algae problems

[Intheflesh]

hey gang, long time no post.

i admit, i havent been takign as good of care of my tanks as i should have. the 65 gallon thats in my bed room is overcome with green agae. it seems to be all different types of algae. for example, there is some leafy algae, hair algae, bubble, and the most annoying one is this 'fuzzy' algae that is growing on individual grains of sand and has pretty much taken over the bed.


my skimmer is pulling some nasty crap out of the water, i have done a recent water change to help.

short of taking all the rock and sand out of my tank and starting over, is there anything i can do?

for live stock, theres a few damsels, a spotted puffer, checker board wrasse, and some damsels. also a few soft corals

any pointers would be greatly appreciated

 

[reeferpj]

you can start with a good CUC. cut the light time down. add a refugium if you don't have one already.have you tested the water lately if so what are they

 

[stingythingy45]

Massive water changes with ro/di water.
Emerald crabs to get the bubble algae.
And add a phos reactor to get the phosphate out of the system.

Other than that,I'd probably start over.
I'm sure there's some serious nasties locked up in the live rock.

 

[luconi]

Run alot of carbon.
Stuff some chaeto in your display.
Get a handfull of mexican turbo snails, they're a really effective CUC herbivore.

yeah I agree with everyone else, maybe its better off starting over.

 

[Intheflesh]

Question, if I take the rock out and boil it or something, will that kill the algae? Will I be able to use the rock again for base rock?

 

[Bobbofin]

Boiling it will do it. I'd do it outside on a burner of a grill and NOT in the house. The smell would be aweful, whew! Or you could put the rock in 5 gallon buckets with a gallon of plain unscented bleach mixed in and a power head. Let the rock air out a week, rinse and soak somemore. Chloride is a gas that evaporates. I bleach lobster tanks all the time with no ill effects. You'll basically end up with dead rock that will reseed itself.

 

[stingythingy45]

^^^

I agree with Bob,it seems to be you best recourse at this moment.Especially if the tank is covered in HA.Just keep in mind that once you remove that rock to cook it.You biological filter will be no longer in place.So there's a very good chance ammonia levels will rise.

 

[Intheflesh]

^^^

I agree with Bob,it seems to be you best recourse at this moment.Especially if the tank is covered in HA.Just keep in mind that once you remove that rock to cook it.You biological filter will be no longer in place.So there's a very good chance ammonia levels will rise.

I have about 20lbs of live rock in my sump too and a relatively low bio load. Hopefully that will be able to support the tank during surgery.

 

[jayman10134]

just for your information if there are any zoas or palys on the rock remove them prior to boiling it. they have palytoxins in them and i have heard that some guy boiled rock with some zoas on it and now he has permanent lung damage.

 

[Intheflesh]

just for your information if there are any zoas or palys on the rock remove them prior to boiling it. they have palytoxins in them and i have heard that some guy boiled rock with some zoas on it and now he has permanent lung damage.

woah, that sounds crazy.

im boiling the rock outside in a turkey frier setup, so i guess i dont really have to worry about the toxins

how long should i boil it for? i heard if you boil it too long, expanding gases in teh rocks can cause them to exlode. is there any thruth to this, or is it jsut myth?

 

[stingythingy45]

Heck,I would think 2 minutes would be enough to kill nuisance algae.
Just soak it for a while in ro/di after.Change out the water a few times then let air dry.
Or do like Bob mentioned.

 

[emabie]

When I lost everything from the ice storm i took all the LR and put it into a large barell filled with water and a gallon of bleach. Put a powerhead on it and airrated it for a week. The air acted like a skimmer and all the gunk bubbled right out of the barell. I rinsed and then let it sit in fresh water with a powerhead for a day then let it sun dry for a week.

It's the cleanest live rock ever! I just added to the tank and seeded it from an established tank. This is safer than boiling it. The bleach evaporates out of the water and rock pretty fast but does kill everything before it goes.

 

[Intheflesh]

follow up:

Yesterday, i boiled the rock for a few hours out side, liet it dry over night

this morning, i took a 5 gall bucket, a gallon of bleach (as per bobbofin's sugestion), and a power head and i have all the rock in there now.

i only had a few large piece of rock in the display tank, with the majority of it being in my sump (about 30 lbs of rubble) so it was all able to fit in the 5 gallon pail.

now ill leave it in the bucket for a few days, rinse a few times, then leave it out in the sun for about a week. does this sound right?

when it comes time to introduce the rock back into my tank, what should the process be?

thanks for your help and patience

 

[emabie]

As long as you brush off anything dead leftover you can add it right to the display.

You will not have a cycle as it's all ready dead and washed off. Should be ok to drop right back in.

 

[Intheflesh]

As long as you brush off anything dead leftover you can add it right to the display.

You will not have a cycle as it's all ready dead and washed off. Should be ok to drop right back in.

:.

thanks for the advice everyone

 

[SharkLover]

A tang will take care of the hair algae for sure.