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So chemiclean will get rid of whats there and then once I bring stuff to my tank the only way to not have it reoccur is with my own tank upkeep, which i fully intend on keeping my tank as healthy as I can. For years my dad never had an issue, but since he got sick he hasn't been able to care for it properly which is why I will be breaking down and selling off everything he has.
 
It may come back immediately if your nutrients are high enough. Cyano is a really cool thing. Millions of years ago cyanobacteria populated the entire earths atmosphere with oxygen. Its kind of everywhere, and just killing it off in your tank doesn't guarentee any real time frame without it, and even if it doesn't come back, something else will pop up to use those excess nutrients. You can imagine it as traveling in water droplets in the wind if that helps, its just kind of everywhere, and you don't need to re-introduce it really, it will re-introduce itself.
Chemiclean is a quick fix to a long term problem. It won't hurt, it will help as far as appearance short term, but the underlying issues will still exist.
We all think of algae as a 'problem' in our tanks. Its actually natures solution to high nutrients. Without it, given nothing else changes, nutrients would continue to build, and our tanks would quickly become a place not suitable for the animals we wish too keep. Algae is a solution, we just don't like the way it looks.
 
Is there another solution that isn't so much a quick fix? I posted some photos above of my dads tank and I really would love to bring some of his rock and corals into my tank and keep it balanced. I understand that the algae will grow if I don't take proper care of my tank. Without going into too much detail, my tank is sort of a tribute to my dad and a way to keep him with me in my life daily, so being able to bring as much of what he has to my tank without "hurting" my brand new system would be amazing.
 
The cyano doesn't look too bad in the pictures with the fish, if there are others I missed them.
Can you remove the coral from the rocks?
Have you tested the water? Are nitrates or phosphates a bigger issue?
 
When I was there on friday night I couldn't find his test kit so I have no idea, but I can take my kit with me when I go down there in the next couple days and find out where all the levels are at. Since I'm so new at this I actually don't know how to remove the corals and not kill them. Is there a safe way to remove coral? I'm scared to do anything that will kill anything.
 
Some can be. They aren't quite as fragile as we are led to believe. Once you see someone chopping one into pieces with a band saw, its a little easier to not be afraid.
Lets step back a minute though. If the corals and fish have been making it in his tank then its likely they will do fine in yours. The cyano is probably going to come with, but you can beat that in time, with good water and good filtration.... and even though it will take time, the cyano is not likely to do any harm
 
Thats really good to hear because my mom lead me to believe its the worst thing you can get in your tank, I think its kinda pretty when it hasnt taken over. The corals and fish have thrived, I would guess its been about a year its been growing and their mushrooms, xenia and other corals have continued to grow and spread. how do I remove them from the rock in order to put them into my tank? Do i just pull them off and then acclimate them into my tank once here? Do I need to get aquarium glue to get them to stay in place? Or would it be a good option to just bring the rock with them
 
Re: Cyano outbreak.

Totally agree with the rest of the folks here, that doesn't look too bad at this point. If you can do a few water changes every-other day you could probably remove enough nutrients to help stop it in short order. At the same time, increasing the flow in the tank would certainly help keep it from coming back. That said, it seems kind of like a PITA to do that work if you're just tearing it down and transferring live stock/some of the LR.

Re: Coral Removal / Propagation

From the photo's it looks like there are a number of Kenya Trees (Capnella ?)/Colt, a Lobophyton Leather (honestly not sure on that, but it looks to be either a finger or ridge leather, since I don't see interior fingers, I'm goign with ridge ... someone correct me here if I'm wrong) and some 'shrooms. Short of being intentionally abusive, mushrooms are super hard to kill without chemically hurting them or burning them under too much light (seriously, I've propagated them with a blender, a less traumatic method is to cut them into pie-pieces making sure to get a piece of the mouth in each cut). They're typically super hardy and can even withstand live rock shipping across countries (rock that's just thrown in a box and covered with wet newspapers). You should be able to remove them by either prying their foot off of the rock with the corner of a razor or cutting the foot as close to the rock as possible. Once they're cut off, put them in a small piece of Tupperware with some rock/rubble in it and they'll eventually reattach.

