# Decontamination



## alsilverstein

I have a 40 gal long tank where the slime algae is out ofcontrol. I have tried everything that both local tropical fish retailers havesuggested.
I want to restart the tank but I do not desire to purchaseeverything new.
I have purchased new sand, new heater, and a new filter. 
What is the accepted way of removing all traces of the slimealgae from the glass tank, the live rock, etc?
Al Silverstein
Ormond Beach Florida


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## aussieJJDude

As from the glass, leaving it to dry for a week in the sun should kill it off! As for the live rock, maybe a quick dip in a bleach/water solution or/followed by a quick dip in freshwater should do the job... Whatever you choose, I imagine that there will be some dieback.

Have you done a good scrub of the algae followed by the usual siphon and let time do the job instead of doing the quick fix? You have LED's right, as the lighting spectrum could be out of wack, and you might need a different spectra or some "completing corals" which may cause algae dieback? 

IMO, a good siphon of the algae and just let the tank settle/cycle should do the trick, its probably going through a "phase"


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## SantaMonica

If this tank is still in the same state, this may help:

Nutrient Export

What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.

So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients comes from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.

Then, the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on the rocks consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks from when they were new. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crews, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

So whenever you have algae or cyano "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients out of your tank compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then after a year, there is a problem). 

So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals


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## floweredHarry

alsilverstein said:


> Showbox  jiofi.local.html tplinklogin
> I have a 40 gal long tank where the slime algae is out ofcontrol. I have tried everything that both local tropical fish retailers havesuggested.
> I want to restart the tank but I do not desire to purchaseeverything new.
> I have purchased new sand, new heater, and a new filter.
> What is the accepted way of removing all traces of the slimealgae from the glass tank, the live rock, etc?
> Al Silverstein
> Ormond Beach Florida


My friend never cleaned her fish tank for nearly 2 years!








So I wish I had a before picture to show you but it was pretty gross. I have a friend who I hang out with pretty often but we usually get together at my house because I have 2 kids, a bigger house, and more toys for the kids to play with. Anyways I ended up going to her house a few days ago because she needed help cooking some stuff. A little while after we had been there and were chatting she mentioned needing to get more fish soon because it looked like hers were going to kick the bucket. I love fish and everything to do with owning and caring for them so I asked if she knew what was wrong or if there was something I could help her with. she had me look at her tank(I had never seen it but once briefly because its in her bedroom at the back of the house)


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## adamtiffany36

As from the glass, leaving it to dry for a week in the sun should kill it off!
192.168.100.1 192.168.1​


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