GHA Has Destroyed My Passion for the Hobby

[HumuhumuFan]

I spent 3 hours or so rinsing sand. First with cold tap water and then a last rinse in RODI.

This was the view as I was dredging the sand out:

This is how it looked IMMEDIATELY after the sand was back in. To my surprise, underneath the GHA, the chaeto in the in-tank refugium looked healthy so I put it back in. I have it tumbling in there now, but unforunately it keeps getting blown out of the slits in it. I need to glue some mesh in there.

 

[brandon429]

See how your holding tank is so clean it could pass for no water in it

That's perfect!

The display rinse I rate as 85%, it's truly hard to rinse it/ that shows how much waste we store in reefing. Pre verifying the rinse portions in a clear glass before reinstallation helps gage when you're done prep rinsing


It takes hours to prep rinse display sand to match that clarity of the holding tank. I still think it will be ok in a couple hours circulation

I would let it clear out before putting fish and corals back in

The sandbed from a running reef tank is very pent up with waste, that was feeding your gha. It's really good you have a holding tank.

 

[HumuhumuFan]

This is what the tank looks like now. I turned the light on "cleaning" mode.

E: To clarify the timeline: Friday night I did the takedown and scrub. This most recent picture is from 5 minutes ago. That snail is a trooper. He/she survived the rock being dry scrubbed, doused in hydrogen peroxide and salt rinsed. I tried very hard to make sure there were no hitchhikers but fortunately they seem none the worse for wear.

 

[Reefbuds]

You have any turbo snails? What kind of CUC do you have in here. Sorry if i missed it

 

[Eric R.]

Hope things take a turn for the better!

I didn't read the whole thread, but I'll share this here in case it wasn't shared yet. I found this video very useful to fight algae.

 

[HumuhumuFan]

You have any turbo snails? What kind of CUC do you have in here. Sorry if i missed it

I have a trochus, one or two astreas, and found four big nassarius snails when I pulled the sand out. I have a zebra turbo that splits time between the display tank and the frag tank.

 

[HumuhumuFan]

I want to take a moment to thank EVERYONE that offered advice and wisdom in this thread, especially @brandon429 . Hopefully I can build off this fresh start and keep this tank on the right track.

 

[Eric R.]

Also, I find tuxedo urchins make excellent herbivores.

 

[Cyanohater]

Title says it all. I've been in the fish game on and off for about 30 years now. I don't think my morale has ever been this low. I feel like my tanks are just becoming a source of stress in my life. My 20g reef (below) has been up since 2019, my FOWLR has been up since 2015, and I also setup a 20g long frag tank because for a while my montipora and war coral were growing so well I was actually propagating both of them. The Monti still is, but the war coral is not. It's just a continuous cycle of whack-a-mole with which tank has the most runaway GHA problem and then I spend 3 hours+ scurbbing it while I use my old Eheim as a shop-vac. Then it looks nice for a week, rinse, repeat.

I've tried:
PhosphateRX - next morning my previously healthy Yellow Tang was dead.
Vibrant - seemed to make no difference at all
I bought internal refugiums and chaeto - GHA smothered and killed it.

At this point, I think I'm just going to let it run wild, keep the fish healthy, but when they pass away, not replace them and work toward taking the tanks down.

here's what I would do. try not to resort too chemicals. Lower the nitrates and or phosphates (implying a test) do some more water changes. but don't make your water perfect it will bring in dinos, cyano, etc. maintain excess nutrients. then add macros to control those nutrients add macros into refugium if you have one. if not follow a schedule to maintain the tank. add some snails and hermits.

 

[brandon429]

@HumuhumuFan

We're in a power outage it's taking a bit for pics to load on cell signal vs usual home wifi

And I'm so *happy* that display pic above -is- as clear as the holding tank pic!! That initial pic of the display was the cleaning pic, that above also looks so clear it looks empty as the ending progression shot

That's perfect sequences for others to copy


That is skip cycle clean, it will not recycle now.

