Hammerstone's Tank

[Hammerstone]

Well today I cleaned out cyano for over four hours, I kept finding it. I did a 50 % water change since I scrubbed off all the rocks and there was tons of detritus and ground up cyano and algae floating around. Added some prime just in case. Changed my filter floss three times during the cleaning and each time it was nearly black. Cleaned powerhead pretty well and filter intake and filter compartment. Switched out carbon and put in Chemi-Pure Elite. Not necessarily in that order lol I am so tired now.

 

The LFS didn't have Phosgard so that's why the Chemi-Pure Elite.

 

By the time we got back from the LFS and I did another hours worth of cleaning, I noticed that the glass was already starting to get algae dust on it. So I cleaned it again. I'll take some pictures then I need to check out the photobucket ap stuff that Harry was kind enough to put down for me.

 

We'll see if by tomorrow everything is back. I'm going to try to visually document what is going on with my tank. The crap spreads fast, incredibly fast.

[Elizabeth94]

Forgive me if this is repetitive.. How often do you feed the clowns? They will beg and beg- but try not to give in, I know how cute they can be.

 

Taking that sand out should help dramatically, best thing I ever did for my tank and the look is growing on me. Although I won't lie... the tanks with perfect white sand makes me think about adding it again. However, I know I would never be able to keep it that white. I used to stir my sanded every day and it still held all kinds of nasties.

[uisge-beatha]

Thanks for the updates - I've been wondering how you're holding up, and it's good to hear that you're being proactive about fixing the problems.

 

Well today I cleaned out cyano for over four hours, I kept finding it. I did a 50 % water change since I scrubbed off all the rocks and there was tons of detritus and ground up cyano and algae floating around. Added some prime just in case. Changed my filter floss three times during the cleaning and each time it was nearly black. Cleaned powerhead pretty well and filter intake and filter compartment. Switched out carbon and put in Chemi-Pure Elite. Not necessarily in that order lol I am so tired now.

The LFS didn't have Phosgard so that's why the Chemi-Pure Elite.

By the time we got back from the LFS and I did another hours worth of cleaning, I noticed that the glass was already starting to get algae dust on it. So I cleaned it again. I'll take some pictures then I need to check out the photobucket ap stuff that Harry was kind enough to put down for me.

We'll see if by tomorrow everything is back. I'm going to try to visually document what is going on with my tank. The crap spreads fast, incredibly fast.

 

Be prepared for the cyano to be back in full force tomorrow morning. The thing is, there will be a little less than there was before. If you keep up with even a weekly cleaning routine, the cyano will eventually lose. It is, after all, significantly less clever than you.

 

However, doing the full cleaning as recommended by seabass et al. will probably save you a LOT of time and heartache, so give it some serious consideration.

[Hammerstone]

Thank you Elizabeth! I miss my white sand. I wish that I could keep my tanks looking like the ones at my LFS, or the tank of the month tanks. Plus I want to start buying more corals. My tank is mostly rock. If my tank keeps being destroyed everyday I am definitely going to have to do the deep clean. Sooner than later.

 

They were out of microbactor at the LFS also.

[Hammerstone]

This was so difficult. I couldn't find Harry's good and easy was lol. Sorry that's it's a crappy picture. Was from my iPod. If you need more pictures I'll try again tomorrow. But I'm glad I finally was able to get a picture up!!? My tank looks like hell, embarrassing. Also, the bubbles are from a bubble curtain in the back.

[seabass]

Cool; thank you for posting that! It's totally fixable.

Here is exactly what I'd do. I'd replace the sand, instead of trying to clean it. I'd follow the steps that I outlined earlier. Then, while you have it broken down, I'd dip the rocks in a peroxide and salt solution. Here's how that works:

• Buy three gallons (a dozen 32oz bottles) of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• Empty the peroxide into a five gallon bucket then stir in a cup and a half of salt mix.
• Have another five gallon bucket, with three gallons of saltwater (usually tank water, but it can be new) for rinsing.
• If there are any snails or crabs on the rock, remove them first. However, I've accidentally dipped them before and most come out alright. Trochus snails seem more sensitive than others.
• Before putting the rocks back in your tank (after you have cleaned out your tank), dip them in the peroxide. Keep the rocks submerged in the peroxide for about five seconds (but if there are no corals or anemones on the rock, you can dip them longer). I recommend wearing gloves to protect your hands, but I've done it without gloves too. Some eye protection is also smart.
• Lift the rock out of the bucket and let it drain for about five more seconds.
• Then rinse the rock in the other bucket of saltwater (to get rid of most of the peroxide), before returning it to your tank.
• Return the rock to your tank. You'll notice the rock will be bubbling like an air stone for awhile. You might also see bristle worms and debris float up to the top. A brine shrimp net is a good tool to scoop out anything that is floating around.
• If there were any corals on the rock, use a turkey baster to gently blow off the bubbles from them.

