what to clean rock with to start over

If you're going to start anew, I'd take the time to cure your rock. I did it with my new nano, using liverock that was completely taken over by algal growth from my 90. The said LR spent about 4 months in total darkness, inside a 15 gallon rubbermaid tote with aeration and water movement provided by a powerhead. I changed the water every two weeks or so using only RO/DI water and good quality salt mix.

When that rock came out of the darkness, it was some of the most beautiful LR I'd ever seen. In fact, it was so clean that the folks at Lysol were calling my cell phone asking for tips.

Seriously though.. . I'd take the time, cure your rock, use new sand, and get off to the races again--learning this time from your mistakes.

I hope you've gotten yourself an RO/DI unit. It will greatly lessen the chances of a repeat performance this new go-round.

Good luck!

 

Yes I bought a spectrapure RO/DI unit about 6 months ago and have been using that ever since. Another concern is I would like to make my rock into a few sections to make it easier/more stable... I need the rock to dry out anyway to glue it together so either way I will be killing the rock... keeping it live is not something I am worried about. I also realize I will need to cycle the tank again and I don't care about that either.... I want to start this over from scratch.


About the canister... I never had an issue with nitrates in any of my tanks and that canister has been excellent at hosting colonies of beneficial bacteria for me. I don't see how that in any way could be causing a problem... IMO it would only help the tank. If had nitrate issues at one point because I was using conditioned tap water (our tap is 80ppm nitrates!) so I ran nitrate bags in the filter and it removed them. After my first few months of learning a lot I realized that water wouldn't do the job so I started buying distilled water for about a year 1/2. Finally last year I bought RO/DI and wish I would've done that from the start.

 

I copied and pasted this from Otty's blog page:

Recipe I was taught for nuking (cleaning) Live Rock
1. Soak rock in 50/50 Bleach and water solution for 3 days.
2. Soak rock for next 3 days in RO water if possible but tap is ok
3. Soak rock in RO/DI water and Baking soda for 3 days to neutralize the bleach. For a 30g trash can I use 4 lbs. of Baking soda.
4. Let rock sit outside in sun for 2 weeks turning the rock to make sure all water is out of holes. If cold out side I have put in my garage with a fan on the rock...



I've used this method myself and was quite happy with the results.

 

i noticed that your sump water level is pretty high...that may cause ur skimmer to not operate at its full capacity which could be leaving the excess nutrients causing the algae to flourish...even with little light....this time around try lowering ur water level in ur sump a bit

Not only will your skimmer probably perform better, but it will also leave room for drainage during a power cut off, not flooding ur room...just an observation.

 

notice how clear ur skimate is? that tells me your skimmer has too much water not enough bubbles..

 

yeah those pics were taken before I actually tweaked everything. I put my skimmer on a stand after that pic was taken so it was at the proper level. Also, my tank is completely shut down now (for past few months) so nothing is on... these are old pics.