You're free to use any number of preventative moves now up to and including simply lifting out the rocks (it will no longer cloud when you lift and set them back) for external picking of algae as needed or anything you need to command the system

I can indeed use this in the best of the best thread, really good job, medium jobs I put in the big rip clean thread but this one is so clear, so clear, we can use it as best of the best mode


tomorrow at work I'll copy over those pics and credit you a writeup in the best of seven thread


I was so happy to see that Humu, your progression pics will help others copy rip cleans. Feel free to try any grazers you like etc, don't forget to re ramp the lights a couple days no full power initially

Great job its just what I hoped for

Now that you're in the clean condition you can try macros or algal turf scrubbers or anything you like
Should they not work you've mastered the parachute fix mode that's for sure

 

[brandon429]

Can't wait to see updates with fish and animals all back in

 

[brandon429]

I care greatly about your reefs outcome

Surely today its all strong and good?

 

[brandon429]

Humu we're on the verge of having our next best rip clean example/any chance at pics today of the fully reworked system/we're like 99% of the way there

I'm ready to add it to the best of the best thread with that final pic if possible.

 

[Reefbuds]

I'm actually very curious how this all turned out

 

[brandon429]

Ive been dangling on a cliff for five days but I'm anchored in, eating granola bars for sustenance I can hang on.

just one little final snapshot picture of the fish normal/clean water/happy monti's and we're off and running.

that one pic above is a fine post-work shot but its missing fish and the overall new layout, readers want to see that final big picture.

if it's all crashed and dead, then we can begin tracing out how we got from that partial clean mid work picture to that last pic of laser clear water and cleaned off rocks. I bet it's fine though. usually on crashes they report it immediately, on many fixes we never hear back.

 

[HumuhumuFan]

Sorry about that, had to go out of town for work for the weekend.

Normal lights.

Cleaning lights on.

I can see a few spots of algae returning to spots that are danger-close to the corals. I'll probably pull just those rocks out again this weekend for a follow-up treatment.

Overall though, I'm very happy with the results! Thanks again!

 

[brandon429]

This is going in best of the best very quickly

You did a really really really good job friend. Reef cpr complete

3 different rehab threads i run will see this fine work you've done and more tanks will copy this guaranteed. I'm truly thankful for this work you've done

 

[sfin52]

Very nice

 

[sfin52]

How about a before and after shot. You did a great job

 

[brandon429]

That type of manual guiding is the follow up visits to the dentist. Just 5 min rasping/knife tip scrapes, targeted, to get where it's needed. Getting it all in one pass isn't the requirement. We wouldn't dose meds or mess with the parameters that grew these fine corals... now that your sandbed is clean the very easy removal of rocks and set back in is harmless, no clouding no waste dispersal


Remember to watch out for fish disease imports when experimenting with new clean up crews, they need to be fallow prepped first, save that for later.

it takes all of five to ten mins to lift out a rock, garden it, set it back and continue course. don't feel pressured to immediately resume hands off reefing/acting only through the water, that's not the best way for nanos. this way you just did is the best way: it cannot cause disease, it cannot prevent excellent after pics from showing up immediately after the job is worked. you just de-aged your tank while keeping all the aging in place for corals and rocks...you removed all your waste stores.

those plants have some internal stores they can live on for a while, it's not like they wither and die with a sandbed cleaning but you played the long game here.

**dinos and cyano, which absolutely wreck tanks in the fluconazole threads and in the Nitrate and Phosphate adjustment threads, are not in a position to win here is the 100% bet. you will get no tradeoff invasions. if a little red mat forms a quarter of an inch wide on the sand, perhaps due to nutrients now sloughing off of live rock after it's first dental run, you'd siphon that up in 1/2 a second and make it gone/we would not add chemi clean or resume the hands off mode. easy quick garden guiding for a while, several weeks, then we'll see about suppressive cheats.


I'm so happy for you 100%.