Destroyed Tank

[irishred]

I made the mistake of using a store bought sponge to try and remove algae,and I wiped out EVERYTHING, that I had in my tank. Have algae on everything and cannot get rid of it,hairy algae and brown algae that has covered my sand,want to start fresh,but want to know how to remove algae from live rock? And should I completly drain water and start fresh or take so much out? I have a sea cuke that died and anemones and I am afraid the water is toxic. This is a 90 gallon,and I completely ruined it,my fault but want to learn from my mistakes and make it right. Any help would be appreciated. Thinking of having a fish only tank.

[Reefland]

First, what about a sponge would have wiped out your tank? I think we need to understand that first.

Secondly, I would start from scratch. Your algae problem is related to a nutrient (nitrate) problem from a lack of maitenance.

[irishred]

The sponge was one used for washing dishes I chose it because of the scouring pad,and the local fish store said it prob had stuff in it that would have hurt my tank,and that it is prob what killed all my fish. After I used it,my sea cuke was stressed out,I took him out immed,and put him in a sick tank,he was squirting white stuff out of his mouth and I was told to put him in another tank until he calmed down,well then my brittle star literally fell apart,in a matter of days,I lost my blue linkia,yellow and blue tang, kole tang,the rest is history. I feel badly for bringing this on my tank,no one to blame but myself but have to learn from it and try again. Now the algae is out of control,have done water changes just for it to come back again. I manually pick off the hariy algae,but the brown algae is goopy like and covers sand and just hangs from the top of the water??? The lfs store said just to keep doing water changes,I think I need to drain it and start fresh with new sand possibly new rock too. Any advice?

[Reefland]

I think it really depends on what was in the sponge (chemical wise). If it were me, I would start from scratch to remove any possibility of anything remaining from the mistake.

[dave00gt]

I think it really depends on what was in the sponge (chemical wise). If it were me, I would start from scratch to remove any possibility of anything remaining from the mistake.

i second this motion, start all over, i wiped out my bacteria but none of my fishes , oh and some corral and a starfish too and some snails

i started with new gravel, and worked my way up and now my tank looks great

[vtec si]

If you start over you do not need to get rid of your LR. You can either dry it out and kill all bacteria in/on it. then after a few week of that scrub it in fresh ro water and put it in a tub with fresh SW and skimmer,heater and a powerhead or two. Also add few pounds of new LR to seed and cure it all over again! once back in the tank add few more pound of cured LR and let it slowly come back to live again.

Or you could leave it in the tank and keep doing LARGE water changes while keeping the lights off and add nothing to the tank. But if you think the tank was poisoned I would do the first that I mentioned. JMO!

Just one question. Did you lose eveything in your tank?

What ever you do, Good luck.

Martin

[irishred]

I lost everything but 1 starfish,an orange linkia. I was taking it to my sister inlaws house and have her keep it in her reef tank,until I get mine back on its feet,but concerned that it may be sick and cause harm to her tank,so undecided will prob make a sick tank for it,prob a better option. I had a yellow tang,kole tang,regal tang,strawberry fish,dominoe damsel,blue damsel,lawnmower blenny,brittlestar,blue linkia,banded shrimp,sea cucumber and 2 anemones,also I am sorry I have one left of those also. I prided myself,this was my first tank 90 gallon and I brought it all the way from st augustine to orlando with 65 gallons of its original salt water to help it and it had done so well,until this. But I will just start over and I appreciate all the support I have recieved. Thanks for the info on the live rock,will do that,dry it out and re use it and add more live rock to it. Not adding fish for quite a while,going to devote time to getting water right and tank stable again.

[dave00gt]

I lost everything but 1 starfish,an orange linkia. I was taking it to my sister inlaws house and have her keep it in her reef tank,until I get mine back on its feet,but concerned that it may be sick and cause harm to her tank,so undecided will prob make a sick tank for it,prob a better option. I had a yellow tang,kole tang,regal tang,strawberry fish,dominoe damsel,blue damsel,lawnmower blenny,brittlestar,blue linkia,banded shrimp,sea cucumber and 2 anemones,also I am sorry I have one left of those also. I prided myself,this was my first tank 90 gallon and I brought it all the way from st augustine to orlando with 65 gallons of its original salt water to help it and it had done so well,until this. But I will just start over and I appreciate all the support I have recieved. Thanks for the info on the live rock,will do that,dry it out and re use it and add more live rock to it. Not adding fish for quite a while,going to devote time to getting water right and tank stable again.

doest some sea cucumbers let out some type of poison when they die? maybe that wiped out your livestock

[irishred]

That is possible,that he had something to do with it as well. If I chose to do a fish only tank,and had only live sand in there,could I have tangs and such without live rock?