lgarvey
Fish Crazy
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
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