Cyano - 2 , Sparty - 0

[sparty059]

Ok, I just turned on the lights in my tank to find that my cyano that I thought was under control has become a huge problem. So I have decided there's no better time than now to take my tank down and throw all rock and sand out. My only question was if there is anyway I can salvage all of my brittle starfish. They're in all of my rocks and I have hundreds in there. When I move rock around I notice many of them come crawling out quickly so I figure I can get most of the ones in the rock. The ones in the sand are the ones I need to try and save. Any ideas? Lastly, how do you usually get rid of your sand? Do you usually toss it in the garbage? Down the toilet? Same for rock. Throw it out or usually sell it? It has some algae on it so I don't know if people will buy it... what are the thoughts out there?

 

[gemmy]

Why throw it out??? Aren't you going to set up your tank again after the move?

 

[sparty059]

Yeah, I'm going to set it up again, but the problem is would be that my rocks have algae and cyano on them. So I don't want to bring that junk into my next setup. Why would I hold onto it?

 

[monsinour]

Keep the sand in buckets ensuring that it doesnt solidify. Boil the rocks and this will get rid of anything on the rocks. Keep the rocks in boxes until they are needed again.

 

[2quills]

+1 Keep the rock and the sand. Unless you just want to use different types. That stuff can still be re used. Didn't Joe tell you about a safe way to bleach the rock and re use it a while back? Even if you do start out with new sand and dry rock there is no guarantee that you won't have to deal with cyano the next time.

 

[sparty059]

I'm leery of bleaching. It's always been something that has left me a little unsure of. However, the idea to remove the rock and sand isn't because I know I won't have cyano... in fact I know if I have the same habits as before then I probably will get it again. Boiling the rock might be a possibility... I'll think about that, but bleaching is pretty much out of the question. I do intend to get rid of the sand though regardless. The sand I have is just ugly. It's the tan sand with little black rocks and big black pieces of sand and it just looks ugly now. I'm going to get Florida keys sand and do what I can to keep it in good shape. Do people usually buy sand?

 

[2quills]

I hear ya. And no offense but I've never been a big fan of that sand that you used. If you can boil the rock I'm sure you could find someone to buy it for a fair price on c.list. Tell them you'll throw the sand in as a bonus or something. I'm going to order all of my new stuff from Marco Rocks dot com. They have some really nice looking shelf rock and if you're looking for something in particular they'll do their best to hook you up from what I understand.

 

[gemmy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/385934/cyano-1-sparty-0#post_3386956
I hear ya. And no offense but I've never been a big fan of that sand that you used. If you can boil the rock I'm sure you could find someone to buy it for a fair price on c.list. Tell them you'll throw the sand in as a bonus or something. I'm going to order all of my new stuff from Marco Rocks dot com. They have some really nice looking shelf rock and if you're looking for something in particular they'll do their best to hook you up from what I understand.
I love dry rock. I got some from brs with a group buy (saved a little). I like that you can specify the size of your pieces. I made the mistake of not specifying what sizes I need and I am stuck with this ginormous shelf piece with no place to put it. The rock does not take long to color up either.
Sparty, I say boil the rock you have and keep the pieces you like and then purchase dry rock.

 

[sparty059]

Corey man, no offense taken! I wish someone would have warned me... I cleared the shelf with 4 bags when I bought my tank. The store was probably thrilled to see all that sand taken off the shelf haha. It's such an ugly look! Anyway, I'll get new sand and look into the site yore talking about. But is it possible to salvage the little critters in it? I really don't want to boil the stars and stuff. Any ideas to get everything out?

 

[2quills]

Not that I'm aware of unless you can somehow pluck them out. I found a couple of sites where you can order them though if you want. They're pretty cheap. I'll pm ya.

 

[sparty059]

Yeah, I'm not really looking to buy them. I just would like to keep the ones I have. They multiply like crazy so plucking even 20 out would probably be suffice. But I just don't like the fact that I'd kill hundreds if I boil the rock without trying to clean them out. I think most of them will crawl out when I take the rock out. I hope at least. They love to mate in my algae in my refugium and then loooooove the egg crate and multiple in there all the time too.

 

[sparty059]

I forgot to mention thank you for the info anyway Corey. I appreciate it.

 

[2quills]

Just hold on to a couple of pieces of your rock sparty. Keep them in a tote with some saltwater and circulation. When the time comes just use those pieces to seed the new tank.

