The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[shilala]

Originally Posted by sevans105

Thanks guys! I think I'll do the cook process. I've had a salt fish tank in the past and I'm with Scott...I like a clean tank. I think I may convert another smaller tank I have that is currently empty into a holding tank for the fish while I cook and clean. I live in the middle of no where and the closest store is an hour away so the buy back deal is kinda rough. Besides, they are kinda cute. Lots of work ahead of me but I'm kind of excited. I'll keep you guys posted on my successes/failures.

Thanks again

You have a plan, Scotty. You can use your friend's water for the temp tank. Just don't use it for the new tank. You can't (or shouldn't) use the cook water in your new tank, either. You're gonna be making a lot of water, for sure. Tons.
Before you leap, consider using all her stuff the way it stands and do water changes and a tang. It'll be a lot cheaper but it'll take longer.
Just cleaning the tank will be a huge step forward, and in a few months the water will be right. You can probably remove another ton of crap by hand, stuff that's not stuck so well.
If you work backwards on this stuff, starving it like Lance said, and using a critter to do the cleanup, it just works better.
Reason being, as the algae breaks down, and the water gets better and better, it'll work twice as hard to scrub the water for food, eventually locking everything up that's available.
Soon you'll have none.
I approach everything in the tank from a biolevel, using what's in there to fix what's wrong. If that doesn't work, I add a critter to fix what's wrong.
If you don't fix the whole cycle, the algae just comes back. I learned that by fighting with brown hair for years. (The answer to that was too much light and I put my lights on timers.)
If you work backwards, once the problem is gone you'll know it's gone for good because of good husbandry. If it comes back, and it probably will if you don't get to the root of the problem, then you haven't really learned anything.
Time and patience in reefkeeping is even tougher than in cigars. Really.