starting over????

ok so i took all of the media out and cleaned all 3 sections of the filter SPOTLESS; you know, the bottom (i had to syphen and re-syphen all the debris and fallen carbon and got every last bit of water out with a sponge ). i cleaned the skimmer spotless, took out the koralias and cleaned them and took out the 400 gph return pump to clean it, too. amazing how much stuff came off. My sink was black (dont worry, utility room sink, no bathroom ;D ) so i guess the next step is to take all the rock and sand out, nuke the rock, and start gluing on little pieces of scrap acrylic for media shelves (which is a must-modify on this tank). If all goes as planned and i dont have too much homework tomorrow, i will expect to start working on this again at about 5:00 pm tomorrow. hopefully all goes well

 

If you want to do it right and make sure the GHA doesn't come back, I would bleach the rocks, wipe down any equipment with bleach, get rid of the sand and start a new cycle. "Cleaning" will not generally get rid of all of the algae. There are most likely spores everywhere. You don't want to do all this work and find it just comes back. Also, use RO/DI from the start, that's probably the most important point.

 

heres a pic if it helps any (kinda just for those who think im talking about a hob filter or something)

 

thanks man and of coarse im going to use ro/di so exactly what equipment do you suggest i bleach? just the koralias? or what? thanks for the suggestions and pointers.

o ya and since im going to bleach the rocks, do i have to scrub the hair algae off prior to bleaching them or will they detach or fall off in the process? (please say they will detach or fall off in the process, please say they will detach or fall off in the process, please say they will detach or fall off in the process LOL)

 

im starting on the tank now so i need some input on those questions please

 

ok heres the tank. just got done taking the sand out and making absolute sure that the tank is spotless. Not a drop of water or sand in the thing. While i was taking out the sand (and as of right now) the rock has been soaking in bleach. Im going to dump the bleach out now and start rinsing the rock. My next steps are to aquascape (which will be done tonight for sure) and whenever i can get someone to drive me, im going to get some scrap acrilic at home depot and pvc piping so i can modify the filter. After that, the sand, then the water.

and whenever any of the mods get around to it, can you please change the title of this thread from "starting over????" to "starting over..." please since im to stupid to figure out how to ;D

 

I started with tap when i was a noob and just switched to rodi.. I did some pretty big water changes and ran phosphate since and I rarely have any gha problems..

 

nevermind.. spoke too soon.. It will be a good fresh start.. just use only rodi..

 

ok heres the aquascape I really love it and it looks a lot better in person cause you really get the 3d effect. Theres a lot of rocks i glued on that stick out and its pretty cool... too bad you cant really see them in the pics. anyways im glad i did this and im feeling really confident about this tank

while these pictures upload, i guess ill type some more... I dont think im going to add water until its a garuntee im getting one OR unil an ro/di unit comes because i would have nothing to top off with until then

 

Bleach first, then scrub the remainder off. I would also bleach the skimmer and any filters you had, basically any equipment that was in the water or touching the water just to be safe.