Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

[brandon429]

At work w be a little bit, sure is fun planning. In between jobs at work I'm running through various scenarios for these transfers then updating, very fun. I want an app to do this full time, no joke.

Let's call it reef 911

 

[DonJuanAntwon]

@brandon429

I’ve been reading your posts over the years and have enjoyed your insight on this process. I’m ready to take the plunge to rip clean my tank. I’ve had battles with bubble algae that I’ve used emerald crabs to keep it away. I have a 25 gallon waterbox peninsula AIO. It’s a 2.5 year old tank and finally I just want it get rid of the sand bed as well. It’s an overstocked tank with high nutrients (nitrates 50 and phosphate1).

Below is my barebones tentative plan.

1. Prep 25 gallons saltwater same temp and salinity as current tank and set aside

2. Remove skimmer, Powerhead, fleece roller, return pump, and all other equipment for deep cleaning.

3. Drain 15 gallons into three 5 gallon buckets. After top 15 gallons drained. Try to grab all livestock. Have one bucket for fish (2 clowns, royal gramma, mandarin goby, fire fish) and inverts/CUC (skunk shrimp, tiger conch, snails, emerald crabs). Have heater and aerator in bucket.

Remove all rocks with corals and place in the other two 5 gallon buckets.


4. Remove remaining salt water from tank and remove all sand (toss all sand as I want to transition to bare bottom tank.

5. Remove tank from stand and take outside with hose water to clean inside and AIO rear chambers. Wipe clean/dry. Replace tank on stand.

7. Clean live rock in buckets they’re being held in.

8. Place all rock back into tank.

9. Fill tank with previous made 25 gallons fresh saltwater at same temp and salty as before. Put in cuc followed by fish.

10. Reduce my lighting schedule

I’m trying to make sure I don’t stir anything while fish or inverts are in the tank. Is there more I need to be aware of for the transition to bare bottom? Thank you for all your help!

 

[oldmonk]

@brandon429
No worries take yr time, even i am in the planning , listing out things stage.

This change is around April. Being a sailor , i am at sea currently.

Thanks.

 

[DonJuanAntwon]

@brandon429

I’ve been reading your posts over the years and have enjoyed your insight on this process. I’m ready to take the plunge to rip clean my tank. I’ve had battles with bubble algae that I’ve used emerald crabs to keep it away. I have a 25 gallon waterbox peninsula AIO. It’s a 2.5 year old tank and finally I just want it get rid of the sand bed as well. It’s an overstocked tank with high nutrients (nitrates 50 and phosphate1).

Below is my barebones tentative plan.

1. Prep 25 gallons saltwater same temp and salinity as current tank and set aside

2. Remove skimmer, Powerhead, fleece roller, return pump, and all other equipment for deep cleaning.

3. Drain 15 gallons into three 5 gallon buckets. After too 15 gallons drained. Try to grab all livestock. Have one bucket for fish (2 clowns, royal gramma, mandarin goby, fire fish) and inverts/CUC (skunk shrimp, tiger conch, snails, emerald crabs). Have heater and aerator in bucket.

Remove all rocks with corals and place in the other two 5 gallon buckets.


4. Remove remaining salt water from tank and remove all sand (toss all sand as I want to transition to bare bottom tank.

5. Remove tank from stand and take outside with hose water to clean inside and AIO rear chambers. Wipe clean/dry. Replace tank on stand.

7. Clean live rock in buckets they’re being held in.

8. Place all rock back into tank.

9. Fill tank with previous made 25 gallons fresh saltwater at same temp and salty as before. Put in cuc followed by fish.

10. Reduce my lighting schedule

M trying to make sure I don’t store anything will fish or inverts are in the tank. Is there more I need to be aware of for the transition to bare bottom? Thank you for all your help!

Here are photos of the tank.

 

[brandon429]

OM I have some good plans based on the adjustments prior. I saw what looked like a moorish idol then I assumed the tank was eight feet long, glad it isn't

for sure aiptasia should be razor blade removed, clean scrape from the bottom, when on flat surfaces. for sure they'll populate elsewhere by fragmentation if you delay, or use other methods. the little ones you cant see will pop up later, the rock should be accessible for future removal. that's the main benefit of doing the proper rip clean now that the tank isn't so large. it allows future access, without any clouding.


*there's no way its safer for your corals to do a job differently than we've done here. what you and I were considering was in response to an eight foot tank assumption :) there's no time I would recommend sand removal in a full tank if it can be avoided. even though your sand is well-aerated, that would be a first here for this giant thread.

once we get into the realm of removing rocks that becomes instant detritus kicking around the system, this is risky to corals. not the takedown/where the whole tank is cleaned that part is ironically the safest.

so now that we're in the area of sixty inches max size that means the full, ordered takedown is the safest. it's not less disease risk to do this work in tank, to do the work at all and disturb the current balance is the risk.


to do the work internally is less safe, with the fish in the tank, than with them out. if the tank was giant we were going to hedge risks out of sheer practicality. its good the job isn't till april that lets us plan, it's amazing you're at sea and we're remotely reefing. I'm in a call center in central austin texas, where in the sea are you man!!>?

for sure the way we've protected corals here from loss/bleaching is the removal of them from the system to be cleaned, never in contact with waste, and the put into a very clean system with great feed afterwards. the light re ramping trick is what we use to guide the corals in the very clean, very well-fed system then they grow even better than they did before the cleaning job

that's the pattern we have, it's the most reliable for your investment there. custom jobs that work around the system will not be as safe, though we're able to make custom calls/risks where required. this really helps to factor before you initiate the big job, great post for sure from your tank.

