Cleaning The Tank

[lgarvey]

Hi guys,

I have just taken on a 100L marine tank which I bought second hand. The tank is quite dirty with a lot of dust and mess in the gravel, and hair algae on the filter and the back piece of glass. Then there's a lot of algae on the glass, particularly where the sand meets the glass. The guy who had the tank was just using dechlorinated tap water, whereas I have an RO unit. But unfortunately there's tonnes of algae.

I plan to get my hand in and clean it manually, but having done a bit of that the two maroon clown fish have gone off sulking oscar-style! They seemed to handle being bagged up and moved 40 miles down the road without any issues, but it seems as soon as I stuck my hand in the tank (to clean it), they have gone and hid behind the filter.

Should I just carry on regardless and not worry about it, or do I need to be careful about stressing them?

Finally, I spoke to the guy at the LFS about buying some algae eating animals - snails, emrald crabs, red leg crabs and perhaps an urchin, and he said that they'd be pretty pointless and would only ever remove a miniscule amount of algae. He said the best way to remove it is with a scrubbing pad. Do you guys concur with that advice?

I would have liked to have totally broken the tank down and scrubbed it clean prior to setting up. But the filter is established, so I didn't want to do too much. Instead I set it up as soon as I got the tank to my place, hoping that I could then get my hand in and clean it.

I've also noticed that salted water really makes a mess when it dribbles down the front of the tank. Never really had that with my freshwater tank.

L

 

[kj23502]

You can keep the lr, fish in a large food safe container w/heater, powerhead and a few hours of light each day until you get the main tank cleaned out. Um maybe there's not lr? What kind of filter? That could potentially go in the container too and that would leave you free to clean the display tank.

I have a hunch that the fish are a bit skittish b/c they haven't seen much of a hand (or the tank prob wouldn't be that messy?).

 

[lgarvey]

You can keep the lr, fish in a large food safe container w/heater, powerhead and a few hours of light each day until you get the main tank cleaned out. Um maybe there's not lr? What kind of filter? That could potentially go in the container too and that would leave you free to clean the display tank.

I have a hunch that the fish are a bit skittish b/c they haven't seen much of a hand (or the tank prob wouldn't be that messy?).

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

It's a Fish Only system, so I just have an internal fluval container. I could empty the water and fish out and clean the tank thoroughly. Hmm

I'd probably change the substrate too and scrub all the algae from the tank.

Would disrupting the substrate de-stabiliser the tank's biological filter?

L

 

[rabbut]

Well, you are running a bio-mechanical fish only tank. This is possibly the hardest type of set-up to run from a fish-keeping standpoint, the set-up will limith the livestock you can keep. The filter, as with in a freshwater tank, will be where most of your filter bacteria are. Disturbing the substrate won't do any harm

I'd move the fish, some old water and the filter into a bucket. Keep the filter running with the fish in there, and spend a few hours cleaning the tank. Next, re-fill the tank with a fresh load of salted RO water.

Now the tank is clean, and has fresh water in it, move the filter back and drip acclimate the fish to the tank over a few hours. I suspect with the algaefyed mess you describe, that the tank was poorly maintained and set-up "on the cheap", so you need ot go slow on re-aclimating the fish to the new water to avoid toxic shocking them by dropping the Nitrate level too fast.

Since it's bio-mech, I advise you to look at getting a skimmer to try keep water quality up higher

You need to get (if you don't have them already) marine liquid drop test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH, allong with a Refractometer (don't bother with a Hydrometer, too inaccurate and prone to drifting)

you should also think about what you want to keep in it and post a list (fish and corals if you want) so you can start woring ou if the tank is OK for them, or requires modifications required

All the best
Rabbut

 

[lgarvey]

Well, you are running a bio-mechanical fish only tank. This is possibly the hardest type of set-up to run from a fish-keeping standpoint, the set-up will limith the livestock you can keep. The filter, as with in a freshwater tank, will be where most of your filter bacteria are. Disturbing the substrate won't do any harm

I'd move the fish, some old water and the filter into a bucket. Keep the filter running with the fish in there, and spend a few hours cleaning the tank. Next, re-fill the tank with a fresh load of salted RO water.

Now the tank is clean, and has fresh water in it, move the filter back and drip acclimate the fish to the tank over a few hours. I suspect with the algaefyed mess you describe, that the tank was poorly maintained and set-up "on the cheap", so you need ot go slow on re-aclimating the fish to the new water to avoid toxic shocking them by dropping the Nitrate level too fast.

Since it's bio-mech, I advise you to look at getting a skimmer to try keep water quality up higher

You need to get (if you don't have them already) marine liquid drop test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH, allong with a Refractometer (don't bother with a Hydrometer, too inaccurate and prone to drifting)

you should also think about what you want to keep in it and post a list (fish and corals if you want) so you can start woring ou if the tank is OK for them, or requires modifications required

All the best
Rabbut

Ahh, that's great. Thanks. I will figure out a way to do this. I'll probably replace the substrate completely and most of the rocks, which are also covered in algae. Can I use normal (new) house hold 12 L buckets, or do I need to use someting that is definiitely food grade even though I may only be housing the fish in the buckets for an hour max?

I have a red sea skimmer but so far have not set it up. I also have a full salifert marine test kit, and I'll start to do some tests to make sure everything is OK. I also have an RO unit and a 25g bucket of tropic marine sea salt, so making up replacement water is no problem, but ... I aleady have replaced all the water. I'm going to put some rowaphos in the filter too. Not too keen on the internal fluval filter, but it seems to do the job. I'd prefer a small external filter.

