Thinking about a rip clean.

[JD_Inshore]

I'm thinking about rip cleaning my 90 gallon. I have a little bit of cyano but that because of recent neglect on my part. The main reason is I want to rid my tank of mushrooms. There's one specifically that's absolutely taking over and now it to the point where they're affecting other corals.

I think I'd be able to keep atleast half, maybe slightly more of my current live rock. So after the rip clean I'd be replacing the rocks infested with shrooms with dry rock. I also have MarinePure spheres in my sump that would help with biological filtration.

This is the only way I can think of to rid my tank of these shroom. Would half the live rock I have now, plus the MarinePure spheres be enough to do this successfully?

Livestock:
Melanurus Wrasse
Pair of fancy ocellaris clowns
Coral beauty
Longnose hawkfish
Pj cardinal

90 gallon with trigger ruby 36 sump
Reef octopus 150 skimmer
2- Radion XR15 G4 pro

 

[Pistondog]

Take an old credit card and remove them from rock.
Or trade mushroom infested rock to lfs for credit.

 

[RedReefer]

I would just remove the mushroom rocks and replace with new rock. Slowly not all at one time. Tearing the tank apart will most likely cause other issues.

 

[brandon429]

I once cleared 200 shrooms out of my tank in a thread at nano-reef.com after they built up, dig them out at the base with a flathead screwdriver and press into the rock, that will remove pedal tissue


you can draw off 80% of water as you disassemble to catch for holding and re use

are you going to clean the sand too? It removes waste and buys time for new aging if you don’t mind the work to do it all at once


toss and replace the worst rocks with shrooms


screwdriver scrape the rocks that have only a few and reuse as much old rock as possible. Just as we preserve tanks during home moves, this one can be preserved in place if you want to truly rip clean it bottom to top, to de age it yet skip cycle rebuild for all the same fish and corals and we would work to preserve your coralline looks for the tank, it’s wonderful looking. Moving around all the rocks without a rip clean is unideal it’s best to have the tank waste free when it’s set back up.

if you left that as is, it could go years longer looking great but the invasion will spread. Once you are resolved to deep dive, the rip clean is the safest way because using the most work of all approaches, it isolates sensitives from the waste upwell that changing rocks will cause.

 

[brandon429]

To consider options well before beginning, consider these two semi good matches to your job:

Cooks 105

Build Thread - Cook's 105 Planet Aquariums Crystaline Reef - 48x20

I've had my tank going for two years next month. I'm moving this build over from another forum, so the time stamps aren't going to reflect the original's. I will try to document the original dates as I go. It's also an opportunity to edit my build, there was so much at the beginning I didn't...

www.reef2reef.com

and UKR33fr’s recent rip clean

Algae/Cyano Issue Not Improving, Help Please?

Hi all, I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 that has been up and running for 8 months now. My issue is a strange black algae\cyano growth that has plagued me for the last two months+. I have been treating as follows: cleaning gravel twice weekly 20% water changes twice a week Addition of beneficial...

www.reef2reef.com

do lift out one rock from the bottom area with shrooms and take an hour with a flathead screwdriver cleaned off, and tap up under the feet to wedge them right off, taking bits of rock with you, like when a parrotfish bites off some rock with its algae bite. Have that practiced before you consider the disassembly/ holding / cleaning/ put back together process

 

[JD_Inshore]

I once cleared 200 shrooms out of my tank in a thread at nano-reef.com after they built up, dig them out at the base with a flathead screwdriver and press into the rock, that will remove pedal tissue


you can draw off 80% of water as you disassemble to catch for holding and re use

are you going to clean the sand too? It removes waste and buys time for new aging if you don’t mind the work to do it all at once


toss and replace the worst rocks with shrooms


screwdriver scrape the rocks that have only a few and reuse as much old rock as possible. Just as we preserve tanks during home moves, this one can be preserved in place if you want to truly rip clean it bottom to top, to de age it yet skip cycle rebuild for all the same fish and corals and we would work to preserve your coralline looks for the tank, it’s wonderful looking. Moving around all the rocks without a rip clean is unideal it’s best to have the tank waste free when it’s set back up.

if you left that as is, it could go years longer looking great but the invasion will spread. Once you are resolved to deep dive, the rip clean is the safest way because using the most work of all approaches, it isolates sensitives from the waste upwell that changing rocks will cause.

