Scrubbin' rocks project!

[Reeftanker3295]

Took about 3 hours today to clean up my tank and i think the hair algae stage is finally over. Here are my pictures!
My main rock laying near the window on my dads homemade bench storage thing.. haha good thing my parents werent home i made a HUGE mess

5 gallons of water after scrubbing 2 rocks

FTS after cleaning, so happy to see my clean tank

Left side (this rock was covered before cleaning)

Right side (bottom rock wasnt cleaned because it isnt that bad and my goby and chromis were hiding near and under it and didnt want any casualties)

Poor little guy had a rough day, hes very stressed

Tomato clowns fine though, this fish is a tank and he was biting my hands the whole time i was in the tank

[gbmortie]

Don't be so sure. I did this - spent all freaking day scrubbing everything, rinsing, etc. HA came right back after a couple of weeks. I just did it AGAIN yesterday. The difference is this time I'm going to throw more snails and stuff at it before it gets out of hand and hope that it doesn't come back. I also just got a skimmer too, and I am running some phosphate sponge. I know, I know, band aid BUT I don't want to scrub my rock again.

So, while I HOPE your HA is gone....wach out bc I did this exact thing and it came right back. I'm taking extra steps to keep it gone this time and I hope it's enough. Fingers crossed for both of us!

[Reeftanker3295]

Well it was all dieng because i found out my bioballs was what was releasing the nitrates for this stuff to grow and when i removed them all the algae died, this just removed it all. Removed some off the sand a week ago and no signs of growth on it today. Even if it grows a tiny bit all the time now i also have a good cleanup crew now, my diamond goby will keep it from growing on the sand, my turbo snails eat the small patches of hair algae, hermit crabs will eat some and have a bunch of other snails.

[gbmortie]

Sounds like a plan! Wasn't trying to rain on your parade, just sayin I did that very thing a couple of months ago and it didn't quite work out the way I hoped. When I tore mine down yesterday I removed my canister filter which had a lot of those noodle things in it - same thing, I suspect that is what was contributing to my problem.

[Reeftanker3295]

Heh yea I had a cyano bloom and removed my bioballs, within days the cyano and hair algae were both dieng quickly, the cyano has dissapeared and the hair algae was all dead so i removed it all.

[Reeftanker3295]

Just hope my little blackbar chromis is OK in the morning, he went MIA while i scrubbed the rocks and has just been slowly swimming and in the rocks since then very stressed out.

[aquawolf]

Good job on the cleanup of the HA. Hopefully everything will be better with the fish in the morning. I also wish you the best with your parents not finding out about the mess you made. I hope you cleaned up well as some of that stuff can get very smelly if left out for a while.

[Reeftanker3295]

I can only wait and hope it doesnt start to smell, i cleaned up as best as i could There was about 2 gallons of water on the floor... hahahaha by the end i had a major headache and my back hurt pretty bad.. O and the batteries in the toothbrush died

[aquawolf]

As with many things in this hobby, time will tell.

[Reeftanker3295]

haha. Thankfully it wasnt the dirty, stinky water that smelled, just tank water. After i did this i also did a 10 gallon water change.

[biowheel]

Make sure you clean up and air out before the parents get home or get up
Looking good . Time will tell as AW said

[Reeftanker3295]

Chromis is still alive, still a little stressed though. Doesnt smell