New tank for a new hobbyist

[amitrano]

Hi everyone, I am new to the salt water fish world. With that being said I have spent the last few months doing research and I think its safe to say that I am a some what educated novice. A friend of mine is giving me his old tank, but the thing is it has some problems. Its a 30 gallon tank with 40lb live rock, a Fluval 304 pump/filter, 2 Prism protein skimmers and Coralife VHO lights. This friend has lost interest in the hobby and currently the salinity in the tank is very high. The tank has has bad algae bloom. Ph is ok, salinity is very high. Coraline algae still on live rock. Nothing is currently living in the tank due to the high salinity. I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for how I should go about getting this tank ready. I know how to lower the salinity, but I was not too sure what other measures need to be taken. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks a lot for your time.

[VWD]

Welcome to The reef tank,



I think the best thing to do is start over, I would place the rock in a dark area with new salt water and movement and let the algae die off, Get rid of the sand bed, replace it with new sand (if you want a sand bed). use all ro water to make up the saltwater, Replace the bulbs on the fixture and get a better filter, I don't like canisters for marine tanks.

[aquawolf]

Welcome to TRT!!!

I agree with Vinnie that starting over is the best thing, especially since nothing is living in the tank right now. Search this site for some of the threads on "Cooking Rock" as that is what Vinnie is describing.

Right now the rock and sand is most likely saturated with phosphate and other nasties. If you just put it in the display tank with new water the problems will still be there. You need to give the bacteria that is living in the rock a chance to reclaim it.

Patience is going to be your best friend in this situation. You may want to cook the rock for a couple of months at least. That is the bad news.

The good news is that you got everything for free so far and that you found this site. Continue reading, learning, and asking questions on here. Everyone will help you out as much as they possibly can.

[motorslave]

Hi and welcome to TRT!!!!!!! Sounds like quite the ordeal you have in frot of you. I also agree with starting over. Dump the Fluval, get one good skimmer and nw sand.
BUT, if you have the patience and interest, there are sevral things you can do and learn if you decide to rescue the tank from its current state. "Cooking" the rock is a way to purge the phosphates from it. It takes a couple of months but gives you clean rock. Fighting a dirty neglected tank takes time, effort and extreme patience. It would be a good learning experince but starting fresh would be much easier and alo a gret way to learn. Good luck and keep us posted with lots of pics and questions!

[amitrano]

So when it comes to cooking the live rock, I would need to move it outside of the tank correct? The thing is I live in a small apartment, and do not currently have an RO/DI. So to move all of the rock out of the tank and into tubs would require me to buy so much water and extra supplies I really don't know what to do. Any suggestions? Should I just buy the RO/DI unit and the tubs and bite the bullet, or should I just throw everything out and start completely from new? Also what kind of filtration system should I be looking to install? Thanks a lot for all the help.

[aquawolf]

Your best bet would be to get an RO/DI unit as quickly as possible so you can start making your own water.

Actually you could just cook the rock in the tank; however, if you have enough room for it I would do it in a Rubbermaid storage bin. You can get a 30 gallon Rubbermaid tub that should hold everything for around $11. Just put a powerhead in there for circulation and let the cooking process begin.

You can take everything out of the tank and give it a good thorough cleaning. Any hard to clean areas can be dealt with using White Distilled Vinegar. You can leave the tank empty until you are done with the rocks and everything is ready to be set up.

This should get you going in the right direction while taking up a minimal amount of room in your apartment.