cleaning sand

i about to embark on the task of ridding my tank of a GHA problem i have had for a while.I am going to start scrubbing my rocks to get rid of it,i have a couple qestions

1. would it be alright to take all my rocks and vaccum my sand.Sorry i know this had been asked before but my search skills must not be that great.

2.does the bucket that i am goin to be putting my rocks in have to be the same exact salinaty as the tank(will only be in there for a few minutes, 20 or so).the bucket i am going to do the actual scubbing is going to be from the water i take out of the tank for my water change.

3.Is this a good idea or is going to cycle my tank again

My nitrates are a little high right now, iam guessing its from the GHA,from what i have been reading.I had a bloom of GHA from usen top of water from Walmart.DONT USE ANY OF THERE WATER ,i tested it and it worse than my tap water.Sam dont jack about water.

Thanks for any help or advice with this problem JOE

 

disregard 1. qestion

 

Ok

Question 2 - whatever you do, your priority is to save as much bacteria that lives on and in the rock as posssible - so scrubbing in a bucket full of tank water is ideal - dont use freshwater or RO water for this task


question 3 - it can be very good idea, but needs to be done in stages IMO - dont do all the rocks on the same day as its the die off of bacteria that would cause a mini cycle do one or 2 a week and you should be fine IMO

but once you have done this your tank will look nice and clean for a period of time
as you will not get rid of all the algae spores, unless you employ some preventitive measures after the clean up - it will come back

Phosphates and Nitrates are the nutrient levels you need to stay on top off
so if your not running a PO4 absorbing product -after you have cleaned up your tank that would be a good time to add one to your system

also nitrates - reduced feedings, regular water changes, syphoning detrius off the rock work etc - and cleaning any mechanical filtration media regular ( sponges, Bioballs etc ) will help keep nitrates down and algae at bay

Steve

 

thanks that was the answer i was looking for.Thanks JOE