Need expert advice!!!!!!

[ultracorals]

just another take on this.. from the looks of your tank from what i can see you do not have hair algae but some type of macro. you don't have a lot of coral in there. I would remove the rock. pull off as much of the macro as possible and toss it... then i would bleach the rock in a bucket for a couple of days with some good circulation. then do a vinegar bath for a few more days this will kill anything on or in the rock. while killing the rock I would manually remove all the giant aptasia from the sand bed with a 3/4 " tube. this will get them out before they can expel any thing. I would then add 2 peppermint shrimp to the main tank and one to the fuge. do not disturb your sand bed just yet. leave it there to act as your biological filtration while your rock is out.. you can clean the top layer of sand with a smaller siphon tube. this will get rid of most of the detritus and most of the little aptasia in the tank. replace this with fresh salt water. give your peppermints a couple of weeks and they should remove any and all aptasia that are left in the tank. after the vinegar bath rinse your rock in some ro water for another day. do a second dip in ro and replace back in your tank. while your tank is going through this feed very sparingly. it will keep the detritus down which feeds the aptasia and will also encourage your peppermints to eat the aptasia instead of the food. your tank is small enough to try this first. this way you won't have to get rid of anything. you won't upset the tank and hopefully you'll get rid of all the nasties. it will also prevent your tank from going through any huge cycle.. good luck in what ever you do..

[Chrisgarrick]

If your interested i hAve a small protein skimmer that works great. Its extra lAnd extra tanks. I'm in Howell

[Tri0 #3]

Hey,

Just wanted to let you guys in on a update. I decided to fix my tank without getting rid of any fish. I really wanted to solve this dilemma due to everyone's advice. Solving it versus starting over is a better option. If I ever run into the problem again I would surely be able to fix it. Starting all over really felt like running away from the problem. I needed to face it.

I already bleached the rock for 2 days and now its in the vinegar bath. Today is day one. After day two I will soak in RO water for one day. Change out the water for new RO water and run for a second day. After this I dont know whether to keep the rock in a bucket with saltwater and let it cycle in there.

I am getting mixed feedback. Lots of fellow reefers say that adding the rock back to my tank would be suicide for my fish because of the ammonia spike. Others say I can safely add the rock back to the tank with no problems. Should I first cycle it in a bucket then add to my tank?

Im happy to say I did alot of changes to my tank. I added chemi pure elite to the back chamber and carbon, cheato with fuge light, and the hydor nano protein skimmer. Water is looking pristine. What advice do you guys have?

[reefsandrotts]

I wouldnt use the old rock at this point in the tank,cycle it outside the system
If you pm Bob (radiata) he usually always has some nice rock for sale cheap,buy 1/2 of what you need or want and after your old rock cycles out slowly add it back to your main system.

[redfishbluefish]

You need to cure/cycle that rock by itself in it’s own tank/tub/bucket with a heater and powerhead. You can slightly speed up the process by running your heater slightly higher….say 82F or so.

[Tri0 #3]

How long do you think it will take for the rock to cycle? I plan on adding water from established systems to the rock. You think it will help? Im hoping it will only take 2 weeks.

[reefsandrotts]

Not going to happen in 2 weeks
maybe 4-6 and thats pushing it.
your system will need to rebuild its bacterial colonies from scratch,there is very little if any bacteria floating in the water column.

[redfishbluefish]

+1 on what Jim said. You’re looking at a good month….you can’t rush this….need to wait until you have zero ammonia and nitrite. Now I’ve never used this to cycle rock, but you might be able to speed the process up by adding a nitrifying additive, like Bio Spira. Again, no direct experience with rock, but I’ve got to believe it speeds it up a bit.