algae, but your Aiptasia crop is impressive. I'm with arturoo1977 on this one, but don't mess with a used tank when you can get a brand new 20 at Petco for $20. Sterilize your HOB and use it on the QT tank. Do a shrimp cycle to avoid putting anything in the new tank.
I also bake any rock that I'm reusing (don't tell my wife that I used the oven), because heat gets to places that even bleach can't.

 

[jda]

Most of this thread makes me want to puke.

The tank did not get this way overnight, and it will not get sorted out over night either. Learn how to use some kalk paste to kill some apitasia. Then, get an aiptasia eating filefish, but help it out by killing most of them yourself. If you just have smaller ones, then Peppermint Shrimp from the Florida Keys will chow them down, but they don't always take on the larger ones.

The algae does not look that bad, but a some snails and urchins can take care of it for you, but you need a good amount, just just a few. You can help them by sucking it out with a siphon hose and doing water changes - you can run the output through a filter sock and reuse the water if you need to.

You need to figure out how to deal with this since it will all just come back again if you do anything dumb like killing all of the bacteria and microfauna on your rock and/or starting over. Everybody will get aiptasia and algae if they do not have consumers in their tanks.