Aiptasia/Red slime

[Awibrandy]

Hi Guys & Gals, I have inherited my best friend's tank. There is a problem with it as the title suggest. She had had a big problem with aiptasia, she medicated, and bought a butterfly fish to take care of it, it looks like they are all gone. Not really sure. I picked up her livestock last evening, LR, Fish, Anemonies, EELs, I put them all in a 75gl. with her water, and I placed her dirty filter pads in my wet/dry hoping to keep her biologicals going atleast until my system kicks in.
LR approximately 100lbs. most covered in red, and green slime, 2 large Naso Tangs, 1 Purple tang, 1 baby dog face puffer, 1 lg. marine betta, 2 black ribbon eels, 1 semi-large banana eel?, 1 carpet anemonie, 1 ritteri anemonie, not sure what the other two are, I believe one is a long tentacle, the other is the tentacles are almost none existing. We are to pick up her tank tonight,(155 bow front). I can't fit her tank and my 120gl. tank in my house so my tank is going to a friend. I plan on combine her fish, (with the exception of her eels, puffer, betta, and anemonies) with my live stock in her tank.
My Question to you folks is, how long should I treat her LR (which is in the 75gl. so that it doesn't infest my LR) for the red slime? And what about the Aiptasia? As mentioned above I havent seen any. I am going to throw some "Red Slime Remover" powder in there now.
Please advice.
Please, please, please no berrating of my friend. She was very ill, and passed away two days ago.;( Her last wish was for me to have her tank, because she knew I would take care of her animals.Her tank, and animals are my inheritance.:happysad:
PS I almost forgot, her sand bed has a bit of green algea on it. Throw it away, keep it? I have mixed emotions. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Thank you all for reading this post, and for what ever advice you can give.

 

[inkblue]

Sorry to hear about your friend....

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you Ink..

 

[ming]

If its as bad as you're making it sound, I would throw away the sand and "cook" the rocks.

Sorry about your friend

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Increase circulation lower your nitrates and run some carbon see if that helps.

 

[fritz]

Her live rock is probably saturated with phosphates it'll probably take a month or two of running phosban in a reactor to get it to leach all that phosphate out. The Red Slime will kill off the slime that's in there but in a few days the air in your house will have re-seeded the water and you'll be back in the same boat. As mentioned you can cook the rock and run carbon and phos-removing stuff but it'll be awhile.

 

[ShaunW]

I would also suggest cooking your rock, i.e. allowing it to have no light for an extended period of time to rid it of algae.

I would get rid of the sandbed and put a new one in its place.

If you don't want to cook the rock and undergo the long process it entails you could set the tank up (with a new sand bed) and keep the photoperiod at an absolute minimum (1 hour a day, just to feed the fish). Skimming heavy also.

Sorry for your friend, .

 

[Awibrandy]

OK, throwing the sand out. Cook the LR? I've heard you guys mention this quite a bit, but I have no idea what it means. Please elaborate. In the mean time I will try to find more info. on it.
"The Red Slime will kill off the slime that's in there but in a few days the air in your house will have re-seeded the water and you'll be back in the same boat." Good thing I had to run out. I didn't put the red slime in, and now I won't. I will continue to monitor the parameters in the tank, run carbon, phosphate sponge, small water changes, and wait this thing out. And I will definitely not put any of her LR in with mine in the bow until all clear.
Thank you so very much guys. I don't know what I would do without all of your help. Again, thank you, ming, chief, and fritz.

 

[ShaunW]

Cooking the rock would mean: placing it in a container with salt water and a powerhead without light. You could add a skimmer to the mix also to speed the process up. What your doing biologically is preventing algae to undergo photosynthesis (and die off) and allowing bacteria in the rock to degrade nitrate and phosphate instead of the algae. Before you begin the rock cooking process I would scrub any algae that can be removed off the rock.

 

[ShaunW]

The other alternative would be to allow the rock to dry out completely in the sun (bake it). Wash it with a vinegar solution, and lots of fresh water, then put it back in the tank. The problem with this is that you have killed all the beneficial bacteria, but you could add this back by placing a few live rock pieces (from a hobbist or respectable fish store) in the tank too. You would cycle again but it should be minimal if at all.

 

[Awibrandy]

Solby, thanks for the word of advice...

"If you don't want to cook the rock and undergo the long process it entails you could set the tank up (with a new sand bed) and keep the photoperiod at an absolute minimum (1 hour a day, just to feed the fish). Skimming heavy also."

