Severely neglected tank, how to restart?

[Kaludar]

Hi guys,

I have a 250L tank that has been neglected for about 8-9 months. I have two clown flish, a peppermint shrimp and 1 remaining living coral, some sort of green mushroom which I'm amazed is still alive. I am a bit ashamed to admit but I completely let the tank go to crap, its overrun with green algae and bubble algae, the sump is in horrible shape, it will need a complete tear down and cleaning.

Me and my wife have decided we want to give it another go, but set our expectations a bit lower this time. I actually had a decent tank going but I was unable to grow acropora and got really disheartened and kinda gave up. Anyway question is how should we go about doing this? I think we will probably give the livestock back to the local fish store while we do our clean up. How should we handle cleaning the rock? We have a moderate amount of coraline growth that we would like to not kill, but I also want to start fresh with no algae in the tank. Should we just remove all the rock and manually scrub them, should we do some sort of acid wash to get rid of all the algae?

If we tear the tank down and scrub the rock will we have to re-cycle the tank again?

How should we go about doing this reboot? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Goaway]

Full tank picture? Sometimes water changes are enough. But most of the time a rip clean.
Where is @brandon429

 

[Kaludar]

Full tank picture? Sometimes water changes are enough. But most of the time a rip clean.
Where is @brandon429

It's kinda hard to see much in there, just manually removed like 2 lbs worth of green and bubble algae. But its a hot mess in there.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I would argue not to rip it all down. You have beneficial bacteria. Take small steps, day by day and work on the tank. In time it will look much better.

 

[dedragon]

With the lack of coral i would to a full rip clean, lots of water changes, and then vibrance to kill the algae. Fish can stay in the tank, probably the easiest and cheapest solution imo. Once the algae clears then you can start focusing on consistent water changes and dosing. All for reef powder will work well (you can also diy it for cheaper) if sticking to a lps/ softie tank. If you want to make it the easiest go for a full controller like apex or ghl, then 2 part and some sort of trace dosing

 

[Goaway]

It looks like the normal 6 month ugly phase.
Keep doing what you are. 10-20% water change every week or 2. It will recover

 

[Rmckoy]

As much as I really don’t want to say this . I think @Mibu is right .
this is one for @brandon429

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I vote for a thorough scrub and definitely keep the rock. That’s what I did. I’d try to use all of it and minimize new dry rock. However, be aware that no matter how hard you scrub you will have to deal with bubble algae in the future. (See my build thread to see what I went through restarting my reef with my old rock.) I stay away from all additives. Just my approach to minimize confounding variables.

 

[Kaludar]

With the lack of coral i would to a full rip clean, lots of water changes, and then vibrance to kill the algae. Fish can stay in the tank, probably the easiest and cheapest solution imo. Once the algae clears then you can start focusing on consistent water changes and dosing. All for reef powder will work well (you can also diy it for cheaper) if sticking to a lps/ softie tank. If you want to make it the easiest go for a full controller like apex or ghl, then 2 part and some sort of trace dosing

I already have an apex and a doser actually. I have all the equipment, just none of the skill, lol

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Small frequent water changes. Toothbrush to the rock (while in the water) to remove algae-little each day so you don’t get overwhelmed, nutrient control, and most importantly lack of neglect. It didn’t become this way in a day and it won’t get better in a day.

 

[dedragon]

I already have an apex and a doser actually. I have all the equipment, just none of the skill, lol

Its fine i would honestly stick to all for reef with the lack of coral for the moment as alk/calc uptake is prob very low.
Just clean the rocks and vibrance has usually helped people with bubble coral and isnt really as much of a threat to the tank with no corals in it. After the bubble is out (scraping off will just spread bubble algae) then i would focus on dosing though as alk gets weird when messing with the tank and im sure many water changes are in the future which will compensate.
I would watch out for phophate and nitrate getting too low especially right after treatment so you dont run into dinos or cyano

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I also would avoid additives. Less is more in my book. The more additives you add to the tank, the more that can go wrong. Don’t look for the quick, easy bandage. Fix the underlying problem.

