After the hair algae WAR - tank reset.

[dennis210]

I reset my tank in late July to make more placement room for corals. Must have disturbed too much as August September and October became the hair algae war of my lifetime. Corals were being choked out. Added a huge cleaner crew on top of the existing one and couldn't gain ground. So I stripped out everything but the sand and the anemone. Loaded tubs with
PH's and heaters and removed 90 some corals, all the fish, every invert, and packed three tubs and my frag system. Rock went to garage and was scrubbed repeatedly. Then left in empty tubs with damp towels over them overnight. Thanks to Natclanwy we set up shop the next day and drilled rock and pinned it together with cut up plastic coat hangers. Carried it back in on a heavy plastic cutting board and set pile by pile. Ended up with a 100 gallon water change in a 210 display. We put the corals into the 65 g frag with 250 clean up crew and after a week removed what was clean and reloaded. Process was ongoing for 3 weeks. While doing this decided to move my sump over, replace two chaeto chambers (that had to be side lit) and made them into rubble chambers, then we added a fuge. Finally got everything back in today and made the wife happy by cleaning up the basement.

So here are some shots of everything redone!

 

[dennis210]

Some more shots of tank without hair algae!

 

[dennis210]

Final shots

 

[premilove]

wow that looks amazing. what size is the tank?

 

[dennis210]

It's a 210 display with a 40 breeder for a sump with a 10 g fuge.

 

[ifirefight]

4 Koralias and 2 Seios??? Am I guessing right.??? How much turn over are you running>? Real nice looking tank BTW.

 

[dennis210]

If you total up everything ( 2 Seio M1100, 2 HK #1's, 3 HK #2's, 1 HK #3, and 2 Quiet One 6000's) it's rated at 8200 gph - but for fittingd and head hieght I would estimate it at 7000 to 7200 actual.

 

[socal57che]

Fighting green hair can be tough. Looks like you kicked it good.

What steps did you have to take to eradicate the stuff. Did you pull out every rock and scrub them? They look spotless.

 

[dennis210]

Yep that was my answer! then the rocks and corals that still showed signs went into a 65 g frag tank that had it's own clean up crew plus everything out of the 210. A week in there and everything I took out was spotless and ready to go back into main. Like the thread said - it has taken 3 weeks to put back.
The same thing happened three years ago when I bought the tank, sand, and some of the rock. Stripped it, moved it home, and reset it up. Then 3 months went by fine and boom major attack. Then I tore into it in July and bang. I think messing with the rocks and surface sand releases alot of tied up nutrients and BAM! uncontrolled growth happens. I mean enough where it is green waving at ya hair algae!
Moral of story - don't mess with a older tank! It's also why I pinned the rock this time.

 

[clownfish11]

before and after?

 

[dennis210]

I was too disgusted to take pic's of the problem. But enough saw it to be majorly embarrased. I have always had a fantastic tank and system but when it happens so fast you just can't believe it!