To re-scape or not to re-scape

corey.nolta · Oct 27, 2016

I have had an ongoing problem for close to a year with elevated nitrates and phosphates. I have tried everything that has been suggested; more frequent water changes, less frequent water changes (was suggested I was maybe doing too many water changes and wasn't giving the bacteria enough time), I upgraded to a larger skimmer, added gfo, reduced feeding (pretty sure it's not enough now as I've noticed my foxface isn't as plump as he used to be), added more flow to the tank to eliminate dead spots, upgraded from a RO unit to an RO/DO unit. Still nothing has helped. Granted my levels aren't sky high, but enough that I am always battling algae and high enough that most sps just flat out look ******, if they don't die off that is.

Typically nitrates are between 15-20 ppm and phosphate is on the higher side of .25. Through trial and error, I've come to the conclusion it's the rock itself. I purchased 90% of my rock from a tank tear down sale. He had his tank set up for a solid 5 years. Plus the two years I've had it. So it's going on 7 years. I'm sure it's pretty dirty and full of crap. I try to blow it out with a turkey baster every water change, but that only get's so much.

My questions is this. I've been wanting to rescape my rock work for a while now (plus i have a dead fish somewhere in the rock work decaying). What would happen if I took all the rock out and gave it several good swishes in fresh salt water to really deep clean it..and then continued with a re-scape. Would that create havoc in the tank and cause a new cycle???? Thoughts and opinions??
Thanks a ton!!!!

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 27, 2016

corey.nolta said:
I have had an ongoing problem for close to a year with elevated nitrates and phosphates. I have tried everything that has been suggested; more frequent water changes, less frequent water changes (was suggested I was maybe doing too many water changes and wasn't giving the bacteria enough time), I upgraded to a larger skimmer, added gfo, reduced feeding (pretty sure it's not enough now as I've noticed my foxface isn't as plump as he used to be), added more flow to the tank to eliminate dead spots, upgraded from a RO unit to an RO/DO unit. Still nothing has helped. Granted my levels aren't sky high, but enough that I am always battling algae and high enough that most sps just flat out look ******, if they don't die off that is.

Typically nitrates are between 15-20 ppm and phosphate is on the higher side of .25. Through trial and error, I've come to the conclusion it's the rock itself. I purchased 90% of my rock from a tank tear down sale. He had his tank set up for a solid 5 years. Plus the two years I've had it. So it's going on 7 years. I'm sure it's pretty dirty and full of crap. I try to blow it out with a turkey baster every water change, but that only get's so much.

My questions is this. I've been wanting to rescape my rock work for a while now (plus i have a dead fish somewhere in the rock work decaying). What would happen if I took all the rock out and gave it several good swishes in fresh salt water to really deep clean it..and then continued with a re-scape. Would that create havoc in the tank and cause a new cycle???? Thoughts and opinions??
Thanks a ton!!!!

It's a deep clean yes. I really like my canister filter when I do it. The $60 one from Amazon is what I have. No meda just floss and carbon maybe some gfo. Then a water change. If you have some algae spots it not a bad idea it add it to the wash water and then rinse well. And scrub too.

It's a personal call really as I can't see how muc ferrous you have. You may want to take some rich and Make a temp QT holding tank for the fish and maybe coral.

There could be some nasties in there.

corey.nolta · Oct 27, 2016

I'll have to see if my old canister filter still works. I have it laying around somewhere! If I remove all (~100#) rock and dunk/swish it in new salt water, and place it back in the tank, is that going to cause a mini cycle? I'm confident my issues are from all the nasties in the rock. Or will deep cleaning all the rock at once just cause a whole new set of issues>?