I'm finally back and.... I have a confession...

Bryce M.

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It's been a very long time since I've been on this forum, don't even know if anyone remembers me. Look I'll cut to the chase, I've been a bad reef keeper, I've only been doing the necessities and things have gone bad... I've had a 150 upgrade tank in the garage for a while now and I've been rushing to get it done to get rid of this mess.
I need help, I want to deep clean it this weekend.
So first all, everything is covered in a huge amount of hair algae, diatoms coat the glass and detritus covers under the rocks. I've been buying new clean ups and it's helped a little but I need to physically do something. I've tried using media to get the nitriate down but it doesn't seem to work, I don't even know where it is coming from, all fish and coral seem fine (other than the algae) so it's not effecting them YET. I can post pictures but it's so embarrassing to say or even show honestly. But it won't be fixed if I just keep hiding it.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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N.Sreefer thank you so much for that mention what a nice addition for the day, a handy fun tuneup run u know I like em remote pilot rips


:)

and it’s also to keep patterning out what bacteria do, and tolerate as that’s a hot discernment in today’s posts


everyone wants to know what the boundaries are and cleanup jobs are handy tests because the whole goal is undoing eutrophication while preserving 100% fish carry ability so the reset tank carries all intended loading on the exact date Bryce wants it ready. bottle bac purchase not required, it’s all a bunch of tap water and free hard work science


Bryce I’ve been carving up this one thread with the top five rip cleans I’ve seen among one thousand. One post shows five different reefs angling total cleanliness in one day. Next day is the reef they wanted, pls consider the method we think it’s best reef turnabout possible


Bryce if you want to post the before shots here in your thread we can see if any standout details emerge or if you’d prefer to direct message them that’s fine too but I’ll tell you this, the after pics are going to shine so nobody will care about the befores


the rougher it looks now the better that’ll contrast when the whirlwind subsides.


that thread above is top prep study #1 it covers all angles

simply cleaning that deep, prepping rocks that way that harshly, didn’t recycle any reef that’s the irony. Bacteria are so well adhered, that craziness never unsticks them in all the work examples we collect for years running. Bacteria are mad tough

and to show 33 pages of friends some with even worse growths all willing to rip snip rip the reefs clean we have these happy campers


we love wrecked reef turnarounds it’s the best of reality shows. There are only two criminal outcomes one must prevent


1. buying bottle bac out of fear or just in case. Trust the bacteria, rip the reef clean by force but careful forceful order of ops shown. The cleaned surfaces still have enough bacteria, and everyone on the planet tries to sell us bottle bac for every move we are being over capitalized with it

2. under rinsing of sand is the crime of the century. All anger and payments due are taken out on the sandbed, it gets our tap water scorn. It’ll all make sense in the top thread. Thumb through the bottom one to see the sharp before and after pics
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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its ok to add those items Dr Z we just like to do it in the clean condition vs invaded high mass condition

using those approaches as growback prevention is ideal.

many items like fluconazole and Vibrant can kill algae and cyano but they tend to sink out as rotting mass, above we are forcing the oligotrophic condition by force, then coaxing out a prevention hopefully so no follow up rips are needed. This all in one surgery is just about immune to tradeoff invasions such as curing GHA with a doser, then getting weeks of cyano…this instates compliance first and without further delay. Sometimes folks don’t even put the sand back for a while, they stagger out the sand re addition to ensure cases like bad dinos battles can be won before adding back their fav hiding place


before pics help spot small planning details.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Also in agreement Dr. Z if the system wasn’t all that bad to begin with those are fine to use to hopefully avoid needing disassembly cleaning, its a TON of work and water rinse gallons down the drain
 

BeltedCoyote

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Couple questions before we commit to extreme solutions.

how did you start this tank? Marco, caribsea, aquaculture?

where does your system seem to settle with regards to nutrients? You haven’t mentioned any parameters. I’m not saying chase numbers…but context matters, if nothing else

what does your feeding regimen look like?

heck, what are your nutrient export methods looking like?

also, share some pictures.

