Tank has been overrun

[Elementalj]

Righto and I thought I had algae problems! My tank suddenly looks sparkling...

Anyway, depending on your time frame I will think about 'cooking' those rocks. Will take a couple of months but the rock comes out sparkling and it will also take out some of the residual stuff deep inside the rock. I had some severe HA (ok I thought severe until I saw the photo) and dropped my rock into the black drum, two and a bit months on and they really look nice and clean now, overall more porous and not a hint of green. Going back into the tank in the next week or so and the test will obviously be if it stays clean.

As for critters, found a previously unknown carpet anemone after a couple of weeks which is now happily living in the main tank and my pistol shrimp that came with the live rock is still going strong in the bucket.

I agree with cooking the rock. It seems to help eliminate lots of nasties.

 

[INeedAName]

Do you guys think if I harvest a bunch and then get a Sea Hare, it should be fine?

 

[Playa-1]

He could rent that thing out as a portable nitrate filter

 

[NanoDJS]

Honestly if you just grab handfulls of that and rip it out you'll get like 90 % in about 20 mins lol its not all that bad its a 20 gal right ?

 

[Waters]

Three pages in and I still have it in my head that this thread is somehow fake lol. Just curious, how did the tank get so far out of control? I personally would just wipe it out and start over.

 

[Rob Lion]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! don't start over....
just empty the tank , clean it and buy a goldfish..... (with fresh water and plastic plants only)
I love marine fish and corals too much to see them abused this way.

 

[badd]

Looks like a fantastic refugium ! Start a new tank and plumb it into that one

+1

 

[Roy 9121]

Thanks for the info, never knew about those. Would it be fine in a 20gal? I see they have some dwarf ones on liveaquaria. Do you think emerald crabs might work also?

I don't think a Sea hare will eat macro algae, at least mine never have. Emerald crabs are good for that, but it will take a long time to get that to where it needs to be. I would take everything out and replace the rock and sand. Basically start over.

 

[scardall]

old fluorescent bulbs will promote algae growth due to shifting to a favorable wavelength of light.

 

[Brew12]

Please don't use Vibrant. No matter if you feel positively or negatively about the product, the one thing almost everyone agrees on is that it kills algae. In your case, it could cause a massive crash with all that vegetation dying at once.
Manual removal of as much as you can. Then pull and scrub one rock every few days (if there are rocks in there ) and H2O2 dip them if you are so inclined.

I really do love the idea of turning it into a refugium. That tank really is awesome in a crazy kind of way.

 

[Adamc13o3]

You should ask a mod to change the name of the thread to "My Freshwater Planted Tank"

 

[Tom Blevins]

Tang heaven..