20 gallon infested with GSP, had to start over.

[skiergd011013]

I had a 20 gallon mixed reef that was 6 years old and got taken over by gsp. It also had its left side glass pane covered completely in palys. I decided to re-do the tank. I replaced 100% of the rock with new, dry rock, and rather than razor blading all the palys and risking palytoxin slime, i just bought a new 20 gallon tank. I removed all of the desirable corals (zoas, acro, stylo, pocillopora, acans, torch,toadstool, frogspawn, gorgonian etc) and setup the new tank. I pumped the water over from the old tank, to the new one. Both are bare bottom. There is a percula clown, and a blue damsel. I understand that the new tank is now going to go through a cycle and i need to be careful. I did carry over the skimmer, which is a reef octopus bh90 hob( very good skimmer). So, im hoping that the skimmer has some original bacteria to help seed the new tank. Obviously, even the corals and their mounting plugs/rock will contain bacteria as well. I also plan on going to a lfs this week that said they can give me some live rock rubble to add to my tank. I am fairly experienced with reef tanks and have never had any disasters happen, but just wanted some input, as i have never had to gut a tank like this and start over. I am going to feed the two fish lightly and sparingly, and monitor the water for nitrite, nitrate, ammonia. I am going to change 5 gallons per week, and am not going to add any more livestock anytime soon. I am never letting gsp touch the main rockwork again. I watched the stuff completely envelope whole frogspawn branches. Any gsp will be quarantined to glass only. Tank has been setup about a week now. So far so good. Anyone else have to do this at some point? How did it go? I cant be the only one.

 

[00W]

I had a 20 gallon mixed reef that was 6 years old and got taken over by gsp. It also had its left side glass pane covered completely in palys. I decided to re-do the tank. I replaced 100% of the rock with new, dry rock, and rather than razor blading all the palys and risking palytoxin slime, i just bought a new 20 gallon tank. I removed all of the desirable corals (zoas, acro, stylo, pocillopora, acans, torch,toadstool, frogspawn, gorgonian etc) and setup the new tank. I pumped the water over from the old tank, to the new one. Both are bare bottom. There is a percula clown, and a blue damsel. I understand that the new tank is now going to go through a cycle and i need to be careful. I did carry over the skimmer, which is a reef octopus bh90 hob( very good skimmer). So, im hoping that the skimmer has some original bacteria to help seed the new tank. Obviously, even the corals and their mounting plugs/rock will contain bacteria as well. I also plan on going to a lfs this week that said they can give me some live rock rubble to add to my tank. I am fairly experienced with reef tanks and have never had any disasters happen, but just wanted some input, as i have never had to gut a tank like this and start over. I am going to feed the two fish lightly and sparingly, and monitor the water for nitrite, nitrate, ammonia. I am going to change 5 gallons per week, and am not going to add any more livestock anytime soon. I am never letting gsp touch the main rockwork again. I watched the stuff completely envelope whole frogspawn branches. Any gsp will be quarantined to glass only. Anyone else have to do this at some point? How did it go?

Skimmer won't add anything to the tank.
Your bacteria is in your rocks, which, I assume you moved over as well.
Shouldn't be any cycle unless you ditched all the rock too, then, yes, you will see a cycle.
Nitrite is immaterial to reef tanks so I'd just feed the fish.
And yes gsp can pose it's challenges I've got a ton myself. ;)

 

[skiergd011013]

Skimmer won't add anything to the tank.
Your bacteria is in your rocks, which, I assume you moved over as well.
Shouldn't be any cycle unless you ditched all the rock too, then, yes, you will see a cycle.
Nitrite is immaterial to reef tanks so I'd just feed the fish.
And yes gsp can pose it's challenges I've got a ton myself. ;)

Its all new rock! I didnt want to risk any gsp carrying over. Im going to a lfs to get some rubble chunks of live rock this week to help seed.

 

[00W]

Its all new rock! I didnt want to risk any gsp carrying over. Im going to a lfs to get some rubble chunks of live rock this week to help seed.

Then yes you're going to have to monitor closely!
I'd get that rock pronto.

 

[skiergd011013]

Then yes you're going to have to monitor closely!
I'd get that rock pronto.

Will do! I might even be able to go tomorrow (its over an hour away). Luckily, its only 20 gallons and i can do as big and as frequent of waterchanges as i need to.

 

[00W]

Will do! I might even be able to go tomorrow (its over an hour away). Luckily, its only 20 gallons and i can do as big and as frequent of waterchanges as i need to.

Good.
Remember in small tanks it's easy to get salinity and temperature fouled up so if you are doing large changes be very aware.
If any of your coral is attached to rocks there's bacteria there.
Keep that in mind.
But yes, any and all seeded rock will be good at this point.
Take a bucket with you and keep it IN WATER during your long trip.
Will have almost no die off that way.
Sometimes the die off is a killer, if you know what I mean.
Good luck.
Let me know how it goes.
Joel

 

[skiergd011013]

Good.
Remember in small tanks it's easy to get salinity and temperature fouled up so if you are doing large changes be very aware.
If any of your coral is attached to rocks there's bacteria there.
Keep that in mind.
But yes, any and all seeded rock will be good at this point.
Take a bucket with you and keep it IN WATER during your long trip.
Will have almost no die off that way.
Sometimes the die off is a killer, if you know what I mean.
Good luck.
Let me know how it goes.
Joel

Tanks doing good. It has been a month and a half since i did the full rock changeover. All corals are doing good, with the exception of some of my zoas staying closed. I suspect its from low nutrients, since i was feeding very minimal, and doing big water changes. I have added a royal gramma, and increased my feeding to once daily, either frozen brine/mysis or some marine flakes, to push some more organics into the water. I was doing 5 gallons a week, then 4, now im going to try 3 gallons per week. I have dots of coralline popping up all over the place. So far, no uglies.

new Coralline dots on glass. Noticing more and more of them every week.

 

[skiergd011013]

This tank is doing well at roughly 3 months old. I have removed some chunks of the dry rock and replaced it with Gulf live rock. I have about a 30% live rock to 70% dry rock mix. I havent seen any worrying hitchhikers. I did find one possible aiptasia, which could have been a lightbulb anenome, which supposedly look exactly the same but dont spread. I hit it with franks F aiptasia regardless. I am dosing all for reef based on an Alk of 8.5. I have light purple coralline covering my powerheads but not much on the glass, and an interesting light brown coralline that likes my magfloat, right glass pane, and skimmer intake. I need advice on livestock(20 gallon tank). I have a clown, a royal gramma, and a blue damsel in here ( they all get along). I feel like i should add one more fish to push a little more nutrients into the tank. What would be a good addition with my current fish? It needs to be able to somewhat hold its own against the damsel. He does check out and slightly pester new fish, but seems to ignore them after the "newness" wears off. Sixline wrasse maybe?