If I pre-wash some new coral sand and prepare all the ocean rock I reckon I could have the tank cleaned in about 30 mins max, and I'll reuse the same water (which was new as of yesterday) so the fish shouldn't need a long aclimitisation process.

I didn't do 2 hours of drip acclimiting wtih teh fish. In fact, I spent about 20 mins in total adding about three small glasses of water spaced out throughout that time whilst leaving the bag floating in teh top of the tank (obviously anchoring the top fo the bag to stop it from sinking). After that I emptied the fish into the tank. This is how I've done it with my FW fish, but if I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. I know that inverts need a much longer acclimiting time, but thought fish were relatively quick.

Cheers,
L

 

[rabbut]

Hum, well, if you go from a tank with high nitrate to low, or visa versa, that may cause issues for the fish, but you get away with it most times IME.

How much flow is there in the main tank? Just the Fluval internal, or are there powerheads? Is the rock definitely ocean rock, or could it be "live rock"?

Just hold off any freshwater cleaning or taking out of the tank with the rock until you've posted the answers to the above questions and got a response

All the best
Rabbut

 

[lgarvey]

Hum, well, if you go from a tank with high nitrate to low, or visa versa, that may cause issues for the fish, but you get away with it most times IME.

How much flow is there in the main tank? Just the Fluval internal, or are there powerheads? Is the rock definitely ocean rock, or could it be "live rock"?

Just hold off any freshwater cleaning or taking out of the tank with the rock until you've posted the answers to the above questions and got a response

All the best
Rabbut

There is a v2 nano skimmer and the fluval which seems to have a fairly strong outlet. The rock is definitely ocean rock, not live rock, so unless the fish need a strong current (doubt it!?) then it should be fine.

Oddly, I put the fish into the tank and they were fine. Eating fine, and not exhibiting any of the tentativeness that I see in fish when they are moved about. Maybe because it's the same tank just with stuff moved about?

However this morning the big fish seems to be hovering in the corner of the tank wiht a load of white stringy poo hanging out of it, and it isn't feeding. I know that's a symptom of internal parasites, but I can't figure out how she could have caught them. Unless the fishes immune system was weakened by the move, water param change, etc. and the already present parasites have taken hold? I'm going to let her

So, I tested the water - ammonia around 0 (hard to tell could be slightly elevated but very slight), Ni - appear to be 0, Nitrate - appears very low no more than second to lowest. I'm not in-front of the test tubes right now, so I can't tell you what the values are, but it's a Salifert Marine Kit (if that helps)

I have done a 20% water change (with some ready made RO / saltwater), I've stopped feeding and I have turned the lights off. I'll also get some carbon in the filter as soon as, just in case.

Cheers,
L

 

[seffieuk]

Could have been constipated - what is the fish?

Seffie x

 

[lgarvey]

Could have been constipated - what is the fish?

Seffie x

Hi Seffie,

It's two maroon clowns - large female (big dozey thing) and a smaller male. Apparently the tank is far too small for them (about 100Ls), but they've lived in it for a good while (3 months wiht the previous keeper) and they seem to do fine. If I notice them fighting etc. I'd look to rehome them.

The previous owner only fed them frozen brine shrimp, I've given them some frozen krill. I also think I overfed, because food was left floating around (had to spend a while netting it out, urgh.) But it may have been that they just lost their appetite. I was told to feed 'em a frozen block twice a day. When I start feedling them again I'll try a smaller amount - maybe half a block.

The female seems to be opening her mouth quite a bit. She isn't eating at all, not eating then spitting it out.

I suspect they'll be fine and just need a few days to recoup. I'll probably avoid feeding them for a few days, and see if they start to move about.

L

 

[SkiFletch]

Sounds like a good plan to move forward with. If I may suggest on the longterm front, look into a hang-on refugium to control ahir algae.

 

[lgarvey]

Sounds like a good plan to move forward with. If I may suggest on the longterm front, look into a hang-on refugium to control ahir algae.

Phew - the clownfish are back online. I think they had some ammonia poisening. So stopping feeding and an immediate 20% water change seems to have done the trick.

I'm going to leave them for a day or two then feed sparse amounts and make sure it's all eaten up.

I guess I'd be best delaying on cleaning the tank and just let it get stablised for now?

L

 

[rabbut]

The stats sound good, so yes, I'd give it time for everything to recover from moving stress

 

[lgarvey]

The stats sound good, so yes, I'd give it time for everything to recover from moving stress

Female clown is rowdy as ever. I had to trade in my 300L mbuna tank -- due to a house move in the next 2 months -- and so instead got a 100L nano marine tank with the two maroon clonws, and I find the marine fish to be so beautiful! They're almost "cartoon like", whilst being very personable.

Anyway, hopefully I will get everything stable and will be able to clean the tank in the next few weeks. I plan to buy a cleaner shrimp and a couple of small hermit crabs v-soon, to help with cleaning the tank. Then I'll temporarily move the livestock to a polystyrene transport box I have, and clean all the algae off the tank ;-)

Question - the two maroon clowns just hover behind a piece of ocean rock all day 'till I move near the tank, then the female comes to the front of the tank begging for food. Compared to my malawi tank (which I know was purposefully overstocked) the new marine tank looks sparse. Can additional fish be added to this tank at any time?

If I could i'd have .. a royal gramma and a neon goby (or a six line wrasse OR a yellow tail damsel).

Could these fish work in my tank? (http/www.antlyn.com/new-marine.jpg) ??

L