Thoughts on tank reboot plan?

[Peach02]

So I’m restarting my minireef 120 due to aptasia, vertemid snails and some potential remaining fish parasites. What do you guys think of the plan to clean the tank

steps

1. Remove all rock and remaining coral
2. Catch out fish and put into TTM
3. Take out equipment and deep clean (scrub, soak in freshwater for a day and dry for a day)
4. Drain tank + sump and scrub clean then soak in freshwater for a day
5. Drain tank + sump and let dry for a day
6. Put new aquascape, live sand and bio media in tank and refill + dose bacteria
7. After a few days add coral back after dipping
8. After fish finish QT add back to tank and monitor ammonia (tank would have 10 days+ to cycle more if I add an observation period to QT
   
   do you all think this would get rid of aptasia, vertemid snails, most bristle worms and any remaining fish pests (coral has already been quarantined for aptasia, parasites and snails). I wouldn’t be able to soak the overflow where some aptasia is though but it would be dry for 2 days

 

[PBar]

Seems like a plan to me... just few possible concerns/remarks:
1) since it is a reboot.... don’t forget to clean the pipes (return). Probably there are many vertemid snails there. If you can’t, let it dry then indeed.
2) it would be nice to wait a bit longer to reintroduce the animals... otherwise the risk of losing animals or ugly algae phase is a bit high.
I assume that you will use dry rock, right? It takes time to mature...

3) and the most important one!
which corals are you reintroducing?
I’m asking because if it is all sps, you just cut the base and there is extremely low probability of introducing any pests... otherwise, you can have the same problems all over again.
As you mentioned, you will have to quarantine always everything.
Zoanthus rocks are really tricky...

Good luck!

 

[Peach02]

Seems like a plan to me... just few possible concerns/remarks:
1) since it is a reboot.... don’t forget to clean the pipes (return). Probably there are many vertemid snails there. If you can’t, let it dry then indeed.
2) it would be nice to wait a bit longer to reintroduce the animals... otherwise the risk of losing animals or ugly algae phase is a bit high.
I assume that you will use dry rock, right? It takes time to mature...

3) and the most important one!
which corals are you reintroducing?
I’m asking because if it is all sps, you just cut the base and there is extremely low probability of introducing any pests... otherwise, you can have the same problems all over again.
As you mentioned, you will have to quarantine always everything.
Zoanthus rocks are really tricky...

Good luck!

1. Will do, not sure if I’ll be able to get inside some of the pipes properly though
2. I’ll try think of a way to keep them in a cycled tank longer, maybe move coral out of frag tank, put old media in frag tank and the fish in there for a week or two
3. Unfortunately mainly torches hammers and softies to hard to eradicate pests from them but no aptasia in frag tank and haven’t seen snails for a while.
Thanks

 

[PBar]

Ok, at least good news!
Let‘s see if there are any other suggestions... otherwise, good luck!

 

[Djhype97]

Peach02, any update on this? I’m thinking of doing a similar process except I intend to take some of the ceramic bio spheres to seed new dry rock. I don’t know if that will have any negative impact? Thoughts?

 

[Waters]

You could always run some vinegar/fresh water through the system to clean out the pipes.

 

[Peach02]

Ended up being a slightly different plan due to things going sideways but here’s what I did
1. Took out all rock and coral, moved the coral to a frag tank / holding tank
2. Took all the equipment out and cleaned it and let it dry (still haven’t gotten around to reinstalling everything alot of things going on atm)
3. Caught all the fish crabs and snail and put them in styrofoam box which leaked, then another which leaked again before an esky which held thankfully, I couldn’t follow through with TTM because I didn’t have enough containers and families patience was getting thin with so much space taken up and spills.
4. Took the tank and sump out, cleaned them with scraper, sponge and hose and let them sit for 3 days I didn’t soak them though because I couldn’t find a surface strong enough to hold them (table got attacked by termites and putting cabinet in most places would get in the way
5. Put new scape sand and bio media from frag tank, moved coral and fish into tank

now letting tank restablish itself and going to QT some new corals and snails soon, no signs of aptasia however unfortunately my blenny passed a week or so ago, not 100% sure why but I suspect a purple tang I rescued and am letting heal before working out what to do with it (it’s still very small but has HLLE) is the culprit

my skimmer has also been playing up, whenever I turn it on it constantly overflows and I haven’t been able to dial it in. Not sure if I put it back together wrong or somthing else is happening