preparing for tranfer

[Garth Schafluetzel]

all right every one we have all been in this situation i have a slowly splitting stand under a 75 and im almost dont with my DIY stand and fuge. and currently im having sum trouble with green hair alge and i added a yellow tang to help. im wanting somw advice do yall think that once i get the tank all the way down should i use a new tooth brock and scrub off all the alge or just leave it or what what would yall do if you had this dilima

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

i realy need some advice should i clean everything as good as possible with a toothbrush like the tanks and maybe the sand or something i realy need some advice

 

[ficklefins]

Garth,

I think cleaning the rock is a good step to take during the transfer. I'm not sure why you would need to clean the tank and the sand. The key to fixing your hair algae issue is going to be finding out what is causing it. Whey you setup your tank again (hair algae free) you will want to monitor your phosphate level and see if that is a cause.

So yes, I would scrub the rock, rinse it in some extra saltwater you don't plan to use (normally old tank water) and monitor levels in your tank. Let us know how it goes.

 

[revhtree]

Well if you can find the source of the algae and then correct it, it will go away on it's on. You can speed it up with plenty of critters and the tang, but you really need to find whats causing the outbreak.

What are your PO4 and Nitrate readings?

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

wellive been battlng red slim for a long time and i finally got ride of it and the tank was clean for quit a while and then when i had to install my sump everything got takin down to get rid of that grouper and got the sump going and since ive had the green hair since

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

nitrate i r a lil high around 25 or 30 what do yall use for your tests i think my stuff is cheep and off lol

 

[gflat65]

I've used Salifert most recently (don't test very often, though). Water changes and more skimming (wetter) can help bring nitrates down. Make sure your nitrates are zero to cancel out somethign dying off to pollute the system. Check Alk, too. If it is low, a lot more algaes are prone to grow. If your sand bed or rock has been in captive systems for a while, you could have leaching of PO4, etc.. With most hobby test kits not being very accurate, it's hard to know what the PO4 levels really are. Scrub as ficklefins recommends (dipping in a new set of current tank water before putting it back in the tank, also as fickle recommends). Use a turkey baster to blast the detritus out of the rock every week or so and keep your skimmer clean. Adding kalk to your top off can help bind PO4 in skimmer waste.

 

[reefpeeper]

how much flow do u have? low flow lets algea grows easier. are your power heads clean?

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

yeah as of today everything is clean again me and sum friends have been going to town scrubbing the rock they got a little clogged lol. i hooked up a fine mesh bag to the drain line to catch everything that came off. i plan on taking a good sample of water out to 5th day soon find out what is going on but i have a power head 850 2 maxijet 900 and 1200 and a mag 7 return pump. after rebuild there will be 2 mag 7's

 

[reefpeeper]

What Do You Have In Your Sump? Did U Run A Sump Before? What Is It Made From?

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

i ran 2 H.O.T magnum for almost a year and besides the slime popping up it kept my lps and softies happy then i got the sump it has bio balls live rock a sponge my seaclone skimmer then the return pump

 

[reefpeeper]

get rid of the bio-balls and just use some other filter material. the balls are a nitrate factory. use filter floss or something like that.