it may be the quickest fix is to rip clean and start over. But if you can’t answer the questions above, it just might be that we can figure this out without completely restarting.
 

brandon429

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A restart is new rocks, new sand, new cycle.

what a rip clean is / is your reef minus all invasion minus all waste. You directly misrepresent the six hundred jobs above who were all positive happy and had all the same original scape items.


so it’s specifically not a start over, its a mere export run with no bad outcomes on file.
 

brandon429

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Bryce if you have any remaining questions we can move to message to avoid 100% of arguments. Your reef will be ready as soon as you command that condition. See u in chat if needed
B


also, for patterning fifty more pages of instant fixes that took no delay


no bottle bac allowed

all sandbeds controlled


all entrants happy, same animals back in system. no new cycle. Waste free tanks.

we have three more big works if needed. One hundred pages of before and afters is plenty good tho


the reason hundreds of people chose rip cleans over philosophy: after pics for rolls and years. Six or so of those jobs will match yours, and you can see it’s future trending before you begin.
 
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brandon429

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One reason we clean first, analyze topoff water quality and tank params in the clean condition, is because the animals want clean water now vs next month

dying invader cells, the goal of any adjustments that would take the place of physical work, chemically soup the setup. Rip cleaned tanks are vibrant with corals wide open on each page, hungry, we can double feed rip cleaned systems making use of zero mass waste

this turnaround process works ok if done slowly for a light cyano invasion for example / agreed it’s not worth the work to rip clean for every minor malady

your description though held some core markers I thought sounded like only a locomotive procedure could provide the wanted results. By Thursday, if desired :)

we are big into naming compliance dates. One of the downsides of the non rip clean no work thread option is the perpetually open-ended fix date. Hopefully by December but maybe into 2022 just ain’t good enough for some.
 

davidcalgary29

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Phyto dosing: April 1 to August 1

78FFBF12-7E7D-42BE-B1A6-00778E3BD1AF.jpeg F53FEF60-7B38-414B-A4F6-1DEBF9EA78A1.jpeg
 

brandon429

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The catch is: repeat that outcome six times in others tanks, log the fix pattern, very nice fix.

ive never seen phyto dosing undo eutrophication before in others tanks, not one time ever but thats sharp for sure.

try to link fixes as others tanks vs our tank, it’s so hard to be able to build patterns in others reefs because they run variables differently than we do as artists at home, but where possible that’s an ideal outcome for a four month wait for sure.

irony= phyto dosing has caused the before pics in pattern before, gotta love outlier runs for sure that looks rip cleaned it’s so clear
 

brandon429

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Bryce I honestly think you should test that above for patterning. Get some phyto, begin dosing it and by valentines if you get a reef that clean I’ll link it in a rip clean thread as a work saving alternative

heck if adding phytoplankton can save the need for fluconazole and vibrant someone ought to be able to build a massive work thread off it, fluc work threads number in the hundreds of pages all with clearance patterns others have no problem attaining.
 

brandon429

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phyto plus urchin plus / tbd

when fixes are built in others tanks we get the whole pie. They disclose all the total actions ran, and what they post the most is when something doesn’t work you can bet that for sure
 

DrZoidburg

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Pretty interesting link about the urchins. Shows they have good taste. I'm pretty sure if their favorite food wasn't there they would settle for less. Eating 24/7 some of them.
 

davidcalgary29

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phyto plus urchin plus / tbd

when fixes are built in others tanks we get the whole pie. They disclose all the total actions ran, and what they post the most is when something doesn’t work you can bet that for sure
That's exactly what I did in mine: I added a tuxedo urchin, dosed phyto (every few days, with live culture), and didn't harvest the halymenia out of the tank. I think that the macro and the phyto began to outcompete the GHA, allowing the inverts to clean it up. My trochus snails hadn't really started to breed in the way that they are now, so the CUC consisted of one urchin, a Hallowe'en hermit, and two or three trochus snails.

I had also tried Vibrant, but saw no different in the algal coverage and stopped it a few weeks before picture 1, as I wanted to cultivate macro.
 
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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