75gl. was set up yesterday with only the fish, eels, anemonies, and LR.
Sand bed was not moved. I'm going back to her house tonight to get the tank, and the rest of the equipment. And I will throw the sand away as I initially suspected.
Photoperiod at a minimum of 1 hour a day, won't this harm the anemonies?
Skimming heavy, she had a "Hang-on Turboflotor" will this do?

Yes, ming it is pretty bad, but I did not say it was totally covered just quite a bit. And it is a film of it, that I looked to me like it was begging to go "hair algea". It is not the worse I have ever seen by far.

Thank you all for your support in this time. Between mourning my loss, working feverishly to keep her animals alive through all of this, and my own illness. I can trully use your support, again thank you, and may God
bless you all.

 

[Awibrandy]

Cooking the Rock

Cooking the rock would mean: placing it in a container with salt water and a powerhead without light. You could add a skimmer to the mix also to speed the process up. What your doing biologically is preventing algae to undergo photosynthesis (and die off) and allowing bacteria in the rock to degrade nitrate and phosphate instead of the algae. Before you begin the rock cooking process I would scrub any algae that can be remove off the rock.

Solby, thank you this is of great help. Does the rock need a heater? I figured I'll get a large storage container from kmart, and put the LR in that out of the way in my basement.
In the meantime, I'll put decorative rocks, and conch shells in the tank for the eels to hide in. Hopefully this will also help to keep the ph up. I would like to do the 75gl. without substrate. The 75 will house the eels, puffer, marine betta, and the anemonies. As I plan to keep my corals, tangs, and small critters in the 155 bow that I inherited. I'm transferring my live stock, sand bed and LR from my 120 to her bow, along with some of her fish. And eventually when all the algea is gone, some of her LR as well. Does this sound OK?

 

[Awibrandy]

Baking rock

The other alternative would be to allow the rock to dry out completely in the sun (bake it). Wash it with a vinegar solution, and lots of fresh water, then put it back in the tank. The problem with this is that you have killed all the beneficial bacteria, but you could add this back by placing a few live rock pieces (from a hobbist or respectable fish store) in the tank too. You would cycle again but it should be minimal if at all.

Although I have my own lr that I could use to reseed her's, I prefer not to kill everything in her lr. God willing cooking method will take care of it all.

By the way, do I do water changes out of the cooking bucket, or just leave it alone?

 

[ShaunW]

Photoperiod at a minimum of 1 hour a day, won't this harm the anemonies?
Skimming heavy, she had a "Hang-on Turboflotor" will this do?

The anemone should be OK if you feed it with meat (shrimp, mysis, etc..). However putting them/it in another established tank for the duration would be best. That skimmer is on the weaker side, but I will defer to the more knowledgeable skimmer gurus on the site for the best answer.

 

[ShaunW]

Solby, thank you this is of great help. Does the rock need a heater?

Yes, opps, I forgot that, in the equiptment list.

 

[ShaunW]

By the way, do I do water changes out of the cooking bucket, or just leave it alone?

Yes, water changes would help speed up the process. Skimming would also. But if you decide to not skim the cooking rock I would do water changes more frequently.

What your doing is diluting out the nitrate and phosphate by doing both. If you don't it will just take longer but the rock will eventually make it to the finish line either way.

 

[fritz]

Don't underestimate that phospahte. I'd really recomend running a phosban reactor in that K-Mart tub along with the skimmer, powerhead and heater. Once the rock is cooked you don't want it to leach phosphates into your tank, or where ever it ends up.

You may be ok with that skimmer but time will tell. Once you remove light you will have some die off and it will become DOC which the skimmer will pull out. It will also smell so having it out of the way, as you mentioned, is a good idea.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thanks guys. The advice is invaluable. Solby, once I get the tub from kmart the animals will stay in the tank undisturbed. Setting up my original tank wasn't as hard as this. But then I was way younger, and healthier. If it wasn't because it was my girl's last request that I keep her animals, I would have put it in the 4 sales. With the little energy I have I am taking down her tank a little at a time. I hope I can have it all done by next week as her husband wants it gone. Atleast I got the animals out so that I could shut her system down. Now he doesn't have to concern himself with the electric bill.
I have been planning on a phosban reactor, just haven't had the cash flow. Everything hitting us at once. Son's wedding in a couple of weeks. Just moved to an old house that needs major repairs. Well, thats life.

 

[Awibrandy]

tried to edited, didn't quite work.lol

What about the aiptasia? I still don't see any, except for what ever was in her overflow box. Do you think I've got anything to worry about?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I am so ashamed of my self, first and foremost I am sorry for your loss, my deepest condolences.