This is definitely what I had in mind. Since most of the shrooms are on the base of the aquascape I'd have to remove a lot of rock and would definitely be disturbing the sand bed (only 1"-2" deep)
So while I'm in there, might as well clean the 4yr old sand bed also! Using a screwdriver to preserve some of the rock is a great idea, I can definitely implement that. The rock is 4-5 years old so I'd like to save as much as possible. I have room in the sump keep some that doesn't end up in final aquascape if needed.

 

[JD_Inshore]

Sounds like I need 4 Rubbermaid containers. One each for fish, coral, clean rock and infested rock.

Drain saving as much water as possible. Pull rocks and livestock and place in Rubbermaids.
Pull sand and rinse and rinse 1000% clear. (Been reading rip clean threads)
Put sand back in tank, aquascape with clean mushroom free live rock and fill.

I've read parameters do not matter when refilling..just temp and salinity correct?

 

[brandon429]

100% perfect summary

and on the new / renewed setup lower light intensity a week then work back up, feed well

look at that long red goni/ you have some real gems, time and $ there that is no small job. when the live rocks are removed and or scraped free of shroomage, twist them roughly in either old tank water or new made sw, jet out detritus in the pores by rough twisting mid water then set those in clean water for reassembly

sand gets tap insult rinse, then ro at the end. Or just use new pre rinsed sand, either way is equal.

once done, then the sand blast rinsed, literally nothing can cloud and as crazy as it seems the whole thing will skip cycle reassemble even if you removed half your rock in the process. It’s nice to use as little new white rock cuz it will stick out like a sore thumb in all that aged goodness


dont use bottle bac we are against that just like Frank Zappa was against the pmrc, and for the same reasons. Bottle bac is for new tanks, rip cleaning preserves all bac needed on the rocks. Your job will help someone else trust bacteria to remain adhered on down the line and they’ll be a more deliberate reefer having seen it here.

 

[JD_Inshore]

100% perfect summary

and on the new / renewed setup lower light intensity a week then work back up, feed well

look at that long red goni/ you have some real gems, time and $ there that is no small job. when the live rocks are removed and or scraped free of shroomage, twist them roughly in either old tank water or new made sw, jet out detritus in the pores by rough twisting mid water then set those in clean water for reassembly

sand gets tap insult rinse, then ro at the end. Or just use new pre rinsed sand, either way is equal.

once done, then the sand blast rinsed, literally nothing can cloud and as crazy as it seems the whole thing will skip cycle reassemble even if you removed half your rock in the process. It’s nice to use as little new white rock cuz it will stick out like a sore thumb in all that aged goodness


dont use bottle bac we are against that just like Frank Zappa was against the pmrc, and for the same reasons. Bottle bac is for new tanks, rip cleaning preserves all bac needed on the rocks. Your job will help someone else trust bacteria to remain adhered on down the line and they’ll be a more deliberate reefer having seen it here.

Thanks for the insight! Ha, yeah that summary sounded simple but I know it's actually a ton of work. I'm thinking of taking on this job tomorrow since I have the day off. I will definitely take progress pictures to document. Any replacement rocks will be the CaribSea life rock that's purple in color, so hopefully that will help with the new look instead of bright white fresh rocks mixed in.

 

[brandon429]

It’s a perfect plan for sure. I plan on using your scrape work examples on the rocks you can clean up in aiptasia removal threads. This is the #1 way to beat aiptasia, with a screwdriver, above all methods. Here, some rics are about to get the bully beatdown


I got zero regrowth on my shroom removals. all in once pass

why doesn’t anyone have to rip clean due to bounce mushroom takeover

or $400 jawbreakers


only the normal ones get the powerful reproduction dna I guess

 

[JD_Inshore]

It’s a perfect plan for sure. I plan on using your scrape work examples on the rocks you can clean up in aiptasia removal threads. This is the #1 way to beat aiptasia, with a screwdriver, above all methods. Here, some rics are about to get the bully beatdown


I got zero regrowth on my shroom removals. all in once pass

why doesn’t anyone have to rip clean due to bounce mushroom takeover

or $400 jawbreakers


only the normal ones get the powerful reproduction dna I guess

Rip clean complete! Tank is back together and looks great! I'm already much happier about it. Shroom free! Took all day, I'm dead tired. I'll make a detailed post about it tomorrow! Thanks for your help and inspiring the confidence to complete this job. I'll DM you a few photos.

 

[brandon429]

That’s pure dedication to surgically handle these $$ systems all at once, parted out and each mini system on life support at the same time


you did well to balance all this and get the look you want. I am 100% sure it will be safe as you did prevent clouding and that’s the only event that could harm the new setup. I believe the corals will respond well in another day or so and be opened up brightly, cant wait to see tomorrow how it reboots back up