Need some help and ideas for my new tank! *pics

[xevkai]

Hi all,
I've done some juggling the past few weeks with my tanks and everything. I just recently got into saltwater with a JBJ Nano 12gal tank. I went and bought 12lbs of live rock, and 20lbs of live sand and started to cycle the tank. That is coming along great but I came across a deal this week I couldn't pass up!
On our local Craigslist we came across a 29 gallon Clarity Plus tank that has been established and running for 4+ years now for almost nothing! The tank was maintained by a local fish store service and the two fish in the tank looked very healthy, so we bought it!
Here's the specs on this tank:
- 2 x 75 Watt EVO Actinic White 24" Lights
- 1 x 75 Watt EVO Super Actinic Blue 24" light
- About 35 lbs of live rock
- 25lbs of live sand
- Protien Skimmer
- 2 stock pumps and powerheads
- 1 extra pump

[hr]
Fish:
5 year old Maroon Clown
2 year old Red Brittle Star
----
Coral:
75+ Green Striped Mushrooms
----
I went and picked up the tank the other day and noticed some issues. The tank has been set u[p as said for 4 years but the LFS that came and cleaned it must have done very basic cleaning not moving the rocks or anything cause the waste built up pretty thick in between. Plus there was some green "grape" like algea on a few of the tubes (the bubbles were about half the size of a dime). Plus some bloom on the back wall of the tank.
I've posted some pictures of the tank, keep in mind I've just set the rock in the tank so that I could get the old water back in the tank after the move. Then made sure the temp and salt were good and got the fish out of their little bags and into the tank to relieve a bit of stress. The water stayed murky for a few hours and cleared up good, but now Im noticing the live rock is just covered in mess...
I'm posting some pics any and all suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. This is my first real salt tank and I would love to get this thing looking as beautiful and healthy as the others I've seen on this site. Right now the mushrooms are OUT OF CONTROL! haha They are every where (some were lost form the move so far) but on the powerheads back wall and just about anywhere they could seat themselves. Im going to dontate a lot to my LFS and sell a few to some other people. But man, I couldn't believe the shear number of them in here!
As of now with the amount of movement of the rocks and so fourth Im thinking about trading out the fish to one of my LFS's so that they will find a suitable home and not be too stressed with all the changes... Plus I just feel these guys are a little too big for this tank, though they both look great and the clown has such a personality!
Please comment away, but please keep the falming down to a minimum remember this just recently became my tank and I need to make it better!

 

[nietzsche]

you should give them to people locally or try to see if you can trade with people for other types of corals, maybe even try to learn how to frag using some of them. i doubt your lfs would care and would end up making more money off of it. the green bubbles is bubble algae, be careful not to pop them because you might end up having more in your tank. use ro/di water when topping off and mixing salt. you should have asked them how old the bulbs were because they might need to be replaced
you should also try to do a search on when you're supposed to change your sand or rocks, i forget how many years it is of its just sand.
those fish are aggressive and you wont be able to add another fish. before you placed them back in you should have checked to see if there was any type of spike in ammonia--- and make sure to get a refractometer from this website!!!
good luck and hope you enjoy both tanks!!!!

 

[xevkai]

yeah I did a full check before I added the fish back in everything was cool, Nitrates were a little bit high but I did a water change and cleared that up.
I popped most of the bubble algea outside of the tank cleaning them off of some of the parts. We don't plan on adding anymore fish with the ones we have cause of thier aggression and size that's why we're trading them into our LFS here.
Thanks for the reply! Is there anything else in the pics that stand out to you that we should fix? How about cleaning the liverock (after the fish are out of course) to get the build up off them.

 

[xevkai]

Oh! The lights were changed a month ago, and they look fairly new.

