Advice on a partial tank reboot

[tc760]

Over Thanksgiving holiday I was out of town for a week and I had somewhat of a crash of my 180g tank for unknown reasons. I did my best to find the source but nearly half my SPS died. Since then it's been a slow decline of everything. This included my motivation to keep a tank. I let things go and ended up losing most of my coral. I still have a few LPS and a decent amount of zoa's.

I have decided not to give up and sell everything. I'm thinking is a partial reboot and was hoping for some input. Much of my rock work is infested with aptasia and vermetid snails. I could probably overcome the aptasia but the vermetid snails have been a loosing battle. I learned to live with them but if I can get rid of them I would be happier.

My display consists of three major rock formations. I removed one that had no corals left alive. It's drying and going into a bleach bath. I am considering doing the same with the other two and maybe changing up the rockscape look. I have a starboard bottom with lots of zoa's on it and several LPS I want to keep.

If I did pull the rocks out and bleach then and do my diligence to make sure they are clean. Would the cycle be bad when I put them back? I would think it wouldn't be to bad since quite a bit of bacteria is still in the tank from the sump and other left over life.

What other concerns should I have? Has anyone done a reboot of their entire rock work successfully?

This seems relatively straightforward but I'm sure it's more complicated.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

boy, if i was in your shoes, i think i would use the opportunity to get rid of those pests! now would be the best time to get a fresh clean start. youll be so happy and have more motivation to continue with doing a complete reboot. nothing drags a tank down like aiptasia and vermitid snails! (and any other pest!!)

 

[PharmrJohn]

Agreed with above. But I'd get a smaller tank and see about maintaining the coral you have if that is a possibility for you. Buy some live rock and live sand for the smaller tank and you'll have little to no cycling issues. Perhaps an ugly phase down the road as the bacterial population decreases naturally without fish, but it shouldn't be that bad. Then do your reboot. It'll give you a chance to do any maintenence on your tank and stand that needs done as well. You could always just bite the bullet and buy enough LR to go into your 180 (and store your cleaned rock) and have a relatively easy time of it, but only if you have money to burn. It would cost a lot. Otherwise, you would have the option to introduce your dry rock to the tank and start with nothing, or cure it first in a Brute trashcan for a few months and turn it into LR on your own. Then pull the trigger from there. You've got a few options to explore! Since you've already got the hardware and the space, it'll be a lot easier than starting from scratch scratch.

 

[tc760]

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm not worried about the dry rock taking a while to color up and go live. More of adverse effects on fish and corals that remain. First time I've tried replacing rock.

 

[tc760]

boy, if i was in your shoes, i think i would use the opportunity to get rid of those pests! now would be the best time to get a fresh clean start. youll be so happy and have more motivation to continue with doing a complete reboot. nothing drags a tank down like aiptasia and vermitid snails! (and any other pest!!)

Thanks. I hear ya. I'm just scared if I fully take it down and clean it all I'll just sell it lol.