Okay... how do I start reviving my tank?

[djryan2000]

My tank has seen 6 months of... neglect to say the least. It’s currently an eye sore to me. It’s *covered* in aptasia, has some what I think is cyano, and GHA, and has corals that experienced STN. My new goal is to turn this around and bring it back to what it used to be; something I was proud of.
Just tested my parameters, they are as follows

my current dosing schedule (set since Jan 2021) is
3.4 mL alkalinity daily
3.0 mL calcium daily
7.5 mL of nopox daily

I have phosphate rX on hand as well as a new box of salt (Fritz Reef Pro Mix).

my current fish stocking is my clownfish, a Benghaii cardinal, and a biota mandarin dragonet.
I have a Cadlight Aquarium PLS-50 skimmer and a Santa Monica 3.0+ algae scrubber that isn’t growing any algae. I’m down to a couple fish as they have slowly died 1 by 1 with no indication, and I purchased a couple nets to try to catch my clownfish to do a FW dip to check for flukes, per the advice of HumbleFish.
I ordered aptasia eating nudibranchs a couple weeks or so ago and have seen no signs of progress - I’m guessing one of the three shrimp ate them.

Where do I go from here? Just start changing water like a madman?
Also all corals are closed like this every night and then open back up on the day.

 

[KrisReef]

Suggest you start by reading about rip cleaning, by @brandon429 and then plan to kill some aiptasia and algae.

The dosing has allowed your dkh to get too low and your calcium is relatively high. That needs to be fixed along the way.

Also your phosphate looks a tad bit high and all of these parameters can be moved slowly back to more reef-like numbers.

I'd probably make a plan to change water every day for the next month to move those back if you want to take it slow, or else I'd just do a 90% water change and a rip clean at the same time to reset parameters and remove algae and glass anemones. It would shock the critters to have clean water with better parameters but I think that is what I would do.

But however you attack this, you can win if you have the will to do the work.

 

[djryan2000]

Suggest you start by reading about rip cleaning, by @brandon429 and then plan to kill some aiptasia and algae.

The dosing has allowed your dkh to get too low and your calcium is relatively high. That needs to be fixed along the way.

Also your phosphate looks a tad bit high and all of these parameters can be moved slowly back to more reef-like numbers.

I'd probably make a plan to change water every day for the next month to move those back if you want to take it slow, or else I'd just do a 90% water change and a rip clean at the same time to reset parameters and remove algae and glass anemones. It would shock the critters to have clean water with better parameters but I think that is what I would do.

But however you attack this, you can win if you have the will to do the work.

Thank you. I was also thinking aggressive water changes and a change in dosing. I added 12 drops of phosphate rX after posting to start the process.

 

[dvgyfresh]

What size is yr tank ? 7.5 ml a day of nopox seems really intense and phosphate rx?

 

[fachatga]

I’d agree. With nitrates just at 25 if you’re going to be aggressive with water changes nopox won’t be necessary. The less you need to dose to get parameters in control the better since then you’ll have a stable tank on its own which is mush preferable.

 

[dedragon]

water changes and like 3 peppermint shrimp to eat all of the aiptasia (cheaper solution). More expensive solution is using berghia nudibranchs. Alk, phosphate and nitrate are off and water changes will help correct htis fast

 

[plankton]

Ditch the carbon dosing, siphon out detritus when you do your partial water change and increase flow. As others have mentioned alk is a bit low, nutrients high. You can also reduce red, green and white spectrum from your lights until algae is under control. Aptasia is another topic altogether but you can definitely improve conditions in your tank so you can keep corals happier.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Step 1. Clean. Clean. Clean. Scrub. Blow rock off. Blow any detritus up.
Step.2. Do ur 100%wc.
Step 3 stop.dosin stuff please.
Repeat.
Rinse.
Shake
Stir
U get it....lol
D

 

[djryan2000]

water changes and like 3 peppermint shrimp to eat all of the aiptasia (cheaper solution). More expensive solution is using berghia nudibranchs. Alk, phosphate and nitrate are off and water changes will help correct htis fast

I’ve had no luck with peppermint shrimp

 

[djryan2000]

What size is yr tank ? 7.5 ml a day of nopox seems really intense and phosphate rx?

It’s a JBJ 45 that’s a little over a year old. I have a captive bred mandarin meaning i am putting a lot of food in the tank for it so I’m dosing 7.5 mL of nopox to keep nitrates in check. It does help substantially. My tank is very well aerated; I have the skimmer and also a large air pump connected to the Santa Monica drop 3.0

 

[brandon429]

Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

What you are really in for: Hand cleaning, hard work siphon and rasp-removing of accumulations and invasions outside the tank and doing massive water changes is 90% of this thread, peroxide is 10%. We almost never dose peroxide into the tank water, this is a you-work-physically-hard as catch-up...

www.reef2reef.com

the thread shows exactly how to make your reef look like new by tomorrow. to delay any past that means we arent ready for fix up yet


literally the formula is 30 mins read, select a few examples, implement, update pics tomorrow look like a new reef and all your stuff looks great.

after being linked that very same thread the last 4 folks asked how they dip the rocks


I think that's potentially thirty pages or so and we're literally against rock dipping lol, to click and have the right will/motivation means your tank is fixed by this time tomorrow.


for the algae in between xenia strands, set rocks on counter, let the xenia hang and rasp in between them exactly as we do. set the whole tank up ready to go. post #1 alone shows the whole process, including sand rinse links, such that if we can get just a read of post one even the other thirty pages of clear work examples won't be required they're just handy for patterning.

let the record reflect: the opening paragraph says folks don't really want to clean their tanks, they want to solicit ideas and just sit on them.


the reason WV is linked in there right off the bat is because he did not do that. his was the click/read/apply action set. so we moved it to absolute best example.

aiptasia removal

Direct aiptasia removal from surfaces as the top removal option

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/first-aiptasia-sighting-what-would-you-do.808233/page-2#post-8647852 notice in the thread the surface with aiptasia was removed from the reef, and what was beside the aiptasia frag was taken off and moved back onto the reef allowing the aiptasia + the surface...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[KrisReef]

Oh, should add I have had very good results removing aiptasia with 3% peroxide application outside the tank.

Inside, mixed results with filefish (from 0-100% success, based upon the fish), good results with Berghia (but the wrasse or pepermint shrimp seem to finish off the Berghia before they can sweep clean the tank of glass nems)

Peppermint shrimp and filefish have been observed to switch diet from glass nems to other coral polyps which kind of defeats the purpose of trying to use them to protect the other coral polyps.

You can probably cut back on (live?) feeding the mandrine without harming the fish but you will get improved water quality and fewer pests as a result.

GO GET UM!