Rip Clean Plan

[Ro Bow]

I am planning on performing a "rip clean" this weekend on my red sea reefer 300xl 65 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump.
I think I understand majority of the idea of it but I had a few questions.
Here is what im planning on doing:

• 1: siphon out the old tank water from the main tank into a large trash can
• 2: halfway through, I will attempt to remove all the fish, shrimp, crabs, and snails in the tank and put them in a 5 gallon bucket for a day or two with a heater and powerhead in place.
• 3: with all animals out of the tank I will now remove all the rocks and put them in the large trash can I had in place with my old tank water. I will shake them around in there one by one, shaking off any loose detritus and will then take the rock out and put on a towel on the counter, and use a knife tip to scratch and scrape off any roots of the algae.
• 4: then I will use 3% hydrogen peroxide and dribble it all over the rock, let it soak up dry on the counter for 15 minutes, then put the rock into a different 5 gallon bucket with some old tank water in it.
• 5: I will continue this with all of my rocks
• 6: Now with all rocks clean I will remove my sand with a scooper, put it in another 5 gallon bucket, and either go outside and use a hose with the shower spray feature or use an indoor faucet sink, and rinse and dump out the water repeatedly for hours until the water is clear. I will also mix with my hands. Once its clear I will do one last rinse by dumping the sand into a separate 5 gallon bucket full of RO/DI water and mix it there one last time
• 7: Now I will also drain the water in my sump, and use vinegar or something to clean off the bottom and sides of the sump and tank.
• 8: I will clean the skimmer, and other hardware in the sump with vinegar as well
• 9: Using pre-made new water from another large trash can (with the same temperature and salinity as old tank water) I will refill the sump and put back the cleaned hardware.
• 10: Now I will put the cleaned rocks that were soaking in old tank water this whole time back into the tank after rinsing them off with RO/DI water.
• 11: Now I will pour back the cleaned sand into the tank
• 12: Now I will slowly siphon in the new tank water (with matching salinity and temperature as the old tank water)
• 13: Now that the entire tank is cleaned I will get my fish from the bucket of old tank water, and acclimate them and pour them back into the tank.
• 14: I will do the same with the other animals that were there
• 15: I will keep the lights on low, and keep black construction paper on the sides of the tank for a few days. After a week I will have the lights fully back
• 16: Done?

Please @brandon429 and @KrisReef if you notice any mistakes here please let me know I am really nervous and am worried the fish will die. I am willing to do the work needed and hopefully ill be done this weekend or early next week. I will keep you all updated when I start
If I missed anything tell me please
Thank you all and sorry for asking so many questions

 

[Ro Bow]

Im still a bit confused with this whole process so if anyone has any tips it would be appreciated.

 

[JZ199]

My tank looked exactly like that and I solved this issue with a lot less stress! The manual removal is a must, before a 25% water change I manually removed it by using a tooth brush to twist the algae up in it (like twirling spaghetti) and pulled it out, I did as much as I could, did my water change and then about in a week or so I did the same again. Beefed up my CUC with turbo snails, turned my white lighting way down and my tank is now spotless!

 

[Ro Bow]

My tank looked exactly like that and I solved this issue with a lot less stress! The manual removal is a must, before a 25% water change I manually removed it by using a tooth brush to twist the algae up in it (like twirling spaghetti) and pulled it out, I did as much as I could, did my water change and then about in a week or so I did the same again. Beefed up my CUC with turbo snails, turned my white lighting way down and my tank is now spotless!

I remove it daily the same way. I have 5+ turbo snails. I completely turned off my white lights and only run blues. I do water changes every 1-2 weeks.
I have been doing that for over a year and its just getting worse.

 

[ckuhny3]

Have you determined the cause of this before doing all this work? This seems way to drastic dude. Calm down and get a big brush and manually mow down what you can . Get some clean up crew to eat the left over algae on rocks . What you a describing has so much room for error I feel

 

[ckuhny3]

Get trochus snails. And figure out what the source of all these nutrients are. Do you run GFO? Do you have a skimmer? How often are you changing filter socks/floss ?

 

[JZ199]

I remove it daily the same way. I have 5+ turbo snails. I completely turned off my white lights and only run blues. I do water changes every 1-2 weeks.
I have been doing that for over a year and its just getting worse.

