Started FOWLR well recycled with Fish, live rock and a cleaner crew - ended up travelling overseas - had some body to maintain - the person just kept topping up with RO/DI (used it without changing filter for 1 year) - most fish & cleaner crew died - just 1 yellow tang and a few snails left - tank has algae and a lot of large critters (some star fish kind) on live rock - how do I know if there is too much biowaste in my tank - can I replace all of the water but keep the live rock and start all over - Have 1 wet dry filter, 2 protein skimmers - Please advice
Saltwater FOWLR Tank - Not cleaned up for long - mess up now
- Thread starter maddv
- Start date
what type of algae?
you should be able to do like a 90% water change and thourough cleaning and then go about getting rid of the algae problem (depeding on what type it is)
you should be able to do like a 90% water change and thourough cleaning and then go about getting rid of the algae problem (depeding on what type it is)
You could start over but if the tang and life that is left made it through all of that, I would just start a regular routine of water changes to get the tank back in check. You probley have an exceptional bacteria population that I would not want to lose. REGULAR Water changes, possibly add a skimmer (if you don't have one), reduce light cycle and just let things correct themsleves. Once you feel you water quality is there, add more cleanup crew and possibly add some grazing type fish to address the algae. You could also manually remove the algae for the most part. I would imagine the tang is pretty fat already. You can get it back, it will just take a little time (less time that starting over though IME). Good luck.
^^^ I agree...
take things slow, do 20-25% weekly changes until things get back to normal..
Clean your filters, vacuume out as much gunk as you can during your water changes...
take things slow, do 20-25% weekly changes until things get back to normal..
Clean your filters, vacuume out as much gunk as you can during your water changes...
Guys thank you so much - your advice is a relief - I thought I will have to start all over - Will stat with water change - say 80% and slowly bring it to shape - Yes i have a Aquamedic Turbo skimmer & Remora skimmer - but the sand looks like a big bio mess - will it be safe to leave them around
What did you mean by "leave them around"?
Don't vaccum the sand too much at once. Maybe siphon a quarter of the bed over the couse of four or so water changes. Also if you have a deep sand bed (5+ inches) don't siphon to deep in the bed. You might bring some anerobic bacteria to the surface which will die off when exposed to oxygen. This could cause an unwanted spike in ammonia, etc. If you have a deep sand bed just run the siphon over the top portion of the bed to remove what is on the surface of the bed. Might also want to use a turkey baster as well to blow off/out your liverock before you start siphoning water out during WCs. Likely a lot of detritus built up in the nooks and crannies of your rock. Glad to hear this is the path you are taking.
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one other option to add to this, is taking one piece of live rock out with each water change, and just scrubbing it off lightly in tank water with a tooth brush. After a few weeks, the rocks will start to come into check, and the snails that you add (a few nassarius (SP?) and Mexican Turbos) can focus on the sand/glass...
