Zombie tank, can it be saved

[Reefing102]

Just cleaning the front glass was a huge step forward.

As mentioned, cleaning/disturbing the sand bed may lead to a bad ending but the risk is up to you

 

[7of9]

I know this is hard work, but it's already making a big difference!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a 75 gallon reef. It’s been about 2 years since I’ve done more than top off and feed. It’s a nightmare…tank is like the walking dead, somehow staggering forward when it should have been dead and buried.

What happened was, my oldest daughter got sick and my tank became something I just didn’t have the time or desire to upkeep. I was barely able to keep myself employed as my entire family was shook. Now with her doing much better, she has asked me to start picking up some of my old hobbies again. I was practically ordered to start with fixing the reef.

So here we are loaded with algae, and completely overrun by aiptasia. I really don’t even know where to start. I have 12 gallons of water mixing and I literally scooped out some of the algae from the front glass so I could get a read on what I’ll be dealing with.

I’ve never been great at keeping a reef, so trying to heal this thing will be a
Monumental effort. Pray for me and feel free to offer up any suggestions.

I’m starting by clearing the scum on top of the water

Next I’m hitting the my pumps and mag float.

Then I’m going to clean up the front glass

I’m not sure what to do with the back and sides as it looks like I was farming aiptasia…there are literally thousands

I want to order a batch of Bergia, but I did have a leopard wrasse (haven’t seen him yet, but it is past his bedtime)

I put up a couple pics so you can either laugh at me or commiserate. You can see I cleared a little algae from the front glass. And then the back glass you can see that wonderful aiptasia farm.

For the algae, I assume the tank is at or near a window?
I would shave the algae with the edge of a credit card or similar tool and pull GHA by hand if present and do a good siphoning. Assure Phos and nitrate levels not elevated.
Reduce white intensity therafter and add snails such as :
Fighting conch
astrea
turbo grazer
cerith
nassarius
Ninja star

Tuxedo or pencil urchin(s)
Sea-hare I would not place Unless you can return for credit or rehome as they will eventually starve and they are best with GHA

It will take time but the effort will pay. Not just aquariums, but in hobby time allows things to get away on us.

 

[Reefolution]

Remove the long algae manually then add some urchins. They will keep it mowed down till it's under control.

 

[billyocean]

It's not really that bad...you have bacteria so its not like starting with dry rock. Manual removal with as much as you can. Grab the berghias and aforementioned cleanup crew and let them go to work. You could do the rip clean for an intense but quicker fix and go from there also. Either way, it's been 2 years so what's another few months to get where you want to be? Glad to hear things are on the up and up!

 

[dtruitt]

I had a similar period where my tank wasn't getting the attention it needed.

What helped for me was taking it back to basics for a while. When you're feeding a tightly controlled diet, running a skimmer, running a refugium, running phosban, dosing with pumps, and running the lights on high your tanks ecosystem is balancing on a knife's edge.

We change our import / export techniques and lights and pumps to treat specific symptoms we encounter as we build our tanks. Once your tank has been on a downswing for a little while, the old rules don't apply anymore. If your export was previously nitrogen limited, now it might be phosphorous limited. Your carbonate consumption may go up or down unpredictably, your fish might need more food as they grow, your old 3 pump flow design probably breaks down when your pumps get dirty.

Rip cleaning is probably the way to go, but if you don't have the motivation for it yet, you will absolutely see results if you start changing more water, feed more, and test often and dose by hand.

Feeding more is important because your N and P are quite likely out of balance with that much algae. You can try to take the scientific approach and dose one or the other, but if you are changing 20%+ at least once a week feeding 3 - 4 more times a week should eventually get it closer to "balanced."

Dosing by hand is important because dosers fail when things are good and your tanks needs will probably change a lot as you get it back to normal. It's also another easy tank chore where you're likely to scrape and pull chunks of algae while you're doing it.

 

[Superd513]

I really think with the right cleanup crew x2 you can fix this. Maybe try Brightwell Micro Bacter Clean also. Good project for you and your Daughter to work on together. Other than the aiptasia it doesn't look bad. I've seen worse tanks.

 

[Superd513]

I really think with the right cleanup crew x2 you can fix this. Maybe try Brightwell Micro Bacter Clean also. Good project for you and your Daughter to work on together. Other than the aiptasia it doesn't look bad. I've seen worse tanks.

If your nutrients are out of wack i woud carbon dose with Tropic Marin products to get them where they need. i use them with good results.

 

[Jmp998]

That is a lot of Aiptasia. If you don't rip clean, Berghia might be a good option but will take a while. Do you have any shrimp/crabs left or predatory fish?

 

[Sticker shock]

I really think with the right cleanup crew x2 you can fix this. Maybe try Brightwell Micro Bacter Clean also. Good project for you and your Daughter to work on together. Other than the aiptasia it doesn't look bad. I've seen worse tanks.

Actually had her mix up her first batch of water. She’s never taken much interest in the maintenance but she’s always been a fan of watching the corals and made sure to name all the fish and critters

 

[Sticker shock]

I do have a leopard wrasse so I’m not sure how well berghia will fare with him roaming the tank. I still haven’t even ran a test for anything yet. All that’s been done has been to scoop out a half gallon of hair algae and did a 12 gallon water change. I figure I’ll just keep up with water changes every few days to get things humming again. I also have to consider changing out my bulbs as I’m sure those aren’t helping. No idea how old those are. Probably about 3 years on the T5s and I’ve had the same AI Primes since I started the tank.

Also the rock work…I should probably drop about half of it. So many dead spots. Pretty much impossible to keep clean

 

[Sticker shock]

Also my skimmer pump’s impeller broke. Any ideas if they sell just the impeller kit? Or do I need an entire new pump?

 

[Sticker shock]

At least I know that if this reef never comes back around I can always start a small berghia farm. I’m great at growing aiptasia.

 

[Reaper1186]

get you some nudibranchs for sure, maybe some peppermint shrimp, check your perameters, scrap your glass and maybe change some media and go from there

 

[Jmp998]

Berghia or peppermints, not both. Peppermints may eat the Berghia.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Also my skimmer pump’s impeller broke. Any ideas if they sell just the impeller kit? Or do I need an entire new pump?

Yes you can buy just the impeller.

 

[Sticker shock]

I did find the part I needed. Any opinions on CoralVue? All I needed was the impeller shaft. Prices for the full impeller were close to the cost of the entire pump.

 

[Sticker shock]

I pulled a couple huge pieces of rock out. Had to chisel a few corals off of them, but I think this is going to make a huge change for nutrient removal. Stirred up a literal **** storm. All the detritus that had gathered in those dead zones went everywhere. My tank is not happy right now.
I had a nice looking sps that was doing pretty good in the past, but ended up covered in algae. I think there is still some living tissue left, but I need to scrub it. Can those handle a soft tooth brush or is that way too abrasive? Realize that it’s pretty much a goner and this is a last grasp to save it. I feel like a peroxide dip would be too much at this point.

 

[Sticker shock]

Here is a video of where I started:

 

[Sticker shock]