Fish tank help...

[kirru]

So my older sis who lives in Savannah has a saltwater tank at the doctors office where she works. The guy who was previously taking care of it... well lets say he has been fired... the tank looked horrible when i saw it, just plain not attractive... and every time my sis visited me, well she is jealous and now I have.. well sort of a third tank now to make pretty. lol

Right now, from what I was told, she has a major hair algae out break and aint looking pretty. I am going Saturday morning to assess the situation to see how about going to clean it up and start Sunday with the cleaning.

What do I also need to look for? I believe it is a 75g with a wet/dry below. I think she wants a reef but has triggers and what not in the tank. I believe she wants a reef so the aggressive fish will have to go.

I just need to know what I should bring with me to start the process of tank recovery lol

Once it gets cleaned I'll be taking care of the tank and doing maintenance, at least some of it, water changes won't be that hard, I'll get them a system going to take care of it... thanks for all the input, i am not sure of their budget, this will all be part of the assessment taken when I get down there Saturday.

 

[son of adam]

Hey man,

I would rinse sand bed.

Scubb rock well and rinse with new water. (eye protection and gloves required)

Check filtration system flow. Make sure it is not to fast. Mag 5 or 7 is right.

40 - 50% water changes once a week for a bit.

Minmize fish and feedings for a bit too.

That will do it.

 

[weaglereefer]

I wouldn't rinse the sandbed, that would require a full break down. Check the wet/dry to see if it's got bio-balls, if so remove them. Look into maybe a proper sump and skimmer setup. Do some manual removal on the hair algae (after proper identification) and do some water changes.

 

[kirru]

Ok, I was gonna scrub the rock this weekend. I think they have about 5 pounds of sand, if that... lol so i dont think that should be a big problem if I dont rinse it

I'll probably add more sand to it and remove the aggressive fish. trust me if you guys would of seen this, you'd want to break it down and start fresh like I want too.

i'll do a few water changes while I am there and tell them how to do them once I leave.

trust me, I'm more interested in that wet/dry or sump or whatever it is they have down there. I'm gonna talk to them about going bigger too (in the sump)