I've beaten GHA/cyano (I think). Now what?

[KevBar]

Hi everyone,

I recently posted about my GHA problems, and thanks to @brandon429 (and some inspiration from @WVU247), it looks like I got everything under control.

TL/DR:

• I siphoned out all gravel, washed until clean, and replaced
• I scrubbed every bit of GHA off the rocks with a grill brush and replaced
• But it took two tries. After the first, unsuccessful, cleaning, I lost ~80% of my zenias, all of my snails, all of my fish, and my one lonely cleaner shrimp
• Before/middle/after pics below

So now I have what appears to be a healthy, happy tank with some basic corals (duncan, paly, GSP, zenia) and a handful of hermit crabs. I'm not letting my guard down, but I think I've put this bit behind me.

Now I have new questions - all help is welcome and appreciated!

• How do I prevent the same kind of build-up of crap in my gravel? There's clearly some part of basic maintenance that I've been missing. Does one need to vacuum it all up regularly? That seems like a major hassle.
• What should I look out for before replacing livestock? I test for Nitrates, Phosphates, and Ph. Should I be testing for something else?
• I don't currently have any cleaner snails. Should I replace these with some urgency?
• When the GHA was at massive proportions, I stopped feeding my corals separately. Just fed the fish a small amount of mysis twice a day. Should I start feeding the corals now that there isn't much for them to eat in the water column?

Details and photos: 32 gallon bio cube, with some modifications. Large sponge in back sump for physical filtration. Protein skimmer. Chemi Pure and Purigen. Very basic LED lighting. Running for approx 3 years.

BEFORE - Here you can see some of the GHA, but there was much, much more. There were also lots of little caves/coves where the flow was awful.

AFTER - full tank shot

AFTER - happy paly and GSP

AFTER - happy duncan

 

[brandon429]

Ok team given the current reset / clean slate what’s a solid direction to head


what are ways to avoid having to deep clean a nano reef

 

[brandon429]

That is one mighty clean palette above. Plus it has worlds most dangerous coral heck that is a fine reef, aged yet laser clean.

 

[KevBar]

Thanks @brandon429 . Another question has also occurred to me. As you can see, I am only using the return pump that comes with the biocube. Should I invest in something else to encourage more complex/greater flow? Some kind of wavemaker (a relatively low-powered one given that I've mostly got LPS in the tank).

I partly ask because just now I blew out the rocks and around the corals, and there was a fair amount of detritus in all the nooks and crannies.

If I don't need to buy more toys, just blow everything out on a daily basis, I can do that. But I'd prefer to do what's right for the creatures I'm taking care of.

 

[brandon429]

I cannot cure detritus accumulation in mine via current changes, going off corals above it’s perfect already. Manual cleaning occasionally is all I know