Cleaning Advice Needed soon.

[jnarowe]

soak the chopped nori in tank water and vitamins. try a little garlic to boost the scent. they will go for it once they realize it's food. Then you will never look back.

You can read this thread on the feeding demo at my place as well.

January PSAS Fish Food Making

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Wow Paul, it is looking like a major redo is in order. Ya, pain in the patootie, but one does what one needs to. I am fond of tangs, angels, and emerald crabs for keeping rocks munched clean, but they won't renovate for you. I am sure with a fresh start and cooking your rocks, that the next go around will be to your tastes. Keep the feedings to what is necessary and do all the stuff you already know.

On a side note, as a lifelong Fan of shallow sand beds, I am a born again bare bottom aFISHianodo. BB rocks!

 

[NC2WA]

Duane,

I was going to use a pressure washer to remove the bryopsis from my rock, but someone mentioned the water from the tap and copper fittings would mean I would have to start over with the LR.

Was this the case for you?

If the dose of Tech M I applied last Sunday does not work in the next couple of weeks, I may borrow a pressure washer and rid the algae from the rock. Scrubbing with a bristle brush is hard work, esp in a 375 gallon tank. But I want my bryopsis to be gone before I start to restock my tank.

Kirk

 

[trido]

FW doesnt have any corrosive properties on copper so that toxin isnt an issue. The chlorine however will kill lots of goodies. I dipped it in some old SW before adding it to the large garbage can. Also I tried to be quick in putting only one rock at a time out on the deck for cleaning to limit its air/fresh water contact time.
Im sure most of my die off was from the FW to begin with regardless of impurities. Something about 2000PSI doesnt agree with sea life to an extent. My die off was really rather limited considering what I did to the LR. Remember, I had a large ammonia spike but a quick 95% WC averted even more die off causing there to only be a very small cycle.

 

[Jan]

It's very good that you stopped auto-feeding the pellets, Paul.

Here's what I would do in your situation. It will take some time but no way around that.

1) Remove rocks one at a time and brush the algae off with a stiff bristle brush.
2) Add about 100-150 algae eating snails (turbos, astreas...) Ebay is a decent source to buy quantities for not too much money.
3) Add about 80 blue-leg hermits
4) Keep pulling rocks out and brushing them off
5) Add a skimmer immediately or start doing a whole lot more water changes. I have a skimmer I'm not using, it's an ETSS 500 Turbo Downdraft. It needs a pump like a magdrive 9.5 (pressure rated) but you can have the skimmer if you want it.
6) As someone else mentioned, add more flow with powerheads if possible (such the modded maxijets)
7) Consider dosing vodka to help bring nutrients down relatively quickly. There's a few big threads on how to do it on ReefCentral. You may remember that I use Zeovit but dosing vodka is an effective way to use bacteria to help filter your system better. I think it's important to have a skimmer when you do this though, to help export the NO3 and PO4 laden bacteria out of the system.

Call or PM if you would like to take me up on the skimmer offer, Paul. I hope you don't give up the hobby but I understand how it can feel like a burden when things like this algae growth are running rampant.

Jan

 

[g0rFz]

maybe if you want to go barebottom you could sell the wrasse's?

 

[Skimmy]

bro, you can build an air stone skimmer for pretty cheap, and have something more powerful than you could ever afford...
i know you've seen mike's and probably johnathan's big ass air stone skimmers
they dont have to be made out of expensive acrylic either...
you could get one going out of pvc for pretty cheap.
and let me have a crack at modding that via aqua you have, i know you did some modding to it, but i'll bet i could squeeze more power out of it...
for you , i do for free

 

[jnarowe]

if you were a REAL friend, you would take the Via Aqua and toss it in the trash! :lol:

 

[Herefishyfishy]

If you want to go air, I have a HUGE supply of limewood stones

 

[plack]

Will air be quiet enoughp for a living room?

I though they were noisy?

I would guess on a luft pump ?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Air pumps can be places anywhere. Air lines have very low pressure loss over any distance

 

[jnarowe]

Luft pump is not enough.

 

[Skimmy]

you would be using super fine air stones made from ceramic, and a large $100-200 air pump that would probably live outside somewhere (covered).
johnathan might even be able to provide links to both items

 

[jnarowe]

you don't want my links. my links cost a lot of cash. come out and visit and we'll talk air stone skimmers. seeing is believing.

 

[reedman]

any progress on the cleaning?

 

[plack]

Thanks for all the replies !!!

I got my skimmer working and made a new output pipe using rubberbands to keep it at a certain height and has worked well for 2 days now (Fingers Crossed)

I got about 25% of the sand out.

Man I have allot of sand 300+ lbs !!

I found the pefect size and stiffness nylon scrub brushes at wall mart (mop section real cheap) and cleaned 1/3 of the rock and put it in a clean trash can.( I also used a knife in spot's)

I did a water change and used some of the old water in with the rock as well as a heater and powerhead.(making more saltwater so I can change it again in a few days)

There coarls are on the sand on the other side for now.

The sand had 1 spot so far that hardened like concrete (chiseling away at it).

It happened around a pvc pipe that was under the sand with a heavy rock upon it.

I am still hopefull That (God Willing) I will be able to afford to get some pumps and start on building my own skimmer.(Already got tube and some parts)

I could not do enoughp in 1 day due to a recent small sprain or tear in a muscle on my right elbow. It gets in the way of doing allot of work so I am going to do some every few days.

The rock I cleaned looks soo much better .

I can see the rock now where as before it was just covered in turf / hair algae.

My wife has our camera at her work so pictures will follow later !



Paul

 

[jnarowe]

Nice work getting at it.

 

[Jan]

Yep, good going Paul

 

[plack]

The cleaned rock is in a bucket so no pictures but here you can see the bottom sand height difference from the left to the middle and whats left to do !

Anyone need some pom pom xenia ?

Paul

 

[plack]

The cleaned rock is in a bucket so no pictures but here you can see the bottom sand height difference from the left to the middle and whats left to do !

I even lightly scrubbed some of the rock now in the tank. The skimmer cleaned thing up
!

Anyone need some pom pom xenia ?

Paul