The ridge leather looks like it might be anchored to a small rock (can't tell from the photo, but it looks like it's in the sand bed away from the base rock). If its not attached to a movable rock, you can take a razor to the base and just chop it off towards the bottom (single, smooth cuts are always best if you can manage it). Once you have it transported, take a small rock and "lightly" wrap a rubber-band around the foot + rock. Give it a couple of weeks and if it's happy, it should attach to the rock. You can then glue it somewhere, eventually you should see small polyps extend on it, if you notice it "slimming up" a bit after it's been attached probably just shedding (there's a reason for this, but I'll be damned if I can remember atm).

The Kenya Tree's are kind of interesting. Depending on the species you can usually take a razor blade and cut the stalk near the base. They won't like it and will shrivel up into small warty looking branches but given time they can recover. There are two easy ways to get it to reattach to something. You can follow the example of the mushrooms and throw them in a Tupperware with some rubble. Alternatively you can take a tooth pick, spear the trunk and then either glue the tooth pick to something or tie it down with some fishing wire (do this to a small rock so that you can position it later). Once they're attached to something try and glue it onto some where with medium to high flow. This tends to make them grow fast and given the right tank parameters, they can get pretty large (fair warning).

Oh, if you find the 'shrooms or Kenya Tree are blowing around too much in the Tupperware (try and keep them out of direct flow, but they do need a small amount to help clear the slime as they heal, get food, etc), wrap the container with a bit of bridal veil and secure it with a rubber-band.

~V
 
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Alright Vandur you opened the floodgates! :tongue: When you say tupperware do you actually mean tupperware or is there a saltwater tupperware? I actually have several small carrying things with holes all around the top my dad brought his eels home in, would something like that work? Sounds to me like given the right conditions the Kenya trees can propagate quickly so I should maybe just bring 1 or 2. I believe the leather is just attached to a small rock which will make it very easy to move, but what kind of lighting does it like best? I remember is use to have all these little green tassel looking things on it, I'm thinking the lighting isn't currently correct or maybe not enough for it to be happy. I'm getting super excited now because I'm feeling like maybe its harder to kill all these things than it seems, which is awesome
 
Any plastic container (I said tupperware since most folks know the brand/what I mean, but Glad, Ziploc, etc. all make some sort of resealable plastic container) with #2, 4, or 5 inside the recycling symbol will be safe in a reef. Just don't use an old water bottle as most of those are #1 PET (good for one use, but shouldn't be reused).

As far as lighting for the leather, medium to high light should be fine. If you want to encourage a bit of growth as well, try placing it about mid-way in the water column so that it gets a bit of flow (larger ones can take quite a bit but that one looks smaller so I'd worry about just throwing it directly in front of a powerhead). The flow will help clear it's slime off (and hopefully towards your skimmer/out of the tank) when it decides to shed.

Edit: Most corals can take a limited amount of abuse. In the wild they're routinely getting hit, broken, and attacked by others near them. As long as you take care not to cause to much damage, bruise/crush them, and you give them good water parameters & time, they have a tendency to recover. You're lucky in that most of the corals I saw there are "soft corals". They, typically, can take more abuse then other types.

Edit #2: I should have also mentioned, the reusable containers are also convenient to move them in. Make sure after you remove them that they don't sit mixed together in the same small container, or bag, as they'll start stressing out and foul the water/chemically bombard each other quickly
 
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Vendor you have been very helpful, I will reference back to your comments when its time to move. I got the Turbo start for my tank and mistakenly got 2 damsels, the yellow tail killed the smaller 4 stripe damsel today, ripped off its tail fin and 2 other fins also. Should have read more about only getting 1 damsel to help get the tank ready to go. Learning from my mistakes I guess.
 
>.<

Well, that's an unfortunate lesson, on the plus side, I absolutely love the look of the yellow tail's in a small tank where you can see the scale coloration/pattern. Mistakes happen, just hope that they aren't expensive or deadly ones (learning from them is always a plus as well).

If you haven't heard this one before -- always wash/rinse your hands after handling corals, if you're fragging corals, always make sure you dispose of the water/waste in manner that pets won't get into it. (Zoo's and palys aren't the only corals that can kill you.)
 
Yes, I've also been wearing gloved anytime I reach into the tanks to avoid pokes if I can. The yellow tail is pretty and so good at hiding, I have no idea where he could have gone right now, but I did create about 5 caves to hide in my tank. So I don't think I will see him till the lights come on in the morning. I remember my dad telling me damsels would be aggressive, I just didn't think he would be a killer when he's so small.
 
