I messed up!

[Eazy222]

Ok don't beat me up too bad. I started a tank a few weeks back. It was started as a fish only, but I than decided to put in some live rock, and wanted to start a reef tank. I started off with tap, dechlorinated. Now I'm having brown hair algae issues. I have an RO system on the way, but I still need to get a skimmer. I just came into a large sump of money around 1500 that I'm willing to use to hookup the tank. I'd like to get an external skimmer.

1. I have crushed coral in there now as the sub, but want to move to sand. Can I remove the crushed coral do a 100% water change with RO water and not have to worry about the tank starting to re-cycle?

2. What are some good external Skimmers that you guys have? My only worry is that if I hook it to the overflow it will leak into the stand if the power shuts off. Am I better off with an in sump skimmer?

Thanks for any advice...

[ckusnierek]

How much livestock do you have?

The cycle is caused by "die off" from the live rock decomposing.
If the rock is fully cycled and kept dry during the change it should be ok.

Here is what I would do...

Wait till the RO/DI comes in. make up a enough RO and ASW to soak the LR in whie you clean the tank up. Drain the tank get rid of the CC add new ASW with the RO/DI.
Add then sand and let it sit for a day or 2 then add your LR.

You may have a small cycle but it should not hurt anything.

If you have livestock setup a temp tank and wait a week before adding it back to the main tank. Depending on the amout of livestock a large rubbermaid should work. Just make sure you use a heater and circ pump.

as for the Skimmer I really like my ETSS. Of course the Cones and other recirc skimmers are nice.

How big is your tank?

[Hop]

Regardless of whether you used tap or not, it just sounds like a normal part of setting up a new tank... You'll have diatoms, cyano and probably some green hair algae sometime during the first few months to a year. It's just the way things go when your new

[Hop]

As far as the skimmer goes, properly set up there should be no leaking. What skimmer depends on your budget and space available.

The CC replacement is fine, but quite an undertaking.

[Mr.Peanut]

I agree with Hop. After 5-6 weeks you will get brown diatoms....every tank gets them. A few mexican turbo snails will eat that junk up in a day or two.

FWIW, I also used tap water when I started my tank. As long as you do not continue to use tap, your tank will be fine.

[Eazy222]

Originally Posted by ckusnierek

How much livestock do you have?

The cycle is caused by "die off" from the live rock decomposing.
If the rock is fully cycled and kept dry during the change it should be ok.

Here is what I would do...

Wait till the RO/DI comes in. make up a enough RO and ASW to soak the LR in whie you clean the tank up. Drain the tank get rid of the CC add new ASW with the RO/DI.
Add then sand and let it sit for a day or 2 then add your LR.

You may have a small cycle but it should not hurt anything.

If you have livestock setup a temp tank and wait a week before adding it back to the main tank. Depending on the amout of livestock a large rubbermaid should work. Just make sure you use a heater and circ pump.

as for the Skimmer I really like my ETSS. Of course the Cones and other recirc skimmers are nice.

How big is your tank?

The tank is a 180g. I have 4 fish in there now and all of them are under 2". I have a 75g bow front that I will place them in while cleaning. I plan on keep the LR that is aquacultured in there too. The rest I will just keep dry, or even clean off. Unless you think there is some good bacteria already on them, they are looking pretty bad with all the hair algae though...

I'm not too sure of the ammount of algae that you guys are talking about when you say it is the norm for a new tank. I have kept fresh water for over 15 or so years, and I have never seen so much algae in a tank, unless it was just let go and not cared for.

Thanks for all the helpful info, I feel like I can rest a little easy. I was almost on the brink of giving up, but I know that the end result is a beautiful tank, can't pass that up...

[Hop]

This last post is more clear. Did you use base rock? I would suggest cooking all the rock if this is the problem you are having. Look at the sticky's in the bare bottom forums to learn how to cook rocks. Running a sump? Skimmer? Odds are you have a nutrient build up. I just thought you were having a diatom bloom from your original post.

[tangmang23]

so whats new with this setup. What did you end up doing??

When i replaced my old saturated sand with new sand, i just used a shop vac and sucked it all out. In this time i kept all livestock in seperate tanks. After it was done, i started to slowly add the Live Rock back to the original system. Tap water is full of many different unwanted nutrients, and even on a new tank these will become known quickly by your issues now, algae, cyano etc... A lot of things that may help you is to start over with RO/DI. Use the 75 as your holding system for about 2 maybe 3 months tops while everything is cleaned and re-cycled. Its a lot of work, but one thing ive struggled with for a while is hair algae. Even by cleaning the rocks and putting back in the tank, your not actually taking care of the causes.

one suggestion on the RO unit is to add a DI stage, if its not already included. My local tap reads about 700 tds before any filtration. 56ish tds depending on temp after RO membrane. Thats still pretty high, your ideal levels are as close to 0 as can be. The DI stage will get you there. another thing about saving your RO membrane and DI stage, is good pre filter stages. I run .02 micron filter, and 2 .05 micron carbon block filters. This does a lot of the work on the cheaper filters and saves the life in my more exspensive filters.

ill quit yacking as this post is getting long, but im also relatively new, well 4 years new, and still learning. a few things I did that helped me along way. Good luck