Tank nelgected - not my fault!

[johnfruitbat]

Hi Guys,

 

Need a bit of advice really.....

 

After working abroad for 3 months and leaving my 20H in the care of a "capable" friend I returned to find a scene of carnage! My tanks been runing for about 18 months but you wouldn't think so to look at it. Masses of green hair algae, cyano and detritus,most of the creatures deceased, I felt like crying! Thinks it was a combination of over feeding, slack waterchanges, build up of phosphate / nitrates and ageing MH bulb.

 

Was wondering what opinions were on how to go on. I figure I got two choices:

 

1. A large dose of TLC with loads of water changes, a stripdown and clean up, change of bulbs + lots of phosphate remover.

 

2. Re-start the tank. I am overall really pleased with the set-up and spent ages on it so I haven't really got to change much.

 

I'm thinking perhaps option 2. I'm just wondering how to go about it. If I move all the contents to a spare tank with all the water, strip and clean the system and restart, will all the algae regrow when the LR is moved to the new system and how will the old tank cope if i remove most of the LR from it.

 

Advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[burnah]

i guess adding a good cleanup crew and regular radical water changes with established SW from your LFS would help...

[EtOH_is_good]

aren't both options essentially the same. i'd think that a huge water change and tlc for a couple months should take care of most of your problems. having a skimmer may help speed up the process. once nutrient concentrations are under control, your tank should start looking better.

[johnfruitbat]

Cool, I'm skewing towards the restarting option, but would distributing the LR 1/2 between each tank be enough to take care of the bio filtration?