Your tank (being mostly rock) is PERFECT for this! The algae will start to die over the next couple of days. Then take "after" pictures to show off your new tank. I'm excited for you and your clownfish friends!

You might have to follow up with a couple more peroxide dips (waiting a week in between treatments) before all the algae is gone. However, you won't have to break your tank down again. Also, besides losing most of your bristle worms (which is either good or bad depending on how you view them), you might notice that you've killed off much of your pod population. You might wish to repopulate these after you are done with the peroxide treatments.

[nanolutionary]

I had sun corals but they slowly declined at the bottom of my tank with the light change.

 

 

Hi Hammerstone, just so you know for future reference Sun Corals do not use sunlight to make energy, they declined due to a lack of food incorrect water parameters or both.

[seabass]

Hammertime, your other option is to cure some new live rock in a separate container (with a powerhead). Then when it's fully cured, replace your rock and sand as I have suggested. That's not a bad option since you don't have a lot of livestock. But I feel that your current rock can be saved.

[Tamberav]

Just a curious thought, could the bubble curtain be aiding the algae? I mean obvious nutrients 1st but..... we use basically bubble curtains to grow GHA for upflow scrubbers.

[seabass]

Interesting, but nah, I don't think it's causing any problems (other than salt creep).

[Hammerstone]

 

 

Hi Hammerstone, just so you know for future reference Sun Corals do not use sunlight to make energy, they declined due to a lack of food incorrect water parameters or both.

I know they are NPS, I fed every polyp every night a mysis each polyp. Iam proud of how I took care of my Suns. I was bicep deep with a turkey Baster and a cup with thawed mysis EVERY night, and I was so patient my husband wasn't very happy that I took like 45 minutes after him to go to bed. That was when my water qparametwrs were spot on and the Suns were making new baby Suns. I didn't even have any algae. The ONLY change I made was from regular lights to REef lights, strong led's, and that was because I got four RFAs, it wasn't for the Suns. But after that they declined and died.

[nanolutionary]

I know they are NPS, I fed every polyp every night a mysis each polyp. Iam proud of how I took care of my Suns. I was bicep deep with a turkey Baster and a cup with thawed mysis EVERY night, and I was so patient my husband wasn't very happy that I took like 45 minutes after him to go to bed. That was when my water qparametwrs were spot on and the Suns were making new baby Suns. I didn't even have any algae. The ONLY change I made was from regular lights to REef lights, strong led's, and that was because I got four RFAs, it wasn't for the Suns. But after that they declined and died.

 

 

That's interesting, I guess even though they do not require sunlight they can still be damaged by it then!

[seabass]

That's interesting, I guess even though they do not require sunlight they can still be damaged by it then!

From my understanding, light itself is not really a problem.

 

My guess is that:

• a lot of nutrients built up over the years (saturating the sand bed)
• then the sun corals were introduced (along with increased feedings, which increases phosphate, organics, and nitrate)
• followed by upgrading the lights (which, along with the surplus of nutrients, the algae and cyano responded positively to)
• with water quality not at its best, and the presence of algae and cyano, the NPS went into decline
• as the sun corals died off, all the nutrients that they have been receiving were released back into the water (fueling even more problems)

[Clown79]

The tank is totally fixable. I was expecting to see it covered.

 

Its really not that bad.

 

Hammerstone, you must have good lfs near you because the ones in my local area- the tanks are filthy!

 

You could go barebottom and get the white starboard others use under the rocks. It looks like sand from afar.

That gives you the ease of barebottom but the look of sand.

This is what it looks like

[Hammerstone]

^ some beautiful tanks right there!! It does look like sand!

[HarryPotter]

I'm sorry, why?

 

 

Easier. No dirty sand

[seabass]

That gives you the ease of barebottom but the look of sand.

Definitely an option that many people like. I personally think it looks unnatural, but I'd consider it for a frag tank. Personal preference here.

