Tank is a disaster what should i do?

[Deadlocked]

Hello all. Long story short about half a year ago i thought i was being kicked out of my house. In panic mode I sold away my 3 fish and essentially stopped taking care of my tank because i was so upset about losing the fish. I have a bunch of corals in there. My tank is a 32 biocube with Steve's leds.

Most of the sps are dead.
There are some hammers and a few others lps that are doing surprisingly well and some zoas that are teetering, but the tank is in shambles.

Aptasia have overtaken these tank. There's asterina starfish.
Bubble algae is starting to take over.
It's in a really sorry state. Now, I'm moving out and i want to get my tank started again, but i don't know ever to start. How do i clean a tank this bad? Do i get rid of all my live rock and sand and start over? Any suggestions would be great. Thank you in advance.

 

[Fishnut]

Can you break down and move tank the same day? If so I would try to keep everything alive and not start over.

 

[AydenLincoln]

By not taking care do you mean you didn’t do anything in the past year and a half? I’d remove everything. Add new sand and rock but keep the filter media. And completely clean out the tank. If you keep the media you aren’t starting completely from scratch but can help eliminate or lessen the pests and nuisance algae.

 

[Deadlocked]

By not taking care do you mean you didn’t do anything in the past year and a half? I’d remove everything. Add new sand and rock but keep the filter media. And completely clean out the tank. If you keep the media you aren’t starting completely from scratch but can help eliminate or lessen the pests and nuisance algae.

Ive neglected the tank for about 4-6 months. Im not proud of it but i want to keep the coral that is alive, alive

 

[AydenLincoln]

Ive neglected the tank for about 4-6 months. Im not proud of it but i want to keep the coral that is alive, alive

Okay then I’d remove the coral temporarily and put it into quarantine and clean the tank really well/let it cycle again possibly with new media too in order to remove all the pests.

 

[Deadlocked]

Okay then I’d remove the coral temporarily and put it into quarantine and clean the tank really well/let it cycle again possibly with new media too in order to remove all the pests.

Where would i quarantine it? Id have to cycle a second tank no?

 

[AydenLincoln]

Where would i quarantine it? Id have to cycle a second tank no?

A simple small glass box or even a bucket/bin with a heater and air stone. Yes and no. In a pinch things can be housed successfully. Think of it like emergency quarantine for fish or how corals at shows always look fantastic but their tanks aren’t cycled as they are only up for a few days or hours. If you do set it up by performing small water changes, adding established media, bacteria, and ammonia detoxifiers you can maintain safe levels. But of course some type of cycle will happen it’s about managing it.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'd just set up a new tank with real live rock which will minimize the cycle depending on just how bad your aiptasia problem is at this point

 

[dmsc2fs]

Move the coral into a tote if some kind with some flow and your heater. You should be able to pull the pump out of the back of the Biocube if that’s all you have. Search this site for cleaning the rock with hydrochloric acid and clean the rock. Toss the gravel. Clean the tank down with vinegar and start it back up again after all that is done. Any aptasia that make it back in will be manageable with sodium hydroxide.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Move the coral into a tote if some kind with some flow and your heater. You should be able to pull the pump out of the back of the Biocube if that’s all you have. Search this site for cleaning the rock with hydrochloric acid and clean the rock. Toss the gravel. Clean the tank down with vinegar and start it back up again after all that is done. Any aptasia that make it back in will be manageable with sodium hydroxide.

Why go through all the trouble of completely sterilizing the rock instead of just getting new rocks in that case?

 

[Reefer Matt]

You can attack the problems one at a time. It will take months. Get rid of the bubble algae with flucanozole, get rid of the asterinas with a harlequin shrimp, then get rid of the aiptasia with peppermint shrimp, aiptasia x, filefish, or a combination of all. The ship is off course, it takes time to steer it back. Or you can start over if patience isn't your thing. Good luck!

 

[brandon429]

If you are serious about restoration there's a 48 hour fix. Study that, run it, each job is done the same way

Algae Identification

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

www.reef2reef.com

No cycle happens

No bottle bac is used

All invaders killed. Don't worry about aiptasia they're easiest to kill. Let's see if you're serious about doing the main tank then when it's done you'll believe me when I type out how to kill the aiptasia overnite. Before you run the rip clean and see the results, you'd think I'm making it up.

Post a before/ current pic

Run that method to a T exactly as we did

Post the after pic, you can be done by today...

Then we'll fix your aiptasia once all the other stuff is fixed overnite.

Step one: score 32 gallons of water matching temp and salinity of normal reef water that tank is used to

 

[brandon429]

I wanted to tell you though the vast majority of reefers will not do the work, they'll toss and start over.

Only the serious rinsers are welcomed examples there, those folks were not playing around. Not one of those tanks took more than a day to turn around

 

[Rmckoy]

Hello all. Long story short about half a year ago i thought i was being kicked out of my house. In panic mode I sold away my 3 fish and essentially stopped taking care of my tank because i was so upset about losing the fish. I have a bunch of corals in there. My tank is a 32 biocube with Steve's leds.

Most of the sps are dead.
There are some hammers and a few others lps that are doing surprisingly well and some zoas that are teetering, but the tank is in shambles.

Aptasia have overtaken these tank. There's asterina starfish.
Bubble algae is starting to take over.
It's in a really sorry state. Now, I'm moving out and i want to get my tank started again, but i don't know ever to start. How do i clean a tank this bad? Do i get rid of all my live rock and sand and start over? Any suggestions would be great. Thank you in advance.

I’d move the tank to its new location
Prior to setting up I would recommend contacting and reading posts from @brandon429 transfer and cleaning ..
rocks are salvageable but I would read how to properly rinse the sand or replace it with zero livestock casualties
Starting over from scratch isn’t a good idea . You have live rocks with tons of beneficial bacteria

 

[92Miata]

"Restarting" a tank is almost never a good idea. Almost all of the issues people run into early on are due to immature ecosystems causing micro and macro nutrients to yo-yo all over the place, and there being absolutely nothing on the rock to compete with algae. Your old rock is the single most valuable commodity in reefing. It's fine, healthy, and it will take you years to get sterilized rock to work like yours already does. The problems you will solve bleaching it are miniscule compared to the ones it'll cause.


Buy a couple captive bred peppermint shrimp - or some berghia - and throw them in with the rock. They'll deal with the aiptasia. If you don't want to manually deal with the bubble algae, you can nuke it with Algae Fix (although this stuff is nasty on molluscs and rough on some corals). Not a huge fan of the stuff, but dark - curing has its own issues too. It's just some work.


Nobody who has been reefing long term will recommend bleaching and acid washing live rock. It's just an enormous waste.