Custom rip clean thread for nanos, top cure for dinos and cyano above any method.

[brandon429]

This is probably my fiftieth rip clean thread, they tend to go out pages and pages of jobs over time. Let’s start a new 2022 one here

reasons rip cleaning is the best option for nanos to rid your tank of cyano and dinos: known fix date and no tradeoff invasions. What do we see in the dinos thread 450+ pages? Dinos tanks changing to gha wrecked tanks and taking six months to become that way. the keeper might possibly lose dinos, but they gain a completely green wrecked tank mostly. Yes I’m aware there are cures among the 450 pages, but that’s a ratio nano reefers don’t have to entertain, large tankers do. Rip cleans have only preserved and saved reefs, we have no deaths or losses in ten years logging them. Ridding a tank of waste + invasion cells is good, not bad, It’s why we collect all the best after pics for everyone in rip clean tanks

rip cleaning is simply taking your tank apart and cleaning it vs listening to the masses and not rip cleaning, while measuring and reacting N and P levels off non digital kits that aren’t accurate when compared to digital kits in myriad posts. Gha erupts from these miscalculations is what I’m finding. As we rip clean invaded reefs here, watch how many just stay clean and don’t have months of toil. We don’t ID anything, we don’t care about your params because they aren’t accurate even when relayed, test kit comparison threads show.


large tanks are too much work for rip cleans, this thread is for easy access nanos. The one reason a nano owner wouldn’t want to rip clean is because it’s a cheat that doesn’t expand the science of invasion suppression in large tanks. If you want to pay your time and money to study that, don’t rip clean. If you master ways to not need rip cleans to fix -others- tanks, then you’ll be saving tons of water and work for the aquarium world. Rip cleans are wasteful of water (because we flush sand until it’s clean this takes hours) and deep cleaning also take a lot of effort.


but if you want your reef fixed right now, today, quit hesitating and let’s Caesar Milan your reef tank, it’s misbehaving and you’ve been allowing that

B

though it will take me a while to build up jobs, what’s coming is hundreds of excellent after pics just like the sand rinse thread shows. We’ll be repeating those exact steps here, for the win

 

[brandon429]

Sadies Biocube 16

www.nano-reef.com

The opening volley double job in one post. if anyone here owns a biocube of any size, and you read page 12 onward, a 10 mins read, you will never own an invaded biocube again nor will your nitrate and phosphate levels ever matter, you can ditch the kits. Its directly on file above, watch it play out over time.


Those two rip cleaners win #1 example on this thread because of their attitude. notice: no passivity is there. all direct battle. zero hesitation.

in the current pre rip clean condition you've been:

allowing a mass to blanket all your surface area and markedly reduce its contact with wastewater. toxins build up in the display, you can see drab corals and no vibrancy when looking at an opening pic of the tank most likely.

look at those after pics, the entire reef is energized.

you've likely been withholding food, that's what folks In GHA and dinos turmoil do. It's harming corals you can see...look at the after pics above. we're triply feeding each tank more than it ever got, because we're invasion free to allow that.


you've likely been stopping water changes, peers say to do that.

A rip clean is the harshest most powerful water change event your reef will ever see. Doing opposite of the masses wins, in nanos we show.

pre rip clean you were likely obsessing over test levels for nitrate and phosphate. watch us never discuss those levels again and they can pack any coral they want inside the biocube and it lives.

its not possible to be more opposite of the common method than what we're about to do here. our results will be shocking, but I have to win over folks in wrecked tank threads slowly over time via private message lol. don't worry, I have some jobs coming up we can paste here.

if you own a wrecked nano reef and want to stop doing that, post here for a 100% free tune up and you'll love the outcome.

 

[Polyp Punk]

Best way to rip clean the sand ?

 

[brandon429]

That link in post #2 is two full jobs back to back in one thread

Post a pic of your tank and we can make a custom job plan here

Per that thread on Sadie's biocube we'd take apart your reef, rinse the sand until it's clear, put it all back laser clear and you'll have very tiny siphon clean up jobs occasionally in order to finally guide out the invasion. We take months of toil and fix it pretty much overnite, we show above.

 

[brandon429]

If you own a nano, the reason this works so well is it’s the only way that instantly robs dinos of community support. Single cells continually prevented from remassing will exhaust ability to command real estate in your tank. We don’t use competition from dosed phytoplankton or pods as the win, we use competition between the tank owner and the dinos for the win. Physically removing their team from the field, before there is a game, works great in small systems where we can clean every nook and cranny.


When allowed to gather, dinos form a phalanx against treatments and partial removal attempts as they adhere in mat groups to avoid redistribution within the tank. A rip cleaned tank can then be fed extremely well to bring corals back, vs months of starvation in an attempt to secondarily starve out dinos

we also control the other side of the equation: dosing nutrients to outcompete dinos by turning the tank into some other invasion challenge. We produce only clean reefs, period.

 

[Polyp Punk]

That link in post #2 is two full jobs back to back in one thread

Post a pic of your tank and we can make a custom job plan here

Per that thread on Sadie's biocube we'd take apart your reef, rinse the sand until it's clear, put it all back laser clear and you'll have very tiny siphon clean up jobs occasionally in order to finally guide out the invasion. We take months of toil and fix it pretty much overnite, we show above.

I’m rinsing the sand with jus regular water right ? I was going to try just the sand first and see

 

[brandon429]

I recommend no customization of the process at all, too risky. If you do the operation in order exactly as shown in the link it's safe, any customization outside of that is a risk. Handling the disassembly process accurately is required for safety.

Let's see a pic of your setup


for example, some folks try and shortcut the process and remove the sand with the tank full, we don’t do that/ not safe. There isn’t really one snippet of the process available to try, it’s a full commit run based on that pre study above. Two fully different reefs ran the method and are underway updating results.


main reason we are so careful: a very small percent of systems have dangerous compounds in the sandbed


most dont, so in tank removal of sand and the clouding it would create wouldn’t hurt. but if we treated every system like that, a few would die occasionally and the tank owners would hate me.


by copying every job the exact same, the outcome from the original rip clean tank (my pico reef) is passed down the line. The results will be endlessly perfect rip cleans right up until someone opts to change the system.

 

[PandorasChalk]

My fish are currently in quarantine due to an ich outbreak and I figured this would be a good time to get rid of the sand dinos I still have in my 14. I’ve wanted to do a re-scape for a while now so I figured a ripclean was in order. I had a few questions:

1) I have beaten 99% of my water borne dinos that stick to rocks/other items. Sometimes a little bit shows up but I siphon out with a baster. Do I need to do anything special with the rock or will a standard scrub in tank water to remove what algae is present and keep wet suffice? I figured I’d store rock in freshly mixed saltwater to help keep what dinos are present away, but feedback would be appreciated.

2) I have new sand that’s never been used I may switch to. If I rinse my current sand in freshwater aggressively for the ripclean, it’s going to wipe the biological system out in it anyways correct? I only ask because I may just use new sand, but still in the air on that one.

 

[brandon429]

thanks for posting. as long as Sadie's job is copied perfectly all rip cleans will have the same outcome as hers/sharp looking. what ranges tank to tank will be the follow up work...some front lawns out there hardly ever get dandelions, and some get them repeatedly where the homeowner is pulling dandelions as weekly maintenance each season. Dinos follow up support will range in that same way, but they exhaust eventually. communal organisms don't do well singularly for extended timeframes, they'll peter out in time with simple hand guiding after a rip clean.


rinse all new sand exactly the same, there is no sand we put back in the tank unrinsed, Sadie shows in a recent update a full tank blot out from adding a small degree of unrinsed sand. The sandbed in a nano reef doesn't have benefit, its a waste catchpoint. just because some incidental worms and bugs live there doesn't make it a beneficial zone for tanks, its a tolerated zone of waste and high organic matter and oxygen command that competes against fish. and for invaded tanks, add in cyano or dinos to the mix within a sandbed. the live rock has all the bugs that will go back down into the newly rinsed sand and rebalance it without all the waste from months prior. as long has her ordered steps are followed all tanks will have the same outcome, we are up to page 51 or so in the big sand rinse thread which is really just eight years of rip cleans in one thread.

 

[GobyGuy]

Cleaning this 5gal pico, tomorrow I'd like to remove the fish & water into a 5 gal bucket, ideally throw the sand away and go sandless, is that okay? and then clean the rocks - do I need to keep the filters in the tank with the submersible pump? I've read that new reef science kinda kills filter effectivity

 

[brandon429]

I’m 100% sure the system will be fine on rocks alone, that’s a low bioload tank with decent rock volume. You can go instantly bare bottom with no issues. Even the filter media isn’t required. It’s a rumor in reefing we require the filters to avoid a crash, not true. All media is expendable in any reef here on the site. there is no reef on this entire site that will crash if you pulled off the filter plus the sand, everyone has sufficient live rock.

thanks for posting! Now we can get some before and after momentum. Nothing can beat the turnaround picture that will follow a complete take down rip clean, rocks rinsed in saltwater, and all your sand gone and the tank wiped down with vinegar as bare glass inside and out, perfectly clean and dry like new glass.

reassemble with rocks and all new water matching salinity and temp to old water, put animals back, post the after pic!

 

[brandon429]

After your tank is reassembled 100% clean we watch for any growback.

When new spots begin we use a siphon hose to instantly remove them at the size of a dime, no larger permitted

And as another week goes by if you notice the growback is stronger than normal we can easily dose some peroxide to knock it back, all done in the clean condition as the key

Other systems have you work backwards from an invaded tank and do things to the water to hopefully clean it out, that takes weeks if ever to complete

We always work from the clean condition and nothing is used to keep a clean tank other than direct physical removal of any regrowths

 

[GobyGuy]

After your tank is reassembled 100% clean we watch for any growback.

When new spots begin we use a siphon hose to instantly remove them at the size of a dime, no larger permitted

And as another week goes by if you notice the growback is stronger than normal we can easily dose some peroxide to knock it back, all done in the clean condition as the key

Other systems have you work backwards from an invaded tank and do things to the water to hopefully clean it out, that takes weeks if ever to complete

We always work from the clean condition and nothing is used to keep a clean tank other than direct physical removal of any regrowths

Post Rip Clean:

Kept the sand, but rinsed the absolute crap out of it, thought it was done then went back to more rinsing.

Are we hoping the algae and cyano on the corals just dies off?
I cleaned and kept one HOB filter for carbon/floss along with the small submersible that might be visible in the pics

 

[brandon429]

You did a good job that rocks! I'm happy to have that as the first run. I'm very happy to have that as first before and after set.

Now you're free to hand guide as needed and no upwelling of waste happens

What do we see in 80% of non dinos threads: trades off dinos for GHA for another six months. Your tank isn't primed for either, it's primed for clean now

I was hoping you'd put back sand at after work when I was leaving we had sent the message about dipping corals and I was thinking: surely if he keeps sand he'll blast clean it. Dang it i forgot in that thread to mention its a federal crime to under rinse sand in the United States I've left the door open to misunderstanding lol

You rinsed it fifty times I can see

perfection

 

[brandon429]

If you'd like to lift out corals and potentially wash them off externally, set them back that's ideal

Let's see what areas try to growback before we move into booster tools like peroxide.

Your tank is now aligned such that if you wanted to increase direct feed of corals to allow more mass, the system crevices are clean now and can take the new waste
If we add extra food to the pre rip clean tank it goes downhill faster. Rip cleaning is a visit to the reef dentist and the reef mouth gets scraped, poked, rasped and rinsed and put back squeaky clean

You used no bottle bac!! This supports universal rules on cycle control biology. I could not be happier

 

[GobyGuy]

If you'd like to lift out corals and potentially wash them off externally, set them back that's ideal

Let's see what areas try to growback before we move into booster tools like peroxide.

Your tank is now aligned such that if you wanted to increase direct feed of corals to allow more mass, the system crevices are clean now and can take the new waste
If we add extra food to the pre rip clean tank it goes downhill faster. Rip cleaning is a visit to the reef dentist and the reef mouth gets scraped, poked, rasped and rinsed and put back squeaky clean

You used no bottle bac!! This supports universal rules on cycle control biology. I could not be happier

Thank you for the assistance! Would it be wise to wash them off in peroxide or maybe wash them off in RO water? Also is there a thread or link to hand guiding examples?

 

[brandon429]

It’s mainly external spot detailing.


if any frags or rocks have whiskers of anchored algae, the kind that can spread and pop up and last months in invasion threads, you’ll take a steak knife tip and precision debride it all out like you are scraping off plaque

dig into the rock/anchor point with the precision knife tip and drag out that algae, making the area clean with scrapes and saltwater rinses

this precision outside the tank sitting on the counter lets you be exacting, never scraping coral flesh like a dentist exacts around your teeth and doesn’t scrape gums. Precision crevice work

if cyano, simply swish roughly in saltwater and lightly brush off any attachments, apply peroxide to skeletal areas that have no flesh.

see how opposite we are so far: nobody asked about params, your water is clean we already know them, they’re the params of clean new saltwater lol.

all other threads we’ve discussed phosphate and ammonia twenty times while the tank remains invaded

the goal of this clean condition you created is to allow full access to target hand removal and absolute control over the tank without the work causing upwelling clouds of waste.

if you have to reach in and pull some coral frags or rocks out to detail, setting them back and adjusting them isn’t going to cast around waste


if you decide in a few days to touch up change 30% for any reason, if you saw some cloudiness etc then when you pour in new water its clean when it hits the tank vs mixing up tons of waste and invader mass…you also just opened up ALL your rock surface area to contact wastewater and do the job of oxidizing waste ammonia better than before.

the live rocks will now begin to expel tiny waste pellets pent up in them for a while, no joke detritus is produced by live rock


you’ll be cleaning that up in spot siphon runs / busy time for a few weeks


the condition in reefing of sit back, let it ride un checked is something we earn back after weeks of this feeding plus water change plus export work…this puts mass on your corals vs all other threads where leaving invasions in place and restricting food and never changing water is how they react to invasions.


the repeat act of minor water change, spot clean up, detail one frag externally in catch up, spot feed corals repeated over and over for two months is a form of reef tank cpr that directly builds coral mass. It’s a literal exercise program for reefs. To make it work you must pass more gallons of water through the reef than normal, exceed steady state, and you use that to keep clean un degraded protein feed in the water right before the repeat water change which carries the protein back out before it rots in your tank to feed algae. Corals are scraping it up the whole time, very slowly, it’ll take two mos to see any benefits


you can’t do too many, it’s cpr pumps.

it doesn’t last forever, just a few weeks to fatten up.



we are always trained to leave reefs stagnant. watch how well reefs will react to the opposite: a high protein input high throughput system design for eight weeks. Your corals will beef up. Your tank will not be invaded it will be compliant and jacked.

 

[GobyGuy]

It’s mainly external spot detailing.


if any frags or rocks have whiskers of anchored algae, the kind that can spread and pop up and last months in invasion threads, you’ll take a steak knife tip and precision debride it all out like you are scraping off plaque

dig into the rock/anchor point with the precision knife tip and drag out that algae, making the area clean with scrapes and saltwater rinses

this precision outside the tank sitting on the counter lets you be exacting, never scraping coral flesh like a dentist exacts around your teeth and doesn’t scrape gums. Precision crevice work

if cyano, simply swish roughly in saltwater and lightly brush off any attachments, apply peroxide to skeletal areas that have no flesh.

see how opposite we are so far: nobody asked about params, your water is clean we already know them, they’re the params of clean new saltwater lol.

all other threads we’ve discussed phosphate and ammonia twenty times while the tank remains invaded

the goal of this clean condition you created is to allow full access to target hand removal and absolute control over the tank without the work causing upwelling clouds of waste.

if you have to reach in and pull some coral frags or rocks out to detail, setting them back and adjusting them isn’t going to cast around waste


if you decide in a few days to touch up change 30% for any reason, if you saw some cloudiness etc then when you pour in new water its clean when it hits the tank vs mixing up tons of waste and invader mass…you also just opened up ALL your rock surface area to contact wastewater and do the job of oxidizing waste ammonia better than before.

the live rocks will now begin to expel tiny waste pellets pent up in them for a while, no joke detritus is produced by live rock


you’ll be cleaning that up in spot siphon runs / busy time for a few weeks


the condition in reefing of sit back, let it ride un checked is something we earn back after weeks of this feeding plus water change plus export work…this puts mass on your corals vs all other threads where leaving invasions in place and restricting food and never changing water is how they react to invasions.


the repeat act of minor water change, spot clean up, detail one frag externally in catch up, spot feed corals repeated over and over for two months is a form of reef tank cpr that directly builds coral mass. It’s a literal exercise program for reefs. To make it work you must pass more gallons of water through the reef than normal, exceed steady state, and you use that to keep clean un degraded protein feed in the water right before the repeat water change which carries the protein back out before it rots in your tank to feed algae. Corals are scraping it up the whole time, very slowly, it’ll take two mos to see any benefits


you can’t do too many, it’s cpr pumps.

it doesn’t last forever, just a few weeks to fatten up.



we are always trained to leave reefs stagnant. watch how well reefs will react to the opposite: a high protein input high throughput system design for eight weeks. Your corals will beef up. Your tank will not be invaded it will be compliant and jacked.

I guess it’s been long enough to qualify as after pics. Seems to be either spirulina or cyano growing on the rock, the little bit I am actually able to scrape off the rocks doesn’t turn peroxide water pink however it’s barely any algae to test, should I dose Peroxide anyways?

 

[brandon429]

Perfect. Now it's time to simply lift out the rocks, guide the removal externally, and set back without any growth. It's opposite of the common way: allow all growback and do things to the water... we are opposite and in that control your tank won't ever be invaded again. That's quite a good rip clean you did to sustain this well, many aggressive invasions would have already required double cleaning for catchup.

Many times, the invasion subsides off a few manual siphon/ cleanup runs. Looking sharp for sure

Nobody really knows what it takes to stop growback, feel free to experiment with different ideas.

Knowing how to stop regrowth has nothing to do with owning a perfect- looking reef that's the fun part. We have to get lucky to be able to stop regrowth work, but owning a clean tank has nothing to do with luck/ you just took direct control over that tank very well.

 

[mje113]

Ok this is a really exciting thread to come upon as I've been thinking about doing something similar to my tank.

While I do have some cyano and dynos for the past couple weeks, my main motivations in doing something similar to a rip clean is:

1. I hate my sand bed. I wanted Fiji pink but couldn't find it locally and was impatient. I'd start with fresh bagged sand if I did this.
2. I hate my rock work. Too much rock and too big for a 13g. I was contemplating ways I could remove some rock and break it up and re-scape.
3. Bonus: get rid of some of my unwanted hitchhikers. I have a mantis shrimp, at least two giant brittle stars, and unknown number of giant bristle worms I'd love to get rid of. I've tried trapping with no success yet.

I think I could achieve at least the first 2 of those and get rid of my algae issues doing a rip clean. But, I have so many questions. I'll try to keep them organized but hoping I can get them answered:

1. Is the general idea to syphon out tank water to a couple buckets to house rock/coral and fish? In Sadie's thread she said she had mixed up fresh water but I couldn't tell if that was for housing the livestock during the process or for refilling the tank in the end.
2. In any of the transfer scenarios I can think of there has to be at least one time the stock is going from tank water to fresh, so any need to acclimate in those cases or just plunk rock/corals in?
3. Catching my 3 fish would be my biggest issue, last time I transferred I almost lost my filefish to the carpet. I was wondering if it would be possible to leave them in the tank, but try to syphon out sand underneath them?
4. Hitchhickers: How feasible would it be to add something like DipX to the rock bucket before returning them to the tank to try to drive out some of the unwanted pests?