[Hammerstone]

<p>

 

From my understanding, light itself is not really a problem.

 

My guess is that:

• a lot of nutrients built up over the years (saturating the sand bed)
• then the sun corals were introduced (along with increased feedings, which increases phosphate, organics, and nitrate)
• followed by upgrading the lights (which, along with the surplus of nutrients, the algae and cyano responded positively to)
• with water quality not at its best, and the presence of algae and cyano, the NPS went into decline
• as the sun corals died off, all the nutrients that they have been receiving were released back into the water (fueling even more problems)

when I had the Suns I didn't have algae or cyano but I was feeding heavy. Also when they started to die I still chummed over them with mysis water to try to get them to open and still tried to feed them. That's a huge contributor for sure.

 

You won't believe this but when I turned the light on, NO CYANO!!! I still have the day and light cycle but that chemi-pure elite must have

Done something for sure!! I am amazed. Maybe the hours of work I did yesterday wasn't in vain!!???

 

Oh and the reason I believe it was the light was that there was discoloration on the top half of my black Suns, the bottom half was pitch black, the top half was a brownish color like they were sun burned.

[Hammerstone]

 

 

Easier. No dirty sand

that was an accident, the I'm sorry why, I was mentioning something to my husband and accidentally posted here instead of iMessage lol so I tried to erase it lol

Definitely an option that many people like. I personally think it looks unnatural, but I'd consider it for a frag tank. Personal preference here.

yeah I agree with you. I am not a bare bottom girl hahahaha. Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Tamberav]

Suns can handle light fine, many people keep them under bright reef tanks, including myself. Some grow in direct sunlight in the wild.

 

However, they need to be acclimated to brighter light just like other coral.

 

Personally, I haven't found them to respond poorly to extra nutrients or high nitrates, regardless of what the literature says.

[Elizabeth94]

Totally fixable as everyone already said. You could always pull all the sand and do your peroxide dips then keep it bare bottom for a little while to get back into stable conditions with a regular matinence schedule. If you don't like the look of bare bottom you can always add sand later (it is a pain to take out once you have aded it). Just make sure you clean it and mix it around once in a while to get the gunk out.

[Hammerstone]

The tank before all my work over the past few weeks was literally covered in cyano. Yesterday it took me 4+ hours to clean off the cyano.i toothbrushed all the rocks, which were covered in detritus and i couldn't hardly see through it. I put in some prime because it scared me. I kept changing out the filter floss like once every hour and kept throwing out black floss. Cleaned out the filter and the powerhead and then I did a 50 % water change. Changed the filter floss again. Gave it two hours and then threw that out and then put in the final filter floss, and the chemi-pure elite. Phew. I hope that the cyano stays away because I'm happy but if I were a betting man I don't think the odds are so good lol. This was just a summary of yesterday. Now I've been feeding less and using a turkey Baster to feed the clowns mysis twice a week, the rest of the week is flake. I target feed the RFAs shrimp twice a week. Phew again. Thanks for reading.?

[seabass]

... but that chemi-pure elite must have done something for sure!! I am amazed. Maybe the hours of work I did yesterday wasn't in vain!

Oh no, I don't like the sound of that. This gives you another reason to put off some needed sand bed maintenance. I have to say that we've seen some of this before. You really don't want to break this tank down, and you're searching for a reason not to do it.

 

I took out most of the cyano last night. Thank God. Now I will make sure to keep on top of the cyano.

 

Ok, got more cyano out, there's just some on back wall gonna get that out tonight.

 

Last night it was looking okay for what it's worth, I mean yeah it looked bad but improved. I wake up to all my work undone.

 

I just got all the cyano that I could see out and some algae.

 

Hopefully with the cleaning that I just did I didn't do more harm than good. But it looks way better visually.

 

Today there was way less cyano, but that doesn't mean anything I know.

 

I just spent a good four hours getting cyano out of my tank.

[cruiZe]

Rock in my sump - infested with GHA in March .

 

Did 2 peroxide treatments on it - posted in the big peroxide thread. Again, this was in March.

 

4 months later, this topic coming up, I checked out to see how much as grown back? Here is the same rock today.

5 minutes work on this rock. I didn't scrub it one bit.

Haven't touched the rock since March.

[seabass]

I saw the bubbling rock, and my first thought was that Hammerstone finally did it.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about cruiZe!