Converting a reef to a FO

Quiltgal

Quiltgal

Cheryl
Nov 12, 2006
19
0
0
I have had my reef tank for about 8-10 years and I am just so tired of fighting it. I would like to convert to a FO. I have bubble algae so bad, it has taken over everything. I have tried picking it off, but it grows faster than I can pick. I have Emerald crabs as well. I also would like to have more fish. It was recommended by my LFS to keep the live rock. but how in the world do I get my tank looking clean, plus the live rock has mushrooms and polyps and who knows what else on it. I just don't know where to start. I want the look of the tanks you see in the Dentist or Doctor's office. I don't know if posting this to the reef keepers group will get me any help, but I would love your input.

Cheryl
 
I would research a better clean up crew. I now that something (can't remember as I am on VERY strong pain meds at the time) will eat the bubble algae. I would also venture to say that a problem with water paramiters is causeing the algae and it might be easier to fix that than clean the algae. sorry I couldn't be of more help. If I feel better tomorrow I will do some research and try to do more for you.

JOE
 
They say pictures speak a thousand words. So I have uploaded a couple of pictures for you to see what I am talking about. Keep in mind that they look a little cloudy, not because my water isn't clear, but because I need to clean the front of the tank, I have just lost all interest in trying to make this tank look nice because this bubble algae is making me crazy. These pictures were taken from the sides of the tank. My fish are really healthy, but all of my mushrooms and polyps are getting choked out. Short of removing all of the live rock and cleaning them, what can I do? The reason I wanted to possibly switch to a fish only is because I could remove the decorations and swap them out and bleach them so it would always look nice, right now even when I scrape the algae off the front of the tank, all you see is bubble algae. What would all of you do?

Thanks,
Cheryl

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Wow! that is monster valonia. What I wold do is take out any salvagable inverts and turn off your lights. The algae won't live if you leave them off for a couple of weeks ,"neither will your inverts." That will quickly solve your alage issue with not chemicals etc. That way you can go either reef or f.o. with just a little more work. You might consider putting salvageable shrooms etc in a q.t. tank etc and moving your lights keep an eye open for more valonia and hand remove. Make sure you don't popp them under water if you do you'll have to start the process over.
Cheers
Max.
 
turning off yoru lights will kill most of what is there... but you still wouldnt be removing the nutrients that are the true cause of the issue in the first place.
id recomend spending a while and removing all that you can. as well as doing a large water change, getting a good skimmer, and running a lot of carbon. feeding less and that sort will also help. because even if you dont have any bubble algae left, then you are goign to have even more avialible nutrients. then hair algae will take over. and if that doesnt, then you have tons of phosphates and nitrates in the water. so the problem is still significant even once the algae is gone. it is getting rid of th e nutrients that you need to do
 
I think you are right about the nutrients, I am not very good at doing my water changes. And my skimmer never has worked well. I think I have decided to take out all of the live rock and pick it clean, one by one, and then return it to the tank. I don't want to give up my reef. There is never an easy solution, and I think I knew all along that I just really needed to give my tank some attention. This last summer we had a really hot spell, upper 90's, and I know a lot of you are laughing and saying hot spell, that's nothing, but for us (Seattle area) that is hot and we don't have air conditioning, so my tank overheated and I lost my beautiful frogspawn coral, I had had it for years and it was huge, I was just sick about it, luckily nothing else died and in fact my frogspawn isn't completely dead, I noticed the other day that it has a little bit of life in it, but after that happened I wasn't as attentive to the tank and the bubble algae just took over, now I feel overwhelmed by it all. Anyway, I am feeling more encouraged to get control of it again through all of you. Thanks.

Cheryl
 
I never encounter this problems before. I think the nutrient in your tank is too high hense nourishing the bubbles algae. How long you never change your water? What is the capacity of ur tank and how many fishes have? There is a few things u can do now:-
1.Change water freequently (30%/week) for 4 weeks.
2.Test the level of ur NO3 usint NO3 test kit.
3.Is the water of your tank is above 28 degree celcius?
 
Thanks for the advice. I have started to rid my tank of the bubble algae. I bought a new protein skimmer and I spent my entire Sunday picking out the bubbles one by one. I pulled out about a 3 gallon bucket worth of it so far. I also did a water change and I am doing another one tomorrow. And this weekend I am going to do some more picking and another water change. There isn't much more left to pick out, except the really tiny ones that I can't get off the rocks, I am hoping that my emerald crabs will be able to handle those ones for me. I am embarrassed to say that I hadn't done a water change in over 6 months and when I took a closer look at my tank I realized that the plastic piece that has holes all in it to spread water over the biomedia in my sump, was all clogged up and the water was actually just flowing past the biomedia and being returned to my tank, I cleaned that as well. My tank is an acrylic 90 gallon flat back hexagon with a built in sump. My water is a little on the warm side most of the time because of my lighting even with fans blowing on it, I can't seem to get it below 79 degrees. I have a gold stripe maroon clown, a royal gramma, a coral beauty, a sixline wrasse and a blenny. They all have lived happily in my tank for several years. I lost my yellow tang about 5 months ago just out of the blue, but otherwise I haven't lost a fish in a long long time. I have a lot of live rock, but not much else besides a few mushrooms and polyps and a few invertabrates. I will try and post pictures of my progress. I am determined to have a beautiful healthy tank. I appreciate all of the advice from this group.
 
Okay, here are some pics of my progress, keep in mind it is "in progress". The tank looks a little bare now without the bubble algae, and I still have some left to get out. I started picking it out from the left side of the tank and I stacked the rocks up as I cleaned them, so most of my rocks are now on the left side of my tank, I still need to finish the few rocks that are on the other side of the tank and then I will have to rearrange my rocks again. I had to throw in a couple pics of my Coral Beauty, he is just so photogenic and he loves the camera. I have some hair algae also, but I think as I do the water changes and get rid of the NO3, it should improve.

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I decided to upload a little bit bigger picture because you couldn't really see anything in the small ones.

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