 

[oldmonk]

@brandon429

Once again thanks for that explanation.

Aiptasia : For now the aiptasia are small/minute. My wife is trying her bit by killing it with injections as and when she spots it. Plus the infestation is not really heavy, but i know it is just the matter of time before it spreads . My bad that i am at sea at this moment, or else would have started the work asap!!!
So as you mentioned, blade is the only sure shot weapon for aiptasia. Point noted.

Now coming to removing sand and going barebottom, yes i agree with you it has to be with fish removed. Better to be safe than sorry. Plus if this project has to be done within minimum time span, work will be faster without life inside.

Regarding the corals on the back wall, tell me will it be okay if i leave them untouched? On this same thread i have read that its's okay to leave the corals exposed to air and/or use a mist at regular intervals. What do you feel?

As i wrote in my initial post, my only worry is corals those have encrusted and rebuilding same/similar scape so that specific corals go in their same place w.r.t. light and flow.

What are my options here or what's the alternative ?

Btw i am sailing in the Gulf at the moment:)

 

[brandon429]

those bridging corals w have to be broken as a matter of priority in access, but I know of no species ever bleached by this process/misted or not. I pushed my sps above out to 33 mins in air, dry (seemingly) as a bone, no harm for sure over and over. even if this happened daily it wouldn't harm them (fiji et al tidal recessions)

the misting will just lock in safety, give them a pour over or mist of saltwater just because we've nothing to prove about coral health or cycle control issues any longer. it's nice to know during emergency events where spray water may not be handy. for sure leave the encrusted corals on the back wall, just work around them with cleaning. it will be fun to watch that colony ride out the process and continue on

 

[oldmonk]

With every post that we exchange, things are getting clear and looking relatively easy/doable from what felt like a herculean task..

Thanks a ton

 

[brandon429]

I’m so glad. I know there’s lots on the line

Truly I think it’s rare to be resolved in matters of materials handling where live corals go and in the earlier pages it didn’t feel as solid as it does now.

The willingness of everyone to post follow through pics / plus we can click anyones avatar and select ‘find all threads’ and from that we can rough estimate how their tank did some time after these interventions and it’s the shared results that fuel current and future jobs planned here. We can continue brainstorming as needed

 

[Unitylover]

New sand, cleaned tank. Tanks getting dalt now. Sand wasn't cleaned THAT well, but it wasn't too bad for cloudiness. Sand was the carib sea aragonite. Tiara is chilling in her bucket.

 

[Unitylover]

Ze bucket of doom...

Tank cleared up. Still cold and unheated though. Rock hasn't been fully cleaned, I'll do it tomorrow.

 

[brandon429]

Must have cloudlessness :)

 

[brandon429]

If the tank doesn't look like it's empty of water with fish hanging in the air, it's not matching the current standard for after pics since '16



this is a 110% thread. We all press hard, hard here, it's a sweat and growl gym. It's not like planet fitness.

 

[Unitylover]

Cloud has cleared up perfectly. Even disturbing a solid anount of the sand bed, little to no cloudniess is seen. The cloud was more from the salt i put in to mix. I'm gonna rinse the rocks once more, just did a quick rinse to get most of it off them.
the rocks had a green tint, which I couldn't get off vs the GHA. The few strands of GHA left I'm gonna brush off soon, just want a Lil break.

 

[brandon429]

Alert


Team, we've got a skip cycler

I'm going to run across the street with a mic and guerilla interview him like hungry paparazzo

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-sea-max-nano-g2-xxl.1095537/#post-13276778

 

[Unitylover]

Btw I didn't use any bottled bac either. Tank was fully cleaned, only biomedia left is the ceramic bio cylinders and the rock, which actually got put under a TON of tap water.

 

[brandon429]

That's good. It opens up clogged channels in old media/ restores surface area and filter efficiency rates. Using tap won't sterilize the media it'll still work, the flushing was most important.

When we see large aquatic mammal exhibits/ like SeaWorld/ those huge sand filters they use are exchanged and backflushed routinely

That's all we've been doing here with tanks and sandbeds: handling them like big aerobic filters that get backflushed as the fountain of youth mechanism.

 

[Gabbone]

So glad I went with this guide. Amazing work guys. Didnt even tested nh3/no2. After 10 days from the transfer, still no loss.

 

[DonJuanAntwon]

@brandon429

Above (page or two back) I have a tentative plan to rip clean my tank (WB 25 AIO), get rid of the sand bed, and transition to bare bottom.

I plan to take my tank and clean it with hose and clean the rear chambers. Any concern with hose water and drying it out before I put all new salt water and my rock back in? Thank you!

 

[ReefTanker91]

Cleaning sand now to put in new tank tomorrow. About 100 pounds of sand . The drill attachment makes it a smoother process.