Ajmckay's tank thread (Lots of pics)

[amnesiak]

I love the blasto colony and your pom pom crab! I have a similar blasto but it only has 3 polyps and I have a pom crab with a super tiny pom. I hope it grows out like yours - that's awesome.

[cruzH20polo]

love the mature look to the tank!

 

+1

all that coralline

[Mojorizn]

That was one awsome post:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=2690172

 

Seriously-

[bitts]

That was one awsome post:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=2690172

 

Seriously-

 

and the mad props go to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ajmckay

nicely done.

[ajmckay]

Thanks guys for the encouragement. I certainly appreciate it!

 

I suppose I'll have to post an update to the tank. I should probably clean it up first though.

 

I've been having a little bit of a tough time with some cyano.

[fishbutt]

Great advice for noobs like me! Thanks!

[DudE31]

excellent tank... beautiful

[nemmy]

Nice sig. Heres some tank thread loving.

 

<3

[bitts]

update......

[ajmckay]

Yes I agree that an update is necessary. I need to give my tank thread some lovin' eh?

 

Gimme a few!

[MGDMIRAGE]

Yep better get your wrasse in there and take some pics!

[ajmckay]

Okay seriously time for an update. Things have been going pretty good with the tank up until a few weeks ago. I left town for a few days and when I got back I saw some GHA "popping up". Well I decided to leave it until my next maintenance. BIG MISTAKE. I wasn't able to do my regular maintenance and so 2 weeks later this is my tank... I was forced to clean it at 1am the night before leaving on a trip. Only 1 coral was really affected... The algae overtook my single acropora frag and it died.

 

Watch and prepare to be sickened. Oh, and don't mind my commentary. I'm not a very good narrator.

 

[ajmckay]

So details on how I cleaned up the tank (see the tank after algae removal in the first post):

 

#1) Make a game plan. You'll need to get your hands dirty so have some items nearby such as a towel, a soft toothbrush, a hard bristled brush, a 6ft section of large diameter vinyl tubing (3/8 to 1/2" inside diameter), a 5 gallon bucket or 2, and a bucket with some fresh SW in it. Razorblades are also handy.

 

#2) Grab the long stuff with your fingers. Pinch off as much as you can and shake it off into a separate container. This would also be a good time to take out some of the corals which you'll need to carefully scrape off. Next, get your siphon going and suck out the cyano and the crap that comes off easily in sheets. Don't siphon too much at this point though. Sometimes I'll siphon up some sand at this point too just to be sure I get all the crap in the sand (easy to siphon up).

 

#3) Get some mechanical filtration going. As much as you can.

 

#4) Get the brushes and go to town. The soft bristled toothbrush should be used first as that will take off most of the stuff. The hard bristled will take off the more difficult stuff. Scrub the crap out of the rocks in the tank. Smaller, more detailed pieces can be taken out of the tank and brushed off in a 5 gallon bucket, then just swish it around in the new SW before putting it back in. Do this also for rocks that have a lot of bubble algae on them to avoid bursting the bubbles in the tank.

 

#5) Clean out your corals. Many corals can tolerate a light (one way) scrubbing. SPS will likely die off if you can't remove the algae quick.

 

#6) Now scrape the glass, get the baster out and blow off all the rocks and sand so that stuff is floating around. Now you can use the siphon to suck it all up. Suck out as much water as you need.

 

#7) After re-filling the tank, you can rinse out the sand you took out and put it back into the tank. Now just let the tank chill for a while and let the mechanical filtration do it's thing. Don't worry about doing any re-scaping or anything at this point as it could cause too much stress. Also, for many types of algae it's a good idea to do this in the middle of the night and starve the algae of light for 24 hours after the manual removal. This can help reduce the chances of the algae making a recovery by limiting the amount of photosynthesis which occurs.

 

#8) Replenish your CUC. do a physical count of snails and crabs and such. If your tank is like mine I usually have to replenish some snails and crabs each year.

 

#9) Keep up on it. You may have to do this every day or every week for a little while until you're in control.

 

This method works for every type of algae I've had to deal with. It's most effective against GHA, cyano, and some other nuisance algaes. Note that if this doesn't work, more extreme methods may be required.

[Banjo]

You're tank looks great after you got rid of that nasty hair algae issue! That was crazy, haha.

 

But, AWESOME job cleaning up!

[ajmckay]

Thanks Banjo. I'm mostly ashamed of the fact that I let it get that bad, but at least this can be used to show people the effectiveness of manual removal. Hopefully I can prove that manual removal is effective enough so that there might be less people taking such drastic measures such as boiling rock, peroxide, cutting the rock, or messing with dosing to remove some of our nuisance algae.

[Banjo]

Yeah, definitely. I'm actually surprised you were able to clean it as effectively as you did.

 

On another note, how do you like your Coral Beauty? I was thinking about adding a Coral Beauty, Cherub, or Flame. Just not sure if I want to risk my clams.

[nebthet]

Wow.. great job on cleaning this tank up. I don't feel so bad about the GHA growing in my tank now that I saw how yours got and how you cleaned it up. Thanks for sharing.

[ajmckay]

Banjo, the CB angel rocks (then again I don't have a clam). From what I have researched (a lot) the CB angels have a slightly better record than most other centropyge angels with regard to nipping corals/clams. There's still no guarantees, but it seems as though there are fewer problems. Another angel to consider is the eibli angel, though it gets bigger than most other species.

 

Nebt: Glad I made you feel better Now get to work! The power of my toothbrush compels you.

[sanchez]

Jeez, that's a nasty tank.. I wish I had some videos of mine before and after, but you can look at my thread to see the mess I dealt with. PIcked up a neglected, used tank which was a mistake I think lol.

 

Anyway, gunna use your tactics this weekend to rid myself of the last of my GHA

[Arthur França]

Update?

[ajmckay]

Haha... This tanks gone to hell recently! I've been so determined to get my new tank up and running (I'll be transferring the stock from this tank to a 40b) that it's really crappy. I've even submitted pics of it to the ugly tank thread! I hope I win that CUC from reefcleaners!

 

[Reef Casa]

Haha... This tanks gone to hell recently! I've been so determined to get my new tank up and running (I'll be transferring the stock from this tank to a 40b) that it's really crappy. I've even submitted pics of it to the ugly tank thread! I hope I win that CUC from reefcleaners!

 

 

lots of potential. You dont need CUC you need TLC

[bitts]

Haha... This tanks gone to hell recently! I've been so determined to get my new tank up and running (I'll be transferring the stock from this tank to a 40b) that it's really crappy. I've even submitted pics of it to the ugly tank thread! I hope I win that CUC from reefcleaners!

 

 

Don't be to hard on your self my tank is lookin pretty close to this at time's lately. I just don't have the @#$@ to take pics & put them up.

[ajmckay]

*pretend taps is playing

 

This tank has officially been taken down. Rock, Fish, Corals, and Inverts all transferred to my 40B.

 

Sand.... will be washed, dried, and who knows what then.

 

Tank? I've had it for 17 years... It's in my basement for now... maybe I'll give it to someone, or maybe i'll make it FW again?

[bitts]

Frag tank.

Frag tank.