Looking for some suggestions/feedback

Well I have had my tank up for about a year and a half now, and unfortunately I have let some things go. The fish I have are all healthy, however, I have three major issues going on. I have a bad case of cyano, quite a few aptasia, and a whole bunch of of red bubble algae. As for inhabitants, I have 2 clowns hosting in a sabae anemone, 2 purple firefish, 2 sand sifters, frogspawn coral and some shrooms.

I have tried to remove these unwanted pests many times, but have been unable to do so. I have moved to RO water for teh cyano, but I feel that it has gone too far.

Here is my thought....
Move the fishies, coral and sabae to my 15gal quaranteen, and completely tear down the 90. Now I do not want to let the tank dry, I was thinking to remove the salt water and replace with fresh water for a few weeks. I am guessing that the aptasia, cyano, and bubble algae cannot live in fresh water. After a few weeks, rinse off all of my live rock (not live any more), clean the aquarium and sand and start my cycle from the beginning using a raw shrimp.

I am guessing that this whole process would take about 2 months, and hopefully I can be back on track with a brand new tank free from the unwanted.

Has anyone done this? Any suggestions on making this as easy and less stressful on the fish?

Any help/comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Jason

 

What kind of substrate do you have? Crushed coral, sand, fine sand, etc.?

Where is the cyano? On the sand, on the rocks, both?

What kind of flow do you have?

What kind of protein skimmer do you have? What other type of filtration do you have?

How long were you using tap water and when did you switch to RO?

EDIT: Welcome to 3Reef!!!

 

Hows the flow in that tank? How long has it been set up? Did you give some peppermints a try? Also for algea turn the lights off for a week it will kill it all.

 

To answer the questions.....

The tank has been up for about a year. It was originally set up using tap water and just recently changed to RO about 3 months ago.

The cyano is everywhere. The sand, rock, water return from the filter.
As for flow in the tank, I have 3 hydor koralias. 2 #3s, and 1 #2.
So I do not think flow is the issue.

The filtration I am currently using is a sump approxmately 15 gal, with a built in skimmer.

I do go through cycles that I turn the lights off in the tank for a few days, but once back on, within the week, the cyano is creeping back. My light cycle is only about 9 hours.

I have tried some pepermints in the past, but I have lost them along the way, and I really do not want to add anything else to the tank until I get this issue resolved. Unfortunately, everywhere I look, I am seeing aptasia.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Jason

 

How old are you light bulbs?

 

I use pickling lime to get rid of the aptasia.It works really good for the ones you can reach then small ones grow up so I kill everything reachable about every three months.You just put about 1 tbsp pickling lime in 2 tbsp of water and microwave for a minute,the mixture should be fairly thick.Then just use a syringe and drop a little bit on top of each aptasia,carefully,this stuff will kill anything it touches.I bet it would even get rid of the algae.

 

My lights are about 4.5 months old.

 

Emerald crab will clean up the bubble algae. Joes juice is great for larger aptasia, and a copper banded butterfly fish for the smaller ones, it shouldnt bother the corals you have. Reduceing your light and frequent water changes should help with the cyno, I have a tommi tang that will also eat it! Not enough to get rid of it but every bit helps. If really determined marycin will get rid of it.