New to reef tanks

[Gringos]

Danny as far as the skimmer goes, I have one if it is good I do not know. It is a diy ventury style. It is powered by a quietone. The collection cup holds about 2 1/2 cups and I pull out a full one a week and it is dark skimmate.

I guess I could do a lights out kind of thing, but wont the bubbles come back when I bring my lights back on. Could my broblem be nutrients. I do a 5g water change every 2 days. It might not have been enough with all that feeding.

I don't realy want to go the nuking way. I would have to remove all the rock and need temporary housing for my fish.

[Beverly]

Having had a look at the pics and thinking about the enormity of the problem, adding a few more emeralds isn't going to do much

If this was my tank here is what I would do:

- remove half the rock from your infested system, boil each piece for 3-4 minutes, then put in a curing tank with tapwater (no dechlorinator) with a spare or new powerhead for a week. This should kill EVERYTHING DO NOT USE any powerheads or heaters from the infested system during the curing tank.

- after a week, remove the tapwater and replace with new saltwater. DO NOT USE WATER FROM YOUR MAIN TANK

- To seed this now dead rock with bacteria, get some detritus from a friend's tank that has NO VALONIA ANYWHERE and spread all over your rock and let it re-cure. (Don't know your location, but if you are in Edmonton, PM me for detritus. I have lots )

Now comes the hard part:

- Once the rock has fully cured, set up a temporary tank for this rock and for your livestock. Acclimatize your livestock carefully, but ABSOLUTELY DO NOT use any water or equipment from the infested system in the temporary tank.

- Frag any corals that have valonia on their bases. This is going to be very tricky because you want the frags, but you don't want ANY WATER from the valonia infested system. I'd suggest rinsing the frags several times in clean batches of new saltwater. You ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want any possible contamination from the infested tank going into your temporary tank with your frags.

- Remove the last half of the rock in the infested system, boil it and go through the same procedure as you did with the first half of the rock.

- Tear down your infested system completely.

- Remove and discard any sand, macroalgae or other living thing not necessary in your temporary tank from your infested system.

- Scrape off the walls of the display tank, and sump/refug if you have them, then rinse the system well with tapwater. Siphon out the remaining crud from the bottom of your tank(s). By the time you are finished, your system should look like new

- Fill the now clean tank with tapwater and run for at least a week. Two weeks would be better. If you want, add a little bleach. Bleach is a better disinfectant than tapwater and you can use dechlorinator to nuetralize the bleach when you are finished.

- Powerheads, heaters and other equipment used in the infested system should be broken down to their basic components and soaked for a day or two in vinegar. After it has soaked, scrub all coralline and other algae from each component. Rinse well, or soak for a day, in tapwater, then put the powerheads and other equipment back together. They are now suitable for use in your cleaned up system.

- Drain the system of tapwater. You may want to let it sit dry until the second half of your rock has fully cured, or you can set it up and put your livestock in it.

Above all, TAKE YOUR TIME and make sure your system is thoroughly clean before setting it back up.

I realize this is a very drastic way of getting your tank back so it does not have valonia in it. However, the pics you've posted depict a drastic situation and only methodical, thorough cleaning will help you in the long run.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you. Let us know what you decide to do The very best of luck to you

[Gringos]

Thats sounds like a shure way of iradicating my bubble algea. But some of my rock has very nice yellow, blue, orange and grey sponges. I would hate to loose those...

[Willow]

boiling your rock will kill all life on it. it will no longer be live rock but baserock.

[Gringos]

Thanks for all the advice it is apreciated. I will give the existing crabs a chance because I have been seeing improvement over the last couple days. And the way things are now, it can't realy get worse than it already is. I will post some curent pictures this week-end.

[Gringos]

Here is an idea of how big they get.

[Skimmerking]

I have had it bad too my friend , in my 280 gal one of the reason's i tokk it down. I cleaned it and stuck it in the 75 gal for my sps and it still came back what i did was dried it out for 9months when me and my wife was separated ,and now its all gone..


mike

[Gringos]

Well about a week has passed since I reduced to a single feeding a day. My tangs (hippo and yellow) both started to nip at the bubble algea. Not just little bites either, my hippo often turns around with a bunch of bubbles sticking out of his mouth. I guess withough the food from me they are doing what tangs do best.

[StirCrazy]

Valonia is a harmless algae and easy to remove. just pull out the larger ones. I went on a poping rampage and eventualy got mine under control, its hard to find one now with the help of two emerald crabs, I take care of the big ones they take care of the baby ones.

Steve