Rip Clean Plan

DannoOMG

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I will go into more detail in what I did. Just give me a bit to put things together.
 

mrpontiac80

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Im so confused. people are saying not to do the rip clean, that itll kill my tank but at the same time im getting perfect stories of how the rip clean saved their tank. Guys I dont know what to do.
Personally, I’d do it.
Your fish are going to be stressed but so are you. They also are going to be ok I think as long as they are in the old tank water for a day with an air stone and heater. Just like a quarantine setup, all they have is a glass box, air stone and heater.
Can you do it other ways with herbivores and time? Yes.
 
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Ro Bow

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Personally, I’d do it.
Your fish are going to be stressed but so are you. They also are going to be ok I think as long as they are in the old tank water for a day with an air stone and heater. Just like a quarantine setup, all they have is a glass box, air stone and heater.
Can you do it other ways with herbivores and time? Yes.
ill think about it. Ill do a lot of manual removal for now and the upcoming weekend after the one tomorrow ill maybe do the rip clean.
 
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Personally, I’d do it.
Your fish are going to be stressed but so are you. They also are going to be ok I think as long as they are in the old tank water for a day with an air stone and heater. Just like a quarantine setup, all they have is a glass box, air stone and heater.
Can you do it other ways with herbivores and time? Yes.
does the plan I wrote out sound good though? Am i missing anything?
 

DannoOMG

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I first drained about half of my tank water into a 10 gallon brute rubbermaid trash bin. I then took the heater and the return pump and put it in that bucket. I then removed all my rocks and livestock from the tank and housed them in there as I cleaned things. (see image)

CritterHolding.jpg


My next step was to remove the rest of the tank water and keep it in a second bucket so I could use it to dunk rocks that I scraped and treated with peroxide later.

Then I removed the sand into a separate bucket that I started rinsing with the hose outside.

This is what the sand looked like on my first rinse. All the junk floats to the top and all the sand stays at the bottom. Drain the gross water out and do it again until it is clear.

SandRinseStart.jpg


End result :
SandRinseEnd.jpg


So you can rinse your sandbed OUT of the tank and have no problem. Just make sure you rinse it with RO or saltwater before adding it back to your tank. Cause ya know... tap water is gross and stuff.

As I was rinsing the sandbed I was cleaning the tank with vinegar. Then I rinse the tank in RO water.

Other than scraping the rocks that is all I did. I just put everything back in the tank after that. It worked out for me.
 

Rmckoy

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After reading just the fist page let’s rewind and take a different look at everything .

water changes are the easiest way to export nutrients . And if every 2 weeks isn’t enough it’s easy to increase the volume and frequency of each water change .

Gfo can work great but also has the potential to make everything zero which isn’t a great idea . Be mindful of how much it’s stripping from your system and be prepared to reduce or remove it .
Filter socks ….. these are bad for holding everything from left over food , poop , detritus , as it sits it only decomposes further causing higher nutrients in the water column .
I change my filter cloth weekly and if I don’t it’s terrible ….
If you have a sump you can add things such as cheato , with a cheap grow light over it to make it grow .

first … I would manually remove the rocks one at a time and scrub the long algae off of it with a brush .

next to maintain excess nutrients if all else isn’t enough there is also carbon dosing ( vodka , vinegar etc )
 

mrpontiac80

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does the plan I wrote out sound good though? Am i missing anything?
  • 1: siphon out the old tank water from the main tank into a large trash can I would place the rocks in after this
  • 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. I would be thorough with the cleaning but plan on 1 day
  • 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?
 
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Ro Bow

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I first drained about half of my tank water into a 10 gallon brute rubbermaid trash bin. I then took the heater and the return pump and put it in that bucket. I then removed all my rocks and livestock from the tank and housed them in there as I cleaned things. (see image)

CritterHolding.jpg


My next step was to remove the rest of the tank water and keep it in a second bucket so I could use it to dunk rocks that I scraped and treated with peroxide later.

Then I removed the sand into a separate bucket that I started rinsing with the hose outside.

This is what the sand looked like on my first rinse. All the junk floats to the top and all the sand stays at the bottom. Drain the gross water out and do it again until it is clear.

SandRinseStart.jpg


End result :
SandRinseEnd.jpg


So you can rinse your sandbed OUT of the tank and have no problem. Just make sure you rinse it with RO or saltwater before adding it back to your tank. Cause ya know... tap water is gross and stuff.

As I was rinsing the sandbed I was cleaning the tank with vinegar. Then I rinse the tank in RO water.

Other than scraping the rocks that is all I did. I just put everything back in the tank after that. It worked out for me.
Thanks so much! If you have a sump, did you clean it too? And did you create completely new water or pour in the old tank water? (half at least)
 

DannoOMG

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Thanks so much! If you have a sump, did you clean it too? And did you create completely new water or pour in the old tank water? (half at least)
I do not have a sump. That is an AIO nano tank. I replaced the water 100% and did not use any old tank water. Now since your tank is A LOT bigger than mine I wouldn't think it is awful to use half new and half old. It depends on your capabilities of making new saltwater.
 

sawdonkey

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Put them inside out and run them on HOT and HAND WASH in your washer with NO detergent. Then run another rinse cycle to fully get out any detergent from old wash cycles. Then let air dry.
I use bleach in the washing too, after a hand rinse. The. Run them again with no bleach. Just gotta let them get completely dry before using.
 

sawdonkey

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Stay away from this silly "rip clean" idea. It screams of being a highly disruptive event to the balance/biology of your tank.

