Reef to Fsh Only

[Gilbert]

Well my girlfriend has really never commited herself to the hobby so her tank has always suffered, for instance the $200 light fixture i bought her is coverd in salt creep. She buys soft corals but she also buys fish that eats them. And she has also always suffered with hair algae, so thats the reason why im breaking down her reef to a fish only tank, starting this weekend.

So now i have a couple of question
i dont think anybody would want to buy hair algae covered live rock, so what would be the best way bleach it? i mean with the weather right now i cant exactly leave it out in the sun.

With a fish only tank, do i have to make places for the fish to hide or will they be fine out in the open?

I also have a background question
I myself and other reefers have painted their back glass black and it turns out great, but has anybody ever tried painting blue? if so what does it look nice?

[alton]

Take the rock out scrub it and stick it back in. Keep up with maint. and it will turn out fine. I have never seen a fish that will eat GSP. So try that with your girl friends fish. Create tunnels and caves for them to hide and sleep. Might want to run a phosban reactor until it straightens out.

[Gilbert]

I think she also liked the idea oh having a nice, clean, open spaced tank. And on top of that she doesnt want to see the hair algae anymore, so thats why the rocks are coming out.

[corkyGramma]

I think she also liked the idea oh having a nice, clean, open spaced tank. And on top of that she doesnt want to see the hair algae anymore, so thats why the rocks are coming out.
if you have too much room and not enough hiding places; the fish will be stressed and not swim in the open like you think they will

[hobogato]

you could just take the rock out and scrub it clean in a bucket of old tank water. once it is clean, put it back.

[Crazyeyes]

Take the rock our and scrub it and maybe try fresh ro water. Get her a tang or an alge blenny to eat the algae if the problem occurs again.

[Gseclipse02]

Take the rock out scrub it and stick it back in. Keep up with maint. and it will turn out fine. I have never seen a fish that will eat GSP. .
a fox face will lol

[Gilbert]

ill try and sell her on the idea of taking out the rock and scrubbing it.

[vman181]

Scrubbing hair algea from rocks is hard work and more than likely will come back.

Here is a good read on GHA from Marc from Melev's Reef,

http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

HTH

[Gilbert]

if you have too much room and not enough hiding places; the fish will be stressed and not swim in the open like you think they will

this is what i was worried about.

[Squiers007]

I would take the rocks out, scrub them off, then place them in a bucket of tank water with a powerhead and a heater for a couple of days in the dark. This should kill of most of the algae, but not harm the beneficial bacteria so that when you put it back in you wont start a mini cycle. Ultimately, I would try and track down the source of your algae problem. Do you use RODI, is your tank near a window, do you overfeed, all of these things can contribute to algae issues.

[fyretr7]

Hey I have 2 fish only tanks.I added some more rock about 2 months ago and within 2 weeks I had a good patch of green hair algae.I began using marine SAT and srubbing my rocks in the tank then doing a small water change and changing filters.Mine has all but cleared up so if you got the time and patience it can be done in-tank without having to cycle the water or tank again.A seahare will work too if you can find one and they work fast...............Doyle:bighug: oh btw I did the changes and scrubbing about once a week.

[Gilbert]

she uses tap water and over feeds so that why i know its an never ending battle.

[Squiers007]

That explains everything. Try and convince her to use RODI and to not feed as much. It will save you both some headache. Good luck brother!

[Gilbert]

Thats alot of work though, guys come on.

My plan is to remove lots of the rock about 80lbs. worth and just leave a couple of little clusters for the fish to hide.
Scrape the coraline algae off the four side of glass.
Scrub her light clean of salt creep.
Do a 20gallon water change with water from the windmill near her house.
Soak her skimmer and powerheads in vingar
Thats all i can think of now.

Question
her sand bed is about 3" deep and since its going to be easy to access should i do anything to it?
What i mean is should i raise it to 4" or should i drop it down to 1"?

[fyretr7]

Well guess it depends on how bad ya want to do it.A seahare isnt any work at all u just acclimate him and watch him go to work.I have seen one clean a 75 gallon tank of green algae in less than a week.Anyways get her a cpl of 5 gallon containers and she can go to local store and for 25 cents a gallon get r/o water right out of the machines.Its not R/O DI but it sure aint tap water either and should do fine for water changes and top-offs for her fish only tank.I have a r/o di system and in my fish only tanks I have never noticed any difference in plain r/o or r/odi.Only thing is once that seahare is finished he will starve in a short while so take him back to local f/s and trade him in on something else.Maybe a nice colorful tang or angelfish.................Good luck..................Doyle

[Gilbert]

its just a standard 55 gallon with about 100lbs of live rock. She has already done lots of stuff to try and get rid of it,
2 yellow tangs
1 blue tang
1 pencil sea urchin
4 lawnmower blennies
1 huge seahare
windmill water
snails

so as part of a present for her birthday (Oct 12) i told her i'd fix up her tank and make it look nice and she can maintain it from there. But ill probably be the one take care of it and i want to keep the work as minimal as possible, i already have my own tank to take care of.

[alton]

Buy a Phosban Reactor used here on MAAST, Phosban, and a very small pump 200 gph. Remember if you feed your fish algae that grew from feeding off phosphates and they poop it out, the phosphates are then added back into your tank. Softies like Xenia, GSP, shroms help control phosphates. If you do not want to add softies, then you really need to look into a phosban reactor. Just feeding fish adds phosphate to your tank. And save your money on buying a phosphate test. I listened to a friend for years complain about hair algae and he finally went and bought a Phosban reactor and he has been algae free for a year.

[Gilbert]

im probably going to throw in some GSP

[Gilbert]

ok well we went back with just a couple peices of live rock. We also clean teh tank and fixed her background, and tried staining the stand and canopy

[Third Coast Tropical]

I have never seen a fish that will eat GSP.

FYI
Had a orange-spotted rabbitfish take out 3 large colonies of it in 2 days