Don't take this as me being rude, I'm just trying to get as much info to help... When you manually removed do you take it absolutely down to where your rocks almost look bare? Turbo snails won't touch the long stuff but once it's knocked down they'll destroy it usually. Also is your tank near a window and are you using RODI water?

 

[Ro Bow]

Have you determined the cause of this before doing all this work? This seems way to drastic dude. Calm down and get a big brush and manually mow down what you can . Get some clean up crew to eat the left over algae on rocks . What you a describing has so much room for error I feel

I also think its a lot of work but ive been advised to a rip clean by a lot of people.
As for a clean up crew I have 5+ turbos (mexican and striped) and 10 hermits and a few astrea snails too.
I use a toothbrush often, but it justs shoves the algae into smaller gaps.
I mean the tank is so overgrown I dont think theres any other choice. Last picture is after literally 1 minute of tearing algae and taking it out of the tank

 

[Ro Bow]

Get trochus snails. And figure out what the source of all these nutrients are. Do you run GFO? Do you have a skimmer? How often are you changing filter socks/floss ?

I have a skimmer (reef octo), Ive never heard of gfo though.
I changed my filter socks a few months ago

 

[ckuhny3]

I also think its a lot of work but ive been advised to a rip clean by a lot of people.
As for a clean up crew I have 5+ turbos (mexican and striped) and 10 hermits and a few astrea snails too.
I use a toothbrush often, but it justs shoves the algae into smaller gaps.
I mean the tank is so overgrown I dont think theres any other choice. Last picture is after literally 1 minute of tearing algae and taking it out of the tank

Im talking about a brush the size of the one you use to clean a toilet bowl. Not a tooth brush. You are going to do all this work and then have the same problem if you don’t figure out what’s causing it. Are you making your own RODI?

 

[Ro Bow]

Don't take this as me being rude, I'm just trying to get as much info to help... When you manually removed do you take it absolutely down to where your rocks almost look bare? Turbo snails won't touch the long stuff but once it's knocked down they'll destroy it usually. Also is your tank near a window and are you using RODI water?

I use RODI water, and my tank is surrounded by windows (my parents wont let me use blackout shades because it makes the house look like a "prison" apparently). - however i did use black construction paper for many months but it didnt help

When I manually remove I dont take it down to the point the rocks look almost bare, because the tank gets clouded so easily and the bryopsis is almost impossible to get out

 

[ckuhny3]

You need to be changing your filter socks at the least every 3 days otherwise you are defeating the purpose completely

 

[Ro Bow]

Im talking about a brush the size of the one you use to clean a toilet bowl. Not a tooth brush. You are going to do all this work and then have the same problem if you don’t figure out what’s causing it. Are you making your own RODI?

Im making my own ro/di water yeah.

 

[Eric R.]

Yeah, I'm curious why so much algae. I would think if you just scrape the rocks clean, you'll still have algae growing on them again. Algae is good at surviving, unless there's something else that can eat it or outcompete it for space.

 

[Ro Bow]

You need to be changing your filter socks at the least every 3 days otherwise you are defeating the purpose completely

When you say changing, im assuming you mean to buy a bunch of new ones and replace them? The red sea ones that actually fit are expensive

 

[Ro Bow]

Yeah, I'm curious why so much algae. I would think if you just scrape the rocks clean, you'll still have algae growing on them again. Algae is good at surviving, unless there's something else that can eat it or outcompete it for space.

would the algae grow back even if I use hydrogen peroxide?

 

[ckuhny3]

Im making my own ro/di water yeah.

Do you test your tank for nitrates and phosphates? Look into running gfo in a reactor or just go pick up some media bags and put it in a high flow area after rinsing it.

 

[ckuhny3]

When you say changing, im assuming you mean to buy a bunch of new ones and replace them? The red sea ones that actually fit are expensive

No I mean taking dirty ones out and swapping them out with clean ones every 3 days

 

[Eric R.]

Here's a good video with Rich Ross talking about algae. He uses a term called benthic succession, which describes how various microflora and micro fauna colonize the rocks in our tanks when we first establish them.

 

[Xxflounderxx]

What are your Phosphates hair algae should come right off if they are low. Have you ever done a black out. How often are you testing your water and are you using rodi?