Remember - <everything> good in a reef happens slowly. You need to up your export game; install an algae scrubber, or use GFO, or setup a refugium.

Take a look at how much and what you're feeding. Do one or two 25% water changes per week, doing a manual algae removal while you do so.

It took you months to get to this point, it will take you months to get back to a nicer tank. (If you want to do it without risking serious long term consequences)
Listen to this person. I’m curious about your “Phosphate reactor.” Does that mean GFO reactor? I’d probably just run heavy GFO in a reactor and starve the algae of phosphate. You don’t have coral, so who cares if you strip out all phosphate.

also, feed your fish minimally. You don’t get nutrients in your tank if you don’t put nutrients in your tank…..unless your rock is leeching. Then the GFO should take care of that.

There are multiple ways to skin the cat. Some people rely on cleanup crew. Others manage nutrients. I do the latter, because I have cleanup crew eating fish.
 

Eric R.

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Agree multiple ways to skin a reef. Pick a method that works for you and stick to it, don't mix methods when you're starting, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Follow the advice of someone if they have a tank you like and you want yours to look like theirs. I'm wary of advice from people whose tanks I don't like the look of. Be cautious taking advice from "brown belts" (though tbh I'm one myself). I like Rich's tanks, and I like his approach, it makes sense to me, so that's what I do. I'm also busy/lazy, so I like methods that don't take a lot of my time.
 

Eric R.

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I first drained about half of my tank water into a 10 gallon brute rubbermaid trash bin. I then took the heater and the return pump and put it in that bucket. I then removed all my rocks and livestock from the tank and housed them in there as I cleaned things. (see image)

CritterHolding.jpg


My next step was to remove the rest of the tank water and keep it in a second bucket so I could use it to dunk rocks that I scraped and treated with peroxide later.

Then I removed the sand into a separate bucket that I started rinsing with the hose outside.

This is what the sand looked like on my first rinse. All the junk floats to the top and all the sand stays at the bottom. Drain the gross water out and do it again until it is clear.

SandRinseStart.jpg


End result :
SandRinseEnd.jpg


So you can rinse your sandbed OUT of the tank and have no problem. Just make sure you rinse it with RO or saltwater before adding it back to your tank. Cause ya know... tap water is gross and stuff.

As I was rinsing the sandbed I was cleaning the tank with vinegar. Then I rinse the tank in RO water.

Other than scraping the rocks that is all I did. I just put everything back in the tank after that. It worked out for me.

What did you do different after the rip clean to keep the algae from coming back on the clean rocks?
 

DannoOMG

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What did you do different after the rip clean to keep the algae from coming back on the clean rocks?

Algae came back on the rocks in smaller quantities and I still have some but it became manageable to pull out. I fed the same and did my weekly water changes.

Like I said earlier, the bigger issue at the time wasn't necessarily just algae. It was the fact that every single coral in my tank was closing up and looked awful. I think what caused my problems were:

* Implementing too many changes too fast
* Trying to nuke algae with chemicals

I created a mess I didn't know how to get out of cause I couldn't pinpoint what it was. I felt my tank was going to crash and was going to throw in the towel until someone convinced me to do a rip clean. I figured it was at my last resort.

Side question:

Would it really be that awful for him to pull the rocks out and scrape the algae off at least? That way he can implement other ideas being tossed around the thread? It seems like his parents are forcing his hand and at a minimum cleaning the algae off the rocks wouldn't be a bad thing. No?
 

Cell

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Im so confused. people are saying not to do the rip clean, that itll kill my tank but at the same time im getting perfect stories of how the rip clean saved their tank. Guys I dont know what to do.

Bro didn't answer the bat-signal. Hurry up @brandon429!

I'd stay the course, Brandon will check in soon I'm sure.

If you want to get it all done at once and wake up the next morning to a clean tank, then rip. If you want to slowly battle it back over the course of days/weeks, then that can work too. Either way works.
 
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Ro Bow

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Listen to this person. I’m curious about your “Phosphate reactor.” Does that mean GFO reactor? I’d probably just run heavy GFO in a reactor and starve the algae of phosphate. You don’t have coral, so who cares if you strip out all phosphate.

also, feed your fish minimally. You don’t get nutrients in your tank if you don’t put nutrients in your tank…..unless your rock is leeching. Then the GFO should take care of that.

There are multiple ways to skin the cat. Some people rely on cleanup crew. Others manage nutrients. I do the latter, because I have cleanup crew eating fish.
It's probably the same thing but my lfs uses the words phosphate reactor. Never heard of GFO what does it mean?
 

billyocean

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Bro didn't answer the bat-signal. Hurry up @brandon429!

I'd stay the course, Brandon will check in soon I'm sure.

If you want to get it all done at once and wake up the next morning to a clean tank, then rip. If you want to slowly battle it back over the course of days/weeks, then that can work too. Either way works.
Usually the key words rip, algae, sand are like an alarm clock!...lol
 
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Ro Bow

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Bro didn't answer the bat-signal. Hurry up @brandon429!

I'd stay the course, Brandon will check in soon I'm sure.

If you want to get it all done at once and wake up the next morning to a clean tank, then rip. If you want to slowly battle it back over the course of days/weeks, then that can work too. Either way works.
I think I'm going to rip clean i just had a few questions before,and wanted to make sure my plan is correct
 

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