Any way to keep corals alive in a bucket for a few weeks?

[Anonymous]

I only does Kalk through a Kalk reactor.

I add B-Ionic to raise the Alk.

I feed the fish 1/2 cube of frozen mysis every other day.

I do not feed the corals.
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[Anonymous]

The only refigium I could possibly add would be a 5 gallon tank with a 9 watt light. There would prpbably be only 5 gallons of water in the refuge.

This probably wouldn't make a dent, none hte less making the rest of the sump in accessable.
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[vnon]

What type of clean up crew do you have? Snails, grazers, turbo snail, red leg hermit crabs, blue leg hermit crabs, a yellow tang? Do you have any of these and how many. Your bio load list didn't have any of these. Please get a clean up crew before you do anything else. Don't break down your rock. I had a huge algae problem and they cured it. A yellow tang will clear that hair algae up. I have 40 or 50 snails and hermits in my 55 gal. By the way I'll take that rock if you still don't want it.

 

[Anonymous]

35 astreas
20 ceriths
6 nassarius
had 200 tiny blue leg hermits
10 larger hermits
3 emerald crabs
2 pepermint shrimp

They stay on the the starboard or the glass, hardly ever on the LR.

Tang is not an option. Tank is only a 58 (36x18x21)
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blue moonshine

 

[Anonymous]

Ditto advice on using the stock tank.

I kept my corals and fish in one (100g) for a few weeks when I was moving to a new house and for various reasons I had to take the tank down and was not able to set it up promptly. I used all water from the tank initially. We had lots of powerheads in the tub, and I put some PC lights right on top (I think I just mounted them to a board and layed it across?). Did water change every few days. All my sps turned brown, but no real casualties, and they colored up when back under MH. Some of my corals receded a tad because I was less than careful in how I placed them all do to my haste.

So, I don't know if removing your fish and corals to cure live rock in tank is the best idea, but you can keep all your stuff alive in a temporary tub for a while if the need arises.

 

[BOMPH]

Rob,
I've seen your posts before, and I've sensed your complete and utter feeling of helplessness in this case.

I too have been there, and the best way to do it is to leave it alone. Let the algae grow. If your tank has to go thru a 2 month period of looking like a green Chewbacca, then so be it. The algae will consume all the 'fuel'. Then you just go and remove all the algae in one fell swoop, and if you are diligent about feeding/water quailty in makeup water, you will be much happier.

WHen I did this I let the algae grow to the point that you couldn't even see in the tank. If you looked down on the top, the stuff on the glass was at least an inch long. But if I looked even closer, I saw a TON of life living in this algae.

I simply blew the algae with a powerhead to get the life out of it, and then cleaned the sides of the glass with a DIY 'vacuum' made of a sponge and a Magnum HOT filter. THen I removed the LR, and scrubbed it clean, and placed it back in the tank.

End result: No algae thereafter. At least not enuff to make me worry, there is no getting around algae. I have done this twice to date and it works. It is ugly, but patience is golden.

 

[Anonymous]

Rob,
I've seen your posts before, and I've sensed your complete and utter feeling of helplessness in this case.

I too have been there, and the best way to do it is to leave it alone. Let the algae grow. If your tank has to go thru a 2 month period of looking like a green Chewbacca, then so be it. The algae will consume all the 'fuel'. Then you just go and remove all the algae in one fell swoop, and if you are diligent about feeding/water quailty in makeup water, you will be much happier.

WHen I did this I let the algae grow to the point that you couldn't even see in the tank. If you looked down on the top, the stuff on the glass was at least an inch long. But if I looked even closer, I saw a TON of life living in this algae.

I simply blew the algae with a powerhead to get the life out of it, and then cleaned the sides of the glass with a DIY 'vacuum' made of a sponge and a Magnum HOT filter. THen I removed the LR, and scrubbed it clean, and placed it back in the tank.

End result: No algae thereafter. At least not enuff to make me worry, there is no getting around algae. I have done this twice to date and it works. It is ugly, but patience is golden.

And you can clean just the front glass and still see in the tank. The sides and back glass will just make a nice background for the fish and corals.

