Scott
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by Scott on May 2, 2016 14:31:41 GMT -5
Hello all,
I'll start with a little background on my tank. Just over a year ago my wife and I picked up a used and established 30 gallon nano reef tank. We didn't know much about reef tanks but had a lot of experience with fresh water and wanted to make the jump. Everything was going great until around January, life got real busy and admittedly we got a little lazy and our parameters went wild. With in a week we were covered in a hair/turf algae, our phosphates over 1, Nitrates around 100ppm, the Ph dropped to 7.6 and Calcium was as low as 320mg/l.
The good news is that we have the phosphates to an untraceable amount, the Nitrates are around 2 ppm the ph and Calcium are still low but much better (7.9 and 360 -380). My KH has suddenly shot up to 220 - 280. All my coral and invertebrates have died and my substrate is covered in brown algae. So we have decided to start fresh and reboot the tank.
We have a new batch of live rock and I'm looking into a new substrate. I am a little concerned about the algae re appearing after we pull everything out. Has anyone had a similar experience that can offer advice?
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Post by Che on May 21, 2016 19:49:24 GMT -5
i think your rock will be fine to reuse if your phosphates are untraceable. I think the problem occurs when folk use the same rock and it leaches the phos back to the new tank. The potential to get algae back will always be there if your water goes kookie, I had a UV light to kill waterborne spores and bacteria and once the bulb kicked out i had a huge bloom. so i believe they help to battle temporary bad water issues. but i think if you washed and scrubbed your old rock and rinsed it well its fine to use. in my experience at least. but definitely clean it well to rid it of all the death inside its nooks and crannies and start a brand new cycle. don't skip steps when starting over.
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