Algea and clean up crew Q's

[mandoreefer]

Hello, i have a ten gallon AGA nano that was recently returned to me by a friend who babysat it for a year while i was in maine working. Needless to say when i went to pick up the tank my Compact flo was in pieces, every coral was dead and there was an abundant amount of different algea(reds,hairy,greens ect.). My crabs and snails and shrimp where also MIA. My question is what would be a good clean up crew for alot of algea for such a small tank as i know i should keep the bio-load low in a nano. Anyh suggestions would be great. also any suggestions on finding cheaper compact flos for this size tank....i am a broke recent college grad so if anyone knows of any deals out there that would help a lot. I am located in wayne. thank you all

Steve

 

[mnat]

Sorry to hear about the condition of the tank when you got it back. At this point, sound like you might have to completely redo the tank. I would pull all the live rock and scrub it down to get rid of the algae, and scrub the walls. For a cleanup crew go to reefcleaners.org a lot of people have gotten great deals off of that website and it is cheap. You can go with the standard snails and hermits, but it is going to take them a while to do what you can do with a brush and a bucket of water. As far as lights go, just look for a deal or go to MACNA and I am sure you can find them there. I got my lights from marinedepot.com but I don't know what you are looking for.

 

[Scottyrock]

start over. scrub rocks, you can even stir and vacuum your sand. get a small fish and start your bio filter over again

 

[Nickjr000]

Yeah I think your better off scrubbin the rocks and give everything a good cleaning

 

[mandoreefer]

OK i scrubbed the rocks with a tooth brush, did a 2 gallon water change and got couple of red leg hermits, a turbo snail and a blue legged hermit. Scrubbing was the way to go i even found some dormant polyps and the tank looks supper clean. Just need a light a and ill be back on track. thanks

 

[JRWOHLER]

I would check out the FS section here ... or maybe at Manhattan Reefers, craigslist etc. At this point people are selling a fair amount of stuff so would think that is the cheapest way to go.

 

[gogol]

Hi mando reefs .. is this your first reef?

If so, then I would strongly advise you to start afresh with a bigger tank (atleast 20G, or more). You get tank deals all the time if you look around, and larger tanks are much less susceptible to sudden changes in water chemistry. Operating cost also does not linearly increase with the size of tank. So if you get the tank cheap (I recently got a 46G bow front with stand for $30 ) , provided you dont have space issues, you would definitely be on track for fewer head aches.

Keep in mind shallow broader tanks are usually better than slender high ones.

P.S. Do some research on hermit crabs on the Net ... and then decide if you still want them in your tank. I would grade them as a bigger nuisance than algae.

...If this is not your first reef then discount the above as enthusiastic blabber ;D

 

[mandoreefer]

this tank is over four years old, the reason i went nano is because at the time i had it in a college dorm in boston. Then had it back in NJ, then moved off the grid to maine and left it in care of a friend. When i was in high school i worked at pet place in wayne and had a 30 and 20 long going. i am really after a cheaper light and couldnt post in the "for sale forum " until 25 post in other forums.....so im building up post the fun way. thank you all. take care
Steve

 

[Mbodell]

I don't know, my nano has been really easy. I think the deep sand bed has helped to keep it very stable. It is a 5 gallon with 18 watts over it. I think a ten is fine to start as long as you change the water once a month or so.

 

[Scottyrock]

I don't know, my nano has been really easy. I think the deep sand bed has helped to keep it very stable. It is a 5 gallon with 18 watts over it. I think a ten is fine to start as long as you change the water once a month or so.

i agree with ya on that. once i built up my sandbed then asses coarser rock ontop of that my tank locked up, and have not had a problem since then. tanks been up since the week of christmas