ECFENCING

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Thanks for the post.

I'm thinking of breaking down and holding my live stock and corals in another tank and start with new rock (base rock from brs-would need to cure that separately)... I had a bit of a bubble algae infestation so not sure which is the best way to go right now.

Even if I get rid of the 2 rocks it's on right now I don't think I'll get rid of it completely.

I was thinking of upgrading to a 4 x 2 footprint but not sure yet.
 

ECFENCING

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Since some of my rocks (not all have Bubble Algae on them) and one rock has hair algae I'm thinking that I'll take all of these out and let them dry out and give them away.

Pretty much all of the rocks I'm getting rid of for free except for two:
one with xenia and button polyps and the one with the rock anemone.

I want to be certain that I won't have Bubble Algae anymore so I'm thinking of re locating everything and starting over with BRS Pukani Rock.

Any suggestions on how to do this efficiently?

Thinking of doing the following:
(1) Relocate everything to another tank-corals and rocks I want to keep. Make sure the 2 rocks I want to keep don't have bubble algae
(2) drain existing tank, clean with vinegar and water and start from scratch with new make up water, scape the way I want to and let the cycling process begin...Any suggestions on bacterial additives or speeding up the process would be appreciated.
(3) Also suggestions for aqua scaping and whether BRS Pukani is good or the acqua texture rock would be a better alternative.
(4) Looking for a real open aqua scape this time so I want the most porous rock I could get

My other plan is just to sell all of my corals and fish at a discount and start from scratch but not sure I want to do that. I only have a 20 gallon long to keep everything.
 
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Ernie, I'm not sure how bad your infestation is, but i would start with manual removal.

No matter how careful I am, from time to time I always end up with bubble algae, majano, and aiptasia..

The only way to "try" and really keep it out is to add natural predators and QT everything before addition.

Keeping it under control is my suggestion.

If it's so bad then yes maybe swapping out rock is preferred. I would never suggest dry rock, I absolutely despise it. Dry or not it's loaded with crap inside. Some people have good experiences and some don't. I have had bad experiences twice and witnessed way to many problems.

If your already annoyed with pest algae then dry rock is risky IMO.

relocating all the corals to a different tank would be my first step.

Then I would start the tank completely over, then I would source some really healthy established live rock and go from there.

Once ready make sure you manually remove anything that pops up on your corals before re introduction to the tank
 

ECFENCING

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Thanks for the input !

Johnny hope all is well

One rock has pretty bad hair algae and for some reason when my phosphates and nitrates go up that's the only rock that grows the algae back even after lights out for a few days

The bubble algae infestation has pretty much touched every rock. Don't see it on all the rocks but I bet it's on every one.

I think I'll look for some nice pieces of live rock but it's tough to build a nice scape unless you can cherry pick

Johnny: Did you like the Tampa bay live rock (I think that's the vendor ) ?

Pretty much my fault for not qt'ng and keeping up with maintenance. Been so busy lately
 
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ECFENCING

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Update: Picked up some really nice clean live rock from dacebrown covered in coralline algae and with some corals attached to some of the rocks. He even threw in some extra rock. Extremely generous of dacebrown!

Still debating on whether I want to add any sand.

The rock I had was never covered in any coralline algae. I had some "real reef rocks with painted on coralline"

http://realreefrock.com/how-it-is-made-and-grown

The other rocks I had were covered in green coralline so naturally that took off.

Now I just need to make some water. Going to transfer all of my corals and rocks to another tank. Clean the tank with some vinegar and water and refill with RO/DI, mix with salt, test, add rocks I just picked up from dacebrown and transfer back corals making certain there is no bubble anywhere.

I will just try to manually remove as much bubble algae as possible from the old rock and maybe get a rabbit fish to clean it up but not sure if I want to go through the trouble of keeping this rock live or dry it out.
 
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ECFENCING

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Open to suggestions on landscaping for a cube

Would love to upgrade to a slightly bigger tank so that I could get a tang but not sure

Trying to create a nice rock scape with either acrylic or PVC not sure which way to go on this

Also will have some minimal die off due to rock being out of water for a few minutes

Trying to minimize this as best I can
 

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Well it took me six months to redo my tank from the rock I purchased from dacebrown. Took out all of the infested rock. Did a 100 percent water change and placed in the cured live rock I got from dacebrown. Lot's of life on it. Sponges, tube worms, you name it.

Anyway wanted to thank akma, tonyscoots, JonnyJ, and Kingator and E in the C for encouraging me to stick with it.

Going to keep up on water changes this time. Will help tremendously. Hopefully will set up the litermeter as a water changing device but don't know if I want to automate that part of it.

Will post some pics.. Still debating on adding sand for the looks. Got rid of the black starboard on the bottom. Made the detritus stand out.
 

ECFENCING

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Some new pics:

Side View of Tank
20141229_150901_zpst6kkrppc.jpg


Clown in Xenia

20141229_150919_zpsruxhohz0.jpg


Anthias and damsels

20141229_150942_zpsjxuru7en.jpg


Front View

20141229_151132_zpsqidk5ofv.jpg



Need to clean the outside of the glass and wipe away the water stains. Also thinking of going back to ESV salt mix. The Red Sea Coral Pro that I used mixes well but 175 gallons is not 175 gallons at 1.026. That 175 gallons is based on a lower amount 1.022 or something like that. I think you get a true 200 gallon yield with ESV but not sure.

Also looking to maybe change up the tunze 6095 to a vortech mp40w so that I can place the netting on top without any issues. Right now I had to notch out the back for it to fit on with the wires and it doesn't look as nice. Thinking about halides but mounting could be an issue. I think the giesemann wall brackets are my only solution. I don't want to drill the ceiling. Don't have permission to do that from the Mrs.... Other than keeping up with husbandry, buying new test kits, filter socks, and salt I think I am good for the time being. Eventually would be nice to upgrade the controller but not a necessity for now.
 
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ECFENCING

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When I broke down the tank and cleaned it I noticed that my sicce 3.0 had a rusted out impeller. Wondering if it is common or what caused it. Luckily I had an eheim compact 3000+ pump as a backup and am using that. Runs like a charm.

Going to post a pic.
 

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