Recovering a tank disaster

[legate_gigas]

I want to share an opinion and I hope it’s received well. Black out the rock from light for a while, run gfo and carbon dose during the black out. Increase magnesium levels in the water to at max level or over dose. Recently I’ve been dosing magnesium and lowering nutrient levels and with the help of my turbo snails my algae is getting under control.

 

[ariellemermaid]

I want to share an opinion and I hope it’s received well. Black out the rock from light for a while, run gfo and carbon dose during the black out. Increase magnesium levels in the water to at max level or over dose. Recently I’ve been dosing magnesium and lowering nutrient levels and with the help of my turbo snails my algae is getting under control.

I did think something along these lines might help but I have to move the tank as soon as is reasonable anyway. So keeping the rocks in a dark Brute might be an option, but I guess I also have to consider my goals. Ideally I would go back to an almost sterile tank and be rid of my micro and macro algae and my long running cyano problems. While at the same time adding back some bigger algae eaters and being proactive about maintenance as it cycles. I don’t know if that’s realistic though; algae and bacteria are always going to find their way back into the tank. And in the process I would have wiped out supportive bacteria and all my coraline.

Trading some problems for other problems, etc. Also, it’s a ton of rock too. Before the hurricane and despite the cyano blooms, it was a pretty healthy system with a good balance and minimal intervention required. Nutrients were so low I had to dose nitrate. Could never get SPS branching coral to survive though, but I was having the same issue in my QT reef tank. That was always pretty frustrating despite zero TDS DI, normal ICP results, and completely stable parameters. Never figured out why.

 

[Boreas_SA]

A few weeks black out in a tub should help, would also consider getting some hardcore herbivores once you’ve been through the black out and overall algae has been reduced. Like a foxface or rabbitfish, they should eat all the macro algae, and probably most of the micro algae too. Would also design new tank’s flow to be a lot stronger than you would think, would ensure not much can settle on the rocks and decompose.