All finished let me know what you think.

[matt frizz]

So I've had this bubble algae problem for a while and the red brush algae is starting to get out of control. I started preparing water last night and I've been going at it all day now. First off I made around 25-30 gallons in a rubbermaid container. This is a temporary holding place for live rock. I have over 100lbs in my display. I also prepared 2 five gallon dipping buckets. More on this later.

 

 

rubbermaid container housing the first (and easiest to remove) live rock batch. I put the rock and my starry blenny in here (so he would stop biting me while i break down the tank).

 

My display now looks like this.

 

 

I can't remove any more rock because I also set up a 20L with saltwater in my back room and it's not quite up to temp yet. This tank will serve as a temporary house for my clown fish/mandarin and all of my nicer corals.

 

 

So basically here's what I'm doing. I'm removing my live rock in batches to the rubbermaid tub and then removing one piece at a time, scraping the algae off of it and spraying (using a spray bottle) H202 onto the rock.

 

Here's my make shift station.

 

 

I let it sit for a few minutes and then I rinse it off really good in the dip bucket.

 

 

After that I return it to the blue bin for a little while to de-stress (if there are corals on the rock). Once the 20L is up to temp I'm going to transfer the cleaned pieces to that tank along with some coral from the display and the fish. Then I'm going to repeat my method on the rest of the rock in the tank until I finish.

 

Now I have a couple of questions on an idea I'm about to try out. I want to give either a blue spotted jawfish or a blue ribbon/snowflake eel a try in my tank. So I'm taking an idea I read from somebody else on the forum (i really cannot remember who so sorry about that) and creating an under-the-sand pvc piping for it to live in.

 

 

I'm going to need a bit more sand in my display so I bought a 20lb bag of the bagged live sand from a LFS. I plan on burying the pvc piping under my current sand bed and then adding the 20lbs of sand on top. Is it OK for me to add the bagged live sand on an already established tank? I imagine there isn't an incredible amount of dye off and i plan on letting the tank settle down and go a day or so before returning all of the rock to it. I'll probably add back some but not all.

 

How am I doing? Am I on the right track? I would hate to mess something up and lose all of my coral or any of my fish.

[Degener8]

Sounds like your doing fine.. A quick rinse of the sand before putting it into the tank to get some of the silt out of it would probably be advisable.. but their meaning of LIVE is bacteria not really the other micro organisms.

[matt frizz]

Sounds like your doing fine.. A quick rinse of the sand before putting it into the tank to get some of the silt out of it would probably be advisable.. but their meaning of LIVE is bacteria not really the other micro organisms.

 

Exactly why i figured it would be ok. It's not really live sand from the LFS it's just bagged sand with bacteria. I'll probably just scoop it in cup by cup once the display is empty.

[Degener8]

I find it easier rinse it. Then put it back in the bag. fold the end over.. submerge everything and slowly dump into place I have done this in the past with minimum clouding.

[matt frizz]

I find it easier rinse it. Then put it back in the bag. fold the end over.. submerge everything and slowly dump into place I have done this in the past with minimum clouding.

 

Thanks man appreciate the advice. I'm definitely gonna try that.

[brandon429]

Nice job not sparing effort, that's a chance to really clean the tank

 

The peroxide will kill the red brush algae,a slow dieoff over five days

as soon as the tips turn pink its on

 

You are acting early, the rocks don't look bad from what I see.

 

Regarding the rinsing, are talking about the sand you already have?

 

Yes if you can get to it I too would rinse it totally free of silt/detritus since its there with no rock on it. Rinsed in clean saltwater, the biofilm/filtration capabilities will remain

 

Your tank should look great after all this work and a few days time for the corals to adjust. Regardless of any losses or stress to the tank, IMO you did right doing the detail take down, red brush algae can take over a tank more cases than not

 

I will link your thread to some other peroxide threads that will appreciate your takedown documentary

 

 

 

If you were meaning to rinse the new sand that's fine too, I was just more concerned in resetting the single largest reserve of N and P in your tank

[Degener8]

we were talking about the new sand but you have a valid point about rinsing some of the deterius from the old sand also....

[brandon429]

That's going to add considerable work but hey you are already in it knee deep make a reef party out if it~

[matt frizz]

lmao I'm at that stage now and looking at my sand bed thinking. I think I'm just going to net through a very fine layer and kind of skim the top. I have a huge brittle that keeps the bed clean and so many nassarius it's not even funny.

 

I have removed SO much bubble algae it's ridiculous. All the rock is out and has been cleaned/sprayed down. Just waiting for the display to clear up so I can see the fish I'm trying to take out. Been at this for 10 hours now including a few store trips and stops to eat.

 

I'm thinking that I have too much rock so I'm going to bring a couple of large bland base pieces to the LFS. I'm going to epoxy my new scape together so it doesn't get disturbed and so I can scape it better.

[matt frizz]

All finished with the tank now. It looks incredible. New scape is money, coral placement is money, algae seems to be receeding, undersand pvc network is really cool and all is well.

 

I'll get some pictures as soon as it clears out just a little bit more. It's still a little bit cloudy. The new sandbed is looking really good too. It's fairly deep but I'm not too worried about it.

 

I also removed some huge rock pieces and took them to the LFS. I could never get my scape right because they were so huge.

[banshee]

Can't wait to see it!

[matt frizz]

Here's the result of my hard work.

 

FTS:

 

 

LTS:

 

 

RTS:

 

 

PVC outlets:

 

 

 

This one is in the bottom middle, kind of hard to see.

 

 

Some more shots:

 

 

 

 

Ordered a Blue spotted jawfish, harlequin shrimp and four ricordeas coming in on tuesday.

[banshee]

Looks like a huge improvement! I like that PVC work. I'll have to remember that if I ever do a bigger tank!

[matt frizz]

I'll update how it works out. My BSJ comes in either tomorrow or the next day and I'm going to release him right into the piping. Hopefully it doesn't turn into an ammonia trap. I'm going to be cautious with it. BTW it was max with the Blue Ribbon Eel who inspired me to do this.