 

[Kaludar]

Small frequent water changes. Toothbrush to the rock (while in the water) to remove algae-little each day so you don’t get overwhelmed, nutrient control, and most importantly lack of neglect. It didn’t become this way in a day and it won’t get better in a day.

What is the best way to get nutrients under control? I haven't tested, thats probably step one, but i know they have to be sky high. I have had no water changes, and no skimmer going for about 6 months now.

Should i start dosing beneficial bacteria like microbacter?

 

[shadow_k]

I agree @brandon429 helped my tank he guided me with rip clean and I had a chance to start over

 

[Tamberav]

Just do a large water change with matching salinity/temp and siphon out the sand... either rinse the sand in tap forever until clear or add new sand. You can do this in multiple water changes if that is what it takes to get the sand out.

Manually remove what algae you can, add some CUC and some female emerald crabs for the bubble algae.

Fixing this problem is pretty easy in smaller tanks.

I see no reason to start over... if you started with new acid washed rock... you would just reset yourself back to the ugly phases where most get algae anyways.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

What is the best way to get nutrients under control? I haven't tested, thats probably step one, but i know they have to be sky high. I have had no water changes, and no skimmer going for about 6 months now.

Should i start dosing beneficial bacteria like microbacter?

You have all the beneficial bacteria you need. That’s my main argument against ripping it clean and starting over. If you do, you will have to re-establish beneficial bacteria which can take time and you will go through the ugly phases again.

Why don’t you just start with a 20 percent water change with some nice new fresh saltwater. Then turn on your skimmer or buy one. Then give it a day or two and go to the next step. Little by little it will improve.

If you don’t and to wait then you can rip it all clean. It’s just all about what you want and what your goals are.

 

[CanuckReefer]

I would argue not to rip it all down. You have beneficial bacteria. Take small steps, day by day and work on the tank. In time it will look much better.

It looks like the normal 6 month ugly phase.
Keep doing what you are. 10-20% water change every week or 2. It will recover

As much as I really don’t want to say this . I think @Mibu is right .
this is one for @brandon429

Listen to these 3.... they have it on track for a slow rebuild.

 

[brandon429]

Team and Rmckoy thank you tons for the heads up I agree mass export is ideal here. It’s not that vibrant or fluconazole might could kill the algae, they can, it’s that the system above is 80% eutrophic and nothing works better than tank surgery to beat it-via export. partial cleaning is ironically the least safest option.

I have been posting this challenge thread lately to try and dare folks to rinse better than this lot, where Shadows 100 rinses is still the most insanely clean tank ever lol current record for not joking around


tastes like chicken consider this detail below, I know it seems harsh but that’s only when compared to the old rules where cycles and cycling bacteria were viewed as finicky and weak through api lenses…now that we have a few thousand seneyes on line to track true boundaries, all-at-once cleaning is safe vs harmful. Incremental cleaning is dangerous, not full rips.

it’s simple: copy this thread exactly, try and beat these setups in terms of clean and thorough rinse. If you’re equal or better rinsed, you win with a clean system and maybe the seventh addition to the top rip clean examples I’ve ever seen. This is best of the best.

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

and then exactly like the never ending story, if you doubt yourself halfway through and under rinse out of bacterial fear, despite this set of wins above and clear admonishment to rinse x 2000, some half naked statues the size of the great pyramids will zap your system with laser eyes and it will all die. That’s rip cleaning, there is no middle ground.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Just do a large water change with matching salinity/temp and siphon out the sand... either rinse the sand in tap forever until clear or add new sand. You can do this in multiple water changes if that is what it takes to get the sand out.

Manually remove what algae you can, add some CUC and some female emerald crabs for the bubble algae.

Fixing this problem is pretty easy in smaller tanks.

I see no reason to start over... if you started with new acid washed rock... you would just reset yourself back to the ugly phases where most get algae anyways.

And listen to this one too lol.... lots of sage advice here. Take it.

 

[shadow_k]

I ripped cleaned my my 20 gallon nano all in a few hours 100% changed the water and rinsed the sand 100+. I had really bad cyano/dinos and bad water all around I did a complete rip.

tank went from this

to this

There is tons of bacteria on the rocks.