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Starting over!!

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 2:39 pm
by Deannsei
I have a 100 gal tank that I fought green hair alage for 2 years, I lost the battle. My tank has been in the dark for a couple months and the alage has died off. I wish to transfer my sand and live rock to a 125 gal tank and just have fish as I do not have the time for corals nor do I want the heart ache of corals. How should I go about doing this? I know I will need more sand and probably 60lbs more of live rock. Any suggestions as to how I need to go about this, reseed the tank, used some water from my 100 gal tank or just start from ground zero?

Re: Starting over!!

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 9:39 pm
by Amphiprion
Well, if I had the cash and time, I'd probably prefer to start over with new materials. There's going to be a lot of organics and other nutrients/metabolites that have built up and soaked into the older rock and sand. Using them again could be a recipe for more filamentous green algae.

Did you do any water changes on the tank while it was fallow (or use any kind of removers, etc.) or did it just sit there in the dark?

Re: Starting over!!

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 10:30 pm
by Nomadic1
I'd say you are OK with using the old rock, if you give it a good cleaning in seawater first (scrub it as best as you can to get any loose detritus off it), but, get rid of the sand. You can still get another hair algae bloom using the old rock, but, hey, you could get the same using the dry Reef Saver rock you get at places like MarcoRocks and the like. You could set the tank up, transfer the rock after a good cleaning, and run a phosphate adsorber like GFO to help get the nutrients under control. Also, if upon testing your phosphates are REALLY high, like 1ppm or more, you can search on Reef Central for the protocol on using lathanum chloride to get rid of them first BEFORE you add any organisms to the tank.

Hope that helps!

Re: Starting over!!

Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 9:29 am
by jt3069
maratic acid will help remove the phosphates bound in the lr, sand
a BIG problem with most tanks is overstocking,and overfeeding,remember this when you set up the new tank
but i personally would start conpletely over!