If you're going to keep multiple pairs (I wouldn't in a smaller tank) they'll require their "own" rock work. Once a male makes a claim to a section of tank they tend to defend the heck out of it. Even females tend to get beat up by them, though generally this will only happen right before they spawn.

And +1 for using gloves!
 
As pretty as the Damsels are, I don't want to keep them long term. Last time I saw my dad he was very adamant that I get damsels to assist with cycling my tank in order to make sure it was all ready for his clown fish to come home to my tank. I can trade him in once I'm ready to bring the clowns home. If i did decide to keep him, wouldn't he pose a risk to my clowns? The bigger clown is easily 2.5 inches long but the smaller one isn't quite 2 inches.
 
You're tank's still pretty new, if it were me, I'd totally throw the clowns in with him and see if they're an issue or not. Damsels tend to be very aggressive to same species fish and just general bullies to everyone else. If you decide to go that route, float the new comers (if you're using bags) and watch his behavior. My past Damsels would generally run up and posture/flare around the bag to try and intimidate new arrivals but run back to their territory once the new comers are free to swim around. If you see any aggressive behavior you can always "attempt" to net him and return him to the store for credit.

(assuming you like him/want to keep him)
 
Thats a really good idea, I plan to bring the biggest of my dads rose bubble tip anemones for the clown fish. The damsel has staked his claim by the heater and only leave it every now and then, so if I put the anemone on the opposite side of the tank maybe they can co exist.
 
Went down to my dads last night to figure out all he has and what I'm going to move to my tank, He has 3 different kinds of mushrooms, flower leathers, toadstool leather, kenya trees and I found 3 small rose bubble tip anemone which the clown fish were trying to rub up against even though it was the size of a quarter. Is anemone removal the same as the corals? I am also wondering how do I know when my tank is done cycling and ready for its new inhabitants?

Edited to add: tested on tank on 6/10 which was 1 day after adding the Turbo start, PH:8.2 Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: .25, Nitrate: hubs and I couldn't agree between 10 and 20

tested tank just now 6/14 PH:8.2 Ammonia:0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5/10 they both look the exact same
 
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Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0

Either your live rock, sand, and Turbo Start are working ... or you haven't waited long enough for the cycle. Since you have a measurable amount of nitrate's, I'm going to guess that it's working. Before I go on however, I have a couple of questions.

Q1: Was that 5ppm on the nitrate?
Usually you don't see nitrate until the end of the cycle period, however since you used Turbo Start it might have started doing it's job right away.

Q2: Have you already started regular water changes?
Once you start seeing nitrate it's a good idea to start some water changes. If you haven't been doing so already, I'd start with at least a 5gallon water change tonight. After the water change, I'd wait until Saturday, test again, and just verify that the only thing left around is nitrate's, do a water change and then consider adding more livestock.

When it comes to adding fish, go slow. Adding two clowns to a small tank can create a significant bio-load on the tank. Depending on how much nitrifying bacteria you really have going atm -- adding just those two fish might overload its ability to process waste. Once the fish are added, I would start testing the water fairly regularly to make sure the parameters stay in check. Use water changes to help lower nitrates and to control any phosphates from live rock die-off (Generally a lot of the organisms on live rock die when exposed to air during the shipping process. This can cause elevated phosphates, then nuisance algae blooms).

Oh, and remember, though they tend to always be little piggies and tell you they're starving, neither the clowns nor the damsel needs to be fed every day at the start (every other should be fine). Reduced feeding will help your bacteria keep up after the introduction of the new fish.

As far as moving the anemone's, I'd honestly move them last. The "easiest" method that I know of is to try and use an ice-cube on their base to get them to release. Though this is a major pain in the ... I'm sure others here might have better advice on that subject.

When it comes to the corals, I'd wait a week to make sure the tank parameters stay in check with the added fish. They will inevitably add their own waste (slime, etc) to the tank and I'd hate to see that throw your tank for a loop.
 
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yes that was 5ppm on the Nitrate. I will get set up for a 5 gal change and follow your recommendation. Should the nitrates be zero also? I should do some more reading on nitrates obviously, I already figured out the nitrites and ammonia levels should always be zero, but I honestly got distracted and forgot to go back and read about Nitrates. I'll just keep chugging along and hopefully will keep things balanced. Thanks Vandur for your tips!
 
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