Rock from Bro

Hey everyone,

OK, long story short, I used to have a reef tank about 5-6 years ago. It was going good but a career change forced me to move a number of times in a couple years and I didn't take the tank with me. I gave most of my rock and corals to my brother. Now I'm settled for a few years ( I hope), and he's going to give his 70 gal with a sump a skimmer and all the rock back because he's being battling with bad a bad hair algae and purple mushrooms for years. The shrooms actually killed of the peppermint coral I gave him and have taken over the tank. I also gave him the rock with the shrooms on but never had a problem with them. He says the only coral remaining is the colt I gave him.

So right now I have a 60 gallon 3/4 full of water cycling. The plan is for him to send most of the rock up to me next weekend and I'll put it in the tank I have here.

My plan was to get the rock and brush it down with a stiff bristle brush and put it in the tank, hopefully getting rid of some algae and shrooms. Now I bought a tek 8 light T-5 hood for over the 70 gal when it gets here. Should I run this over the 60 gallon while I wait for the 70 gal and should I cycle the 70 before putting the rock in? SO what does everyone think is the best way to get control of the algae and shrooms?

Tanks everyone;D

 

I'd consider keeping the rocks in water, but in total darkness for a few weeks and then scrubbing them off. Try to get all the algae you can off them....

M

 

I agree with MMCD. Rather than scrubbing your LR I would let the rock sit in a dark container with RODI for 1-2 weeks with strong current, carbon, and GFO filter going and a skimmer if possible. this should starve any algae on the rocks leaving you with algae free LR. maybe you can also add a small CUC too.

I'm not sure but i would guess that the water quality of your brothers tanks was not the best and had high nitrates. algae can be beaten by cutting back feeding (nutrients/phosphates added to tank), the use of RODI for wc, and regular wc and maintenance.

 

Exactly what I was thinking

M

 

Thanks,

Guess I'll be filling a Tuffy bin or something like that and I have a couple of my old return pumps that I'll throw in there. Now if I could just find my old hang-on skimmer, now where did it get to...........................

 

yea i agree take the colt coral off the rock and put all of it in a 55 gallon garbage container for 3 weeks then after that tank all of the rock out and scrub it then put it back into the container with new water for another week. also put a top on the container and put a airpump, heater, and somthing to move the water around

if you do this you will start of with a clean slated ;D and trust me it will be worth the wait

ps make sure to clean the 70 gallon tank realy good. wash it out ant let it run with fresh water for 2 days or so.

is he giving you any fish?

 

Before you stick the rock in the dark I would use a strong powerhead and blow as much detrious out of each rock as possible. The hair algae can feed itself via this buildup for months with no additional nutrients being added to the tank. Other than that sounds like your plan is pretty well set.
Also, I dont remember reading anything about a sump/refugium... I highly suggest you add one along with a double fistful of Chateo and some Mangroves to help eliminate excess phosphates and nitrates.

 

Nope, I'm not taking his fish. He's selling them back to his LFS. He only has a foxface and chromis and I didn't want anything until I get the system up, running and stable. I wouldn't take the colt except that it was mine to start with and has been with us for almost 10 years. Hopefully it survives it's latest move.

Someone asked about a sump as well. Yes, I will have one. He has a 20 Gal under the atnk in the stand. i'd really like a biiger one and just might have to do some plumbing while my wife is out;D, and put a bigger one under the stairs behind the tank. He's giving me his Euro-reef RS100 skimmer. Apparently they don't exist anymore but as long as it works, at least for now. I plan on putting some Macro algae or mangroves in the sump as long as I can find some. The supplier I used to use no longer carries mangroves.

Now hopefully this post goes through as this is the third try and my internet keeps going down on me today. Grrr

 

macro algae and mangroves
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