Zombie tank, can it be saved

[Sticker shock]

Years back I bought everything I needed to build an overflow sump. I got all the goodies, built my own sump and kind of chickened out on actually plumbing it. Well today I finally dove in and put it together.

I think I did all the checks needed so that I don’t flood my basement. I killed the return pump, broke the siphon, ensure the float switch kills the return before auto top off kicks in. Am I missing any?

Now that I have it built, I have a bit of wire organization to do.

 

[Reefing102]

Looks good!

 

[Sticker shock]

The berghia have arrived!!! I got 12 and I think I’m going to put 9 in the display and 3 in my sump. My wrasse is still in the display so I’m a bit nervous he will find them before they can do their job. But he sleeps at night so hopefully it’ll work. If not I can move rocks into the sump for the outsiders to clean

 

[Sticker shock]

In some of my low flow areas, I am getting some of that red slime algae growing back. I've been vacuuming it out and so far it hasn't been much of an issue. With that said I'm planning on setting up a Tunze macro algae reactor and thinking about also getting a UV unit. Is this a bit of overkill? Prior to my letting the tank fall apart, I did have dinos, so I am anxious that they could return. Would just the algae reactor help prevent both dinos and red slime? Or is UV really the game changer that everyone seems to make it out to be. I really don't want to deal with dinos again as it makes reefing terrible. I preferred my overgrown aiptasia farm to that.

I could just add the algae reactor and see how that plays out, but at the same time I'd rather just get it all set up at once and not have to dig in to the plumbing again.

 

[Sticker shock]

I also still have this brownish algae, I'm not sure if its hair algae or bacterial. It grows super fast but really only on the glass, and some of the new rocks I've recently added. Scrapes off super easy, but it starts growing back by the end of the day. I'll run my tests again today, and my bet is they are in the acceptable range. Most likely because whatever this is, is using up the excess.

 

[Reefing102]

Might just be a film algae

 

[Sticker shock]

Might just be a film algae

Check out post #103, there is a picture there. That is probably 3 days growth. Astrea seems to like it.

 

[Sticker shock]

Berghia in the sump are certainly making progress. I added a zoa rock that was pretty covered in aiptasia and 3 berghia. Now there are noticeably less aiptasia and I see some egg spirals. Once I see the numbers on the rock get even lower I'll start moving other rocks in there. I can't tell if anything is happening in the display. I'm sure they are doing there job, but there is just to much going on to see day to day changes.

 

[Sticker shock]

Here's where I stand at about a month post overhaul. I have some crazy type of algae that I'm working against, but it hasn't been a nightmare. The aiptasia seem to be diminishing between my peppermint, berghia, and manual removal. I've been fairly proactive in blasting waste out of the sand bed, so the cyano is mostly cleared up. It is still appearing on my rocks in places. My nitrates have seemingly crashed and phosphate is slowly rising. Nitrate are currently at 0 and Phos is at .2. I think I upped the filtration way too much. To correct this I tried upping the feedings, but I just don't think I have enough fish to produce the nitrate I need. I cut the skimmer run time to 10 hours at night, and started adding amino acids, and will start dosing nitrates (maybe ammonia), but need to study up first. I have a macro algae reactor all plumbed but I haven't added anything yet as I don't want to strip any other nutrients out until I get things balanced. I'll also soon be adding a bioweapon in UV and see if that helps with this crazy algae I have. Anyway here's a little vid soon after wake up (I run my tank pretty blue, but the camera makes it look very blue):

 

[Rp8]

Looking good! I’m sure it feels good to start seeing improvements! Keep at it!

 

[Sticker shock]

Still haven't seen much of anything from the berghia in the display tank. The sump however I've seen a few egg spirals and what I think may be baby berghia. So I'm hoping to start seeing some progress on the aiptasia war.

 

[FishTruck]

It will be a few months before aips are eradicated by the berghia. Keep hitting the visible aips with kalkpaste just to hold them down while the Berghia breed. One day, they’ll stop coming back.

 

[Sticker shock]

It will be a few months before aips are eradicated by the berghia. Keep hitting the visible aips with kalkpaste just to hold them down while the Berghia breed. One day, they’ll stop coming back.

Right, everything I read is about people feel like they are not working until 2 or 3 months and they notice all the aiptasia have cleared up. It's clear these things breed like crazy. There are three egg spirals that I can see, so who knows how many others there are. I feel like a mass swarm is about to be released in my tank. With the number of aiptasia I figure it'll support a fairly large crew of berghia to adult sizes. Hopefully I can rehome a good group if they are able to take of of my tank first.

 

[Sticker shock]

Ok, feel like I’m making some progress. I hooked up a 25 watt UV and have that running at about 500 gph.

Began dosing nitrates and aminos so that I raise my nitrates and hopefully lower phosphate (.14)

I have a little bit of hair algae but nothing terrible. Astrea snails seem pretty psyched about it

Saw a berghia in the display last night, so hopefully others are still plugging along with him. And I can see about 5 egg swirls in the sump.

Thinking about possibly adding a bristle tooth, coral beauty, and a ruby red dragonette or maybe Midas blenny

Cinnamon clown has dug out a huge pit under the anemone, so I’m guessing there may be eggs in the near future. She’s also become fairly aggressive. Would additional fish help this or make it worse. Right now my wrasse is taking the brunt of the aggression.

 

[Sticker shock]

20+ days since berghia arrived and I’m finally seeing some progress. Still have aiptasia everywhere, but at least there are now some cleared areas. I usually see one or two berghia a night so they are still plugging along. Here’s an updated blue light special

 

[Jmp998]

Looks like you're making great progress.

 

[Sticker shock]

Looks like you're making great progress.

Yeah, everything is running like it should. This last hurdle with the aiptasia is just going to take some time. If the berghia don’t get it done I’ll probably try a copperband butterfly

 

[Sticker shock]

My leopard wrasse has found a fun new thing. He swims close to his burrow, dives beneath the sand. and stirs up a massive sandstorm. My female clown hates this and aggressively chases the wrasse around the tank for a few seconds every time. I had to re-mount a few frags of hammer corals on a larger rock as this digging was where I planned my little euphyllia garden.

I also added a Tomini Tang and a Starry Blenny to the tank. Both seemed to have settled in pretty well.

I'd still like to add a dragonette and possibly a pygmy angel (flame or coral beauty probably) I'm a little nervous about adding an angel from the nipping stories I've read.

 

[PokeFish]

My leopard wrasse has found a fun new thing. He swims close to his burrow, dives beneath the sand. and stirs up a massive sandstorm. My female clown hates this and aggressively chases the wrasse around the tank for a few seconds every time. I had to re-mount a few frags of hammer corals on a larger rock as this digging was where I planned my little euphyllia garden.

I also added a Tomini Tang and a Starry Blenny to the tank. Both seemed to have settled in pretty well.

I'd still like to add a dragonette and possibly a pygmy angel (flame or coral beauty probably) I'm a little nervous about adding an angel from the nipping stories I've read.

tank is looking great!

 

[Sticker shock]

Decided to help out the berghia by zapping a few aiptasia with Aiptasia X. I had a couple giant anemones that look like they could take out a fish. So far the biggest has half disintegrated, but it looks like it might take another shot to fully kill it. It quickly wiped out a few smaller aiptasia that got a dose