Firstly I want to thank @brandon429 for his help and guidance on this RIP on my Red Sea Reefer 250 - first class advice my man!
So you could see what I was dealing with; horrendous black slime that kept returning within 12-24 hours, I was at my wits end with it. That’s when I found this forum and the legendary advice from Brandon - he knows his stuff!
I started by draining the top 100 litres into water containers and put them to one side, at this point the tank was two thirds empty
I partially filled some fish boxes with tank water ready for removal from the system ensuring that I had everything on hand to start cleaning straight away - minimal delays meaning minimal stress on fish and corals alike
Carefully I removed corals still on plugs and then the rocks ready for cleaning. I made sure all corals and inverts were submerged and worked quickly to minimise temperature variations.
The fish and shrimp were rounded up and housed in my ATO (filled with saltwater obviously) and covered with a towel to prevent any carpet surfing.
So then I’m faced with this; a bare tank full of dirty algae/Cyano filled coral sand - I used a piece of half inch symphony tube to remove 99% of the offending crud. dang I was disgusted by how filthy it was considering I vacuum cleaned it every few days!
I scrubbed the whole interior of the tank with a scourer pad and 3% perx paying particular attention to the corners and back wall and all the sealant lines. This was rinsed in RO and cleaned until dry.
At this point I put the 100 litres drained at the start back in together with the fish, inverts and CUC. dang did they look confused!!!
Turning my attention to the rocks I scrubbed and cleaned them to within an inch of their lives - they were rinsed in RO. Again I was shocked at how much crap and detritus came out of them but much to my amazement in among the crap was a quantity of ‘pods - awesome!
They were carefully placed back and rearranged in a new layout. Corals and plugs were cleaned and dipped before being replaced also. Salt Water was topped up from my 150 litre bin in the garage kept at the same temp and salinity as my tank using Instant Ocean salt. Almost straight away a lot of the corals opened setting me at ease - it was a tense time ripping your beloved tank to pieces based on the advice of someone you’ve never spoken to before on a forum you’ve only just found!
Pumps and wave makers were switched back on and I think the following pictures say it all - pristine tank with very little chance of a recurrence of the algae/Cyano bloom ever happening again.
Thanks again @brandon429 and thanks reef2reef community!
So you could see what I was dealing with; horrendous black slime that kept returning within 12-24 hours, I was at my wits end with it. That’s when I found this forum and the legendary advice from Brandon - he knows his stuff!
I started by draining the top 100 litres into water containers and put them to one side, at this point the tank was two thirds empty
I partially filled some fish boxes with tank water ready for removal from the system ensuring that I had everything on hand to start cleaning straight away - minimal delays meaning minimal stress on fish and corals alike
Carefully I removed corals still on plugs and then the rocks ready for cleaning. I made sure all corals and inverts were submerged and worked quickly to minimise temperature variations.
The fish and shrimp were rounded up and housed in my ATO (filled with saltwater obviously) and covered with a towel to prevent any carpet surfing.
So then I’m faced with this; a bare tank full of dirty algae/Cyano filled coral sand - I used a piece of half inch symphony tube to remove 99% of the offending crud. dang I was disgusted by how filthy it was considering I vacuum cleaned it every few days!
I scrubbed the whole interior of the tank with a scourer pad and 3% perx paying particular attention to the corners and back wall and all the sealant lines. This was rinsed in RO and cleaned until dry.
At this point I put the 100 litres drained at the start back in together with the fish, inverts and CUC. dang did they look confused!!!
Turning my attention to the rocks I scrubbed and cleaned them to within an inch of their lives - they were rinsed in RO. Again I was shocked at how much crap and detritus came out of them but much to my amazement in among the crap was a quantity of ‘pods - awesome!
They were carefully placed back and rearranged in a new layout. Corals and plugs were cleaned and dipped before being replaced also. Salt Water was topped up from my 150 litre bin in the garage kept at the same temp and salinity as my tank using Instant Ocean salt. Almost straight away a lot of the corals opened setting me at ease - it was a tense time ripping your beloved tank to pieces based on the advice of someone you’ve never spoken to before on a forum you’ve only just found!
Pumps and wave makers were switched back on and I think the following pictures say it all - pristine tank with very little chance of a recurrence of the algae/Cyano bloom ever happening again.
Thanks again @brandon429 and thanks reef2reef community!
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