Bob

 

[Anonymous]

I might just paint glass of a reef and empty the damn thing and end this.
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[Anonymous]

I have decided to move on from this tank.

Thanks for your help.

I will be posting a for sale list in a few days.

Rob
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[Anonymous]

My wife and I almost did the same think about 4-6 months into operation of our 55g.

For some it is better just to let go and relax.

I hope you can relax an enjoy things. If that means getting rid of the tank then so be it.

Bob

 

[Fatal Morgana]

Rob, what is your plan? Don't give up so easily, since it is not hopeless. It always sadden me to see someone give up due to algae issue.

But for some individuals, I strongly agree with the comment "For some it is better just to let go and relax." But for other, it is not.

 

[Anonymous]

Been through this for over a year now. No sign of it letting up. Apparently I can not maintain a proper reef environment. I thought I went by the book but I guess not. Between the equipment advised by members of this board and husbandry of originally monthly water changes and low feeding and dosing the proper chemicals to keep the CA/ALK/MAG/PH in line I have failed misserably.

I dont know what I did wrong but the tank is shot.

Perhaps I should spend another $5000 and get a completely new setup again.

I don't know what to do anymore.
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[Fatal Morgana]

It is a common problem. The nutrient is locked in live algea, and you need to get rid of the nutrient. Manual removal is a good way, but it is labor intensive. There are a million other ways that can help, if you can't afford the luxury of removing the algae by hand. Don't relie on cleanup crew to do it for you. They are like janitors who use a vacuum with a broken bag, or someone use a leaf blower to redistribute the dirt.

Think about it, the amount of nutrient/nitrogen within your tank can all be account for. If you remove 6 oz of nitrogen as hair algae, there are 6 oz less., assume you don't add any in via topoff/WC/feeding/supplement. If you keep up with the nutrient export, there won't be much nitrogen/nutrient left except for the living coral and other animals. There is no one-shoot deal, no silver bullet, or miracle cure in this hobby, and patience and persistance is the key to success.

 

[Anonymous]

Whats the poiint of having a reef tank with no reef? I have not bought any corals for the tank in almost a year. Meanwhile I have spent tons on new quipment and salt for weekly water changes.

Just hard to justify.
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[Anonymous]

BTW - The LR is spewing out detritus. I balsted the LR last night with a powerhead and couldn't even see in the tank.
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[Fatal Morgana]

>...Whats the poiint of having a reef tank with no reef? ...

I am confused about your comment... is it related to what I said? I don't think I imply no reef... :?

As for the detritus, if you have decent live sand, the amount of critter on the sand and rock will create a lot of detritus. It is also a large reservior of nutrient/nitrogen. The critters also drill and dig hole on the rock, and that will create a lot of aragonite dust. Some people blast the detritus and aragonite dust and let them settle in the sump, and remove them to decrease the net nutrient amount and for water clarity. Typically, if you do this long term, you will find you sand bed getting thinner and thinner over the course of a year or two, and the rock began to "settle." Some mistaken this effect to buffering effect of aragonite ("my calcium is at 209291 ppm because my aragonite sand is buffering it! See, I am getting less and less sand...").

 

[ChrisRD]

BTW - The LR is spewing out detritus. I balsted the LR last night with a powerhead and couldn't even see in the tank.

Sounds like you found your source of nutrients.

 

[Anonymous]

I have no sand in the tank currently.

I think the detritus is a source for the excess nutrients but how do I get rid of it? New LR? The 3000 GPH of flow doesn't keep the stuff suspended so the skimmer can get it. Add another 2000 GPH?
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[Fatal Morgana]

New rock won't solve your problem. You just need to fan/blast the rock periodically to get the detritus suspended long enough for the pump to move them to the sump. A filter sock may helps, but you need to clean it periodically. Maybe you want to do this with the algea removal.

Skimmer won't help remove the detritus unless it is broken down to organic (DOC) by the bacteria.

 

[Anonymous]

But if the LR is loaded up and consta1ntly producing this detritus means I have to blast the LR every day in hopes of removing the hair algae?
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