 

[nietzsche]

when you mean build up are you talking about lots of sand thats on the rock or sponge that's on it? i think you might be talking about sponges. if it was sand you could blast it off with the powerheads off. i have sponges on my rock but underneath them, they're not a problem

 

[xevkai]

It's some sort of stringy slime, I could be a sponge but Im not sure I'll get some more pics tomorrow.
On the upside, I cleaned out 2 of my pumps motors and the powerheads are now coral and buildup freeI also wrapped a little filterfloss around the two sumerged pumps in the front of the tank to stop sand from getting in again.
I also rebuilt the power unit for the protein skimmer and it's working like a charm!! Next I'll be cleaning the two pumps in the return section of the filter.
Quick question though. Is it Ok to scrape the musrooms and algae off the back of the tank? Will that produce a small cycle or another algae outbreak? Also is there anyway to get the mushrooms off the back of the tank without harming them?
Thanks nietzsche, out of two forms you're the only one taking the time to help me understand more.

 

[nietzsche]

Originally Posted by XevKai
It's some sort of stringy slime, I could be a sponge but Im not sure I'll get some more pics tomorrow.
On the upside, I cleaned out 2 of my pumps motors and the powerheads are now coral and buildup freeI also wrapped a little filterfloss around the two sumerged pumps in the front of the tank to stop sand from getting in again.
I also rebuilt the power unit for the protein skimmer and it's working like a charm!! Next I'll be cleaning the two pumps in the return section of the filter.
Quick question though. Is it Ok to scrape the musrooms and algae off the back of the tank? Will that produce a small cycle or another algae outbreak? Also is there anyway to get the mushrooms off the back of the tank without harming them?
Thanks nietzsche, out of two forms you're the only one taking the time to help me understand more.
you can buy one of those magfloats from petsmart to help scrape algae and coraline off the walls, those help a lot and it shouldnt harm anything , especially since you have a protein skimmer going. maye check out out if you could detach the shrooms off the back. make sure to put on some latex gloves that dont have the powder

 

[clay12340]

That looks like a really great little set up. Especially if it was cheap. Those are nice tanks and the lighting should give you a bit of flexibility. I'd love to find something like that around here.
Scraping the mushrooms off shouldn't hurt anything. They might slime up a little bit, but it won't be enough to throw anything off. Hurting those mushrooms is next to impossible You can cut them into as many pieces as you want and they'll likely just grow into new mushrooms.
Depending on the type of algae it might spread it a little bit, but it shouldn't cause a cycle or anything catastrophic. Get a little siphon going at the same time you are scraping and you can probably suction a lot of it out of the tank as you go along.
Pick up any removed mushroom and toss them in shot glasss with a tiny piece of rubble. Place those on the bottom of the tank and it'll attach to the rock in a few weeks. Then you've got a nice little mounted mushroom to sell/trade/give away.
The build up is pretty typical. Rock always has crevices and such that are hard to get into and it isn't worth tearing them down to clean some schmuts out of a nook. Expect your nitrates to be high for a little while and keep doing aggressive water changes. The stirred up debris and such can cause this, but it'll go away in time.

 

[xevkai]

Awesome, right now I have my small nano 12 cycling and it's doing well. I added some of the extra musrooms to that tank and they opened right up!
Thank for the advise, I'll get some new pics up as soon as the tank is clean and in good show condition.
When you mean aggressive water changes how much and how often would you suggest?

 

[reefer545]

Holy Shrooms Batman!

 

[clay12340]

Aggressive is up for interpretation. I'd probably do something like 20% every couple of days until the nitrates are back to 0, but you could probably get away with less or more depending on how often and how much you want to change.

 

[xevkai]

Ok then I'm all ready doing aggressive ones
I put an extra pump in a 5 gallon bucket so I always have fresh mixed salt water around. So i am doing about 5 gallons every day or two.
Reefer: hahah yeah thats what I said when I picked the tank up! If anyone lives near the Novi (SE Michigan) area I'll give you a few!

 

[xevkai]

Quick question about tank mates,
What would get along well with the Maroon Clown and the Starfish I have. The Starfish is going to be traded out soon I believe cause he's just too big and the clownfish may or may not as of yet.
I know the clowns are territorial so other clowns are out of the question. This one is territorial even to me till he realized I am the new guy who feeds him. Which only took a day, they are smart fish!
I want to start gathering a cleanup crew, but until the star is gone I don't want the crew to disappear. What would you all suggest?