All Live Everything, Tank Reboot

[BostonReefer300]

Tank is looking great! Are you going to eventually epoxy or cement the rocks once you're done tinkering with the scape?

 

[Apollo7235]

Tank is looking great! Are you going to eventually epoxy or cement the rocks once you're done tinkering with the scape?

Thank you!!! And no, I don’t think so. I think I would like to have the freedom to readjust and change things as I see fit, not to mention, my bullseye pistol showed me how incredibly difficult it can be to catch a critter that absolutely does not want to be caught, so I would really prefer to have the freedom to remove things if I need to!

 

[Apollo7235]

So sorry for the lapse in updates; I have been out of state due to a family death, but we are all back home and getting back into the swing of things.

Hubby fed the tank for me for a few days before he flew out to join my daughter and I, then we returned 3 days later to find the tank nearly overflowing and all of my coral aside from my duncan, gorgonian, cloves, and part of my plate coral missing.

I automatically assumed the ATO was to blame, so I immediately turned it off and let it run overnight. Next morning, the water level was even higher. I pulled the Poly-Filter from the overflow line and hoped that would solve the problem. When I got home, the tank was so near overflowing, I couldn’t even put my hand in the water. Upon further inspection, I found the overflow silencing foam was jam packed with junk from when I added the sand and rock to the tank. I pulled it and gave it a good rinse. Fortunately, this solved the problem.

Currently, I do not have the ATO running. The salinity has dropped quite a bit due to the ATO running as the water level in the sump dropped, so I am letting it slowly return to the correct level VIA evaporation.

I also turned the skimmer on the day before yesterday and it has continued to overflow since. Hopefully it rebreaks in within the next week or so.

The mystery of the missing coral: I am assuming one of my pistols buried them. Took quite a bit of sand sifting, but I found them. They’re alright, but not great and won’t open. Hopefully they’ll come back around assuming I can keep them out of the sand.

Beyond all of that, the tank is in what I am assuming is a full on ugly stage. Algae everywhere, but no diatoms or dinos that I can see. I am honestly just letting it ride. I will get a cleanup crew in the next week or two, but that’s literally it. Not sure when I will add more than that. Probably once I see everything thriving, but we’ll see.

As far as critters, I have found a bunch of feather dusters, a white and black banded brittle star (yay!), and what I think is a decent sized aiptasia(?). I also have some kind of coral (??) that I don’t have a clue what it could be, so any suggestions are appreciated!

Ugly Stages?

Feather duster

Mystery coral?

Aiptasia?

white and black banded brittle star

 

[WheatToast]

That's some nice looking Halimeda macroalgae!
Also, have you considered adding a Molly miller blenny (Scartella cristata)? I've heard they are personable and eat Aiptasia as well as nuisance algae.

 

[Apollo7235]

That's some nice looking Halimeda macroalgae!
Also, have you considered adding a Molly miller blenny (Scartella cristata)? I've heard they are personable and eat Aiptasia as well as nuisance algae.

I actually haven’t heard of them, but once my tank stabilizes a bit, I will certainly look into them! Thank you!!

 

[Apollo7235]

Annnnd just kidding, posted separately about all the nasty stringy crap everywhere and the consensus is dinos and some kind of worm’s webs.

That being said, any advice on where to go from here? Water change over the weekend and I’ll siphon as much of the junk as I can out then, but anything else I can do? Or just keep daily feeding and let it ride?

Brown Spiderweb-like Algae

Hi there all, Can anyone please tell me what this is? I just did a full rip clