Feeling defeated... How do I start over?

[duberii]

Not too long ago, my tank crashed- it now only hosts my fish, some inverts, and some bulletproof corals like xenia and mushrooms. The rock is coated with bubble algae and the bubble algae is grown over with cyano. I lost all my stony corals, so needless to say I'm feeling discouraged. This morning when I fed my fish, I found several polyclad worms eating leftover food. At this point, I think I'm ready to start over, but I have no clue how I'd even do so. Polyclad eggs could be anywhere, and reusing the rock and the sand could reintroduce the bubble algae or the polyclad worms, which would be a nightmare. Is treating the rock/sand even an option? Is it even worth it? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated- I am totally lost in how/if to continue or to just give up on this tank.

 

[homer1475]

If you want to start completely over.....

I would soak the rock in muratic acid, followed by several soaks in RO/DI, then start over. Sand I would throw in the trash and start new.

That would only be an option if you have somewhere to house the current inhabitants.

 

[duberii]

If you want to start completely over.....

I would soak the rock in muratic acid, followed by several soaks in RO/DI, then start over. Sand I would throw in the trash and start new.

That would only be an option if you have somewhere to house the current inhabitants.

Unfortunately I don't have anywhere to house them- I guess that leaves the only option as giving livestock away?

 

[LuizW13]

Don't beat yourself over that.

Here's what I would do:

A few large water changes to get the chemistry in somewhat of a balance. In my experience, Cyano comes around when I have too much Phosphate and too little Nitrates. If a week after the water changes and 'cleaning' up the water, the cyano is still there, treat it with ChemiClean.
Be careful not too bottom out the nutrients though- or you risk Dinos.

For the bubble algae, I'm fighting that too, it was so bad that mostly every rock surface was covered. If you can remove the rock to scrub and remove the bubble algae in a bucket, that would ideal. Try to get as much of the bubble algae out of the system; you'd be surprised how fast they grow back.
No amount of emerald crabs would fight my bubble algae infestation, and since my tank is too small for fish that will eat them, i resorted to using Vibrant (for reef aquariums). I just started my first dose less than two weeks ago, so I haven't seen any difference yet.

I think you can manage this quite easily.

I don't know about the worms though- I don't have experience with that. Maybe a Wrasse?

 

[homer1475]

If completely starting over isn't an option as you noted(no place to house current livestock), the vibrant will 100% eradicate the bubble algae. It just takes time. There are a few bottled products to deal with flatworms too. Theres no "need" to start completely over. Heck even a ripclean(que @brandon429 ) would help immensely.

Think of it this way....

It didn't take overnight to get like this, it will take longer then overnight to fix it. If anything in this hobby, you will learn patience.

 

[duberii]

Don't beat yourself over that.

Here's what I would do:

A few large water changes to get the chemistry in somewhat of a balance. In my experience, Cyano comes around when I have too much Phosphate and too little Nitrates. If a week after the water changes and 'cleaning' up the water, the cyano is still there, treat it with ChemiClean.
Be careful not too bottom out the nutrients though- or you risk Dinos.

For the bubble algae, I'm fighting that too, it was so bad that mostly every rock surface was covered. If you can remove the rock to scrub and remove the bubble algae in a bucket, that would ideal. Try to get as much of the bubble algae out of the system; you'd be surprised how fast they grow back.
No amount of emerald crabs would fight my bubble algae infestation, and since my tank is too small for fish that will eat them, i resorted to using Vibrant (for reef aquariums). I just started my first dose less than two weeks ago, so I haven't seen any difference yet.

I think you can manage this quite easily.

The crash was actually a result of bottoming out nutrients I think. I put a deep sandbed in my sump and I think it was too effective at removing nutrients, to the point where I was dumping Nitrate and Phosphate supplements in and the tests would still read 0ppm of both. I played around with ratios to no avail. I have a few emerald crabs in there, but the volume of bubble algae is way beyond what any number of emerald crabs could ever tackle. I will try to do large water changes, but I think the only benefit will be getting the cyano and the bubble algae out of the system, and not necessarily fixing any root issues

I am already in the process of slowly removing the DSB to avoid poisoning the whole tank, but that's just gonna leave me with buckets of sand that I have pretty much nothing to do with. That's why I was hoping treating the sand/rock was an option. I do have some vibrant, so that is certainly worth a shot.

 

[MaxTremors]

What kind of polyclad worms are we talking about? Are they the big ‘leopard’ variety or are they something else. Either way, some flat worm exit should do the trick, just make sure to follow the directions exactly. As far as the Valonia, just pull them out, try not to pop them, but if some pop it’s not a big deal (what do you think an emerald crab does when it eats them?), also try an emerald crab. For the cyano, work on getting your nutrients in balance. I don’t think your tank is beyond saving, it’s just going to take some persistence.

 

[duberii]

If completely starting over isn't an option as you noted(no place to house current livestock), the vibrant will 100% eradicate the bubble algae. It just takes time. There are a few bottled products to deal with flatworms too. Theres no "need" to start completely over. Heck even a ripclean(que @brandon429 ) would help immensely.

Think of it this way....

It didn't take overnight to get like this, it will take longer then overnight to fix it. If anything in this hobby, you will learn patience.

Thank you for the encouragement- I feel pretty hopeless because I felt like I was managing the issue by removing the sand in my DSB that I thought caused the crash, but then I found the polyclad worms which was the straw that broke the camel's back. I have read that products like Flatworm exit don't help with polyclad infections, but I'll do some more research into that.

 

[homer1475]

Rinse the snot out of the sand, and slowly replace the sand in the display.

It's called a ripclean, and @brandon429 is the expert on it. I've done it when I recently had to take my display down for 3 days while they installed new floors. A basic ripclean, and reset of my tank.

 

[homer1475]

God I can't believe I'm calling brandon an expert. Wheres the facepalm emoji?

 

[duberii]

Here's the best picture I can get at the time- I haven't found any bigger than the size of a quarter- they are about the length of a quarter, but much slimmer. I don't have any clams in the tank (besides misc bivalves, but I can see one and it has been alive even through the tank crash so it's unlikely that they feed on those). I do have some snails, which they could be feeding on. I also had a Euphyllia that they could've eaten, though it also could have just died in the tank crash, so I'm not entirely sure what they eat.

 

[duberii]

I'm actually familiar with Brandon's advocacy and he advised me through another tank situation, so I could certainly repeat that process.

 

[homer1475]

Usually larger ones like that are euphyillia eating flatworms. Heres one I found in my tank one morning...

This suckers about the size of a dinner plate!

 

[duberii]

Usually larger ones like that are euphyillia eating flatworms. Heres one I found in my tank one morning...

This suckers about the size of a dinner plate!

Wow! I have never seen one that big. Does that mean that these are not euphyllia eating ones, or could they be baby ones? If they are baby euphyllia eating ones, that's a bit of a relief, since they ate my last euphyllia, but I'm not a fan of any other possibilities

 

[homer1475]

No idea how big they can get, but when I did a little light research, I found that typically the larger ones are euphyllia eating ones. I lost all my euphyllia slowly over the course of a couple months, could never figure out what caused it. Then once they were gone for a while, I woke up one morning to find that on my glass.

Never knew it was in there until that morning, and I wake up early every morning(3am) for work and look into the tank.