 

[sparty059]

I'll send them to you... you take care of them for a few weeks then send em back! I'd actually consider it if you were able to rid it of all the gha and cyano! I'd save a ton in the long run. I'm going to need someone to watch after my green star polyp and the other coral that's slipping my mind... frog spawn?

 

[2quills]

Are you kidding, I don't want that stuff in my tank.

j/k
Since they cyano and gha both also feed on light I was thinking that if you could store them in a tote or a bucket without any light then the stuff would disappear within a week or two. You don't have a couple of clean pieces that you can hang on to?
When we moved to the new house and I carried all of my rock over in totes I only had a couple inches worth of water in the totes so the rocks weren't fully submerged but they stayed moist. A good portion of the micro brittle stars climbed out of the rocks and into the water. When I put the rock back in the tank I just picked the starts up out of the water and dropped them in the tank.

 

[kiefers]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/385934/cyano-1-sparty-0#post_3386974
Are you kidding, I don't want that stuff in my tank.

j/k
Since they cyano and gha both also feed on light I was thinking that if you could store them in a tote or a bucket without any light then the stuff would disappear within a week or two. You don't have a couple of clean pieces that you can hang on to?
When we moved to the new house and I carried all of my rock over in totes I only had a couple inches worth of water in the totes so the rocks weren't fully submerged but they stayed moist. A good portion of the micro brittle stars climbed out of the rocks and into the water. When I put the rock back in the tank I just picked the starts up out of the water and dropped them in the tank.

+1.... depending on how long you have to keep things in totes, I would just throw a power head in there and cover it up. you can TRASH the sand. This way you could save some of your rocks atleast IMO
As with you critters,.... will the LFS take some or the zoo? Thats if you can catch any of them. Lol

 

[meowzer]

YEAH SPARTY......put the rock in a DARK tote.....just run a small PH, and keep the water just above the rock......the algae will die, and the other life should be ok (maybe) HAHA

 

[sparty059]

As you can tell, I've modified the titled a bit. There is a reason for this. Today I came home took a glance at my tank to notice the cyano is officially out of control. It has practically covered my sandbed, as well as fully covered a mexican turbo snail of mine. Many of the other snails also are covered by this guy is a big boy so I was shocked to say the least. I've decided that enough is officially enough. The tank comes down immediately. So, with that being said, what is the EASIEST way to catch five cardinals? I tried this last time and the only thing that ended up happening was scaring the cardinals off for a solid 4 days. I'm pretty sure the only reason why they came out on the fifth day was because they were close to starved and hiding wasn't really an option at that point. I already have my hospital tank set up right now so I can just toss those five in there and they should be in good shape. The blenny is the other fish in there as well. He I feel will be the most difficult to snag. So again, any thoughts on the easiest way to catch fish besides placing some bait on a hook and reeling them out (

) would be greatly appreciated. Another question, the blenny eats only algae but occasionally will eat frozen food too. The seaweed that I put in the tank for the tang will be fine as it is right now right? EEEK! Just thinking about it... I also have my mandarin dragonet! What do I do with him? I don't want him to starve. Should I place him in the hospital as well and try and put him in a little 1'x1' clear box and try and force him to eat frozen mysis and frozen brine?
He'll be a piece of cake getting out though... so the other six will be the toughy. Thoughts!?

 

[tangs rule]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemmy http:///forum/thread/385934/cyano-2-sparty-0#post_3386959
I love dry rock. I got some from brs with a group buy (saved a little). I like that you can specify the size of your pieces. I made the mistake of not specifying what sizes I need and I am stuck with this ginormous shelf piece with no place to put it. The rock does not take long to color up either.
Sparty, I say boil the rock you have and keep the pieces you like and then purchase dry rock.

I got a 475 that'll hold it! wanna sell it? I bought 135# of dry from them on one order and I got 3 giant but cool chunks......liverock chunks that big would run $500 each.
+2 on dry base rock, it's cheeper, absolutely no chance of bringing in pests with it, and it DOES purple up pretty quick.... I emerse badly contaminated LR in HOT tap for 3-5 minutes.to rid of aiptasia/bad cyano; up to 10 min for bad gha, then scrub with a stiff brush palm sized brush, then back into saltwater in an isolation tank for observation.

 

[kiefers]

well there is one quick method for getting your fish out quickly, throw a firecracker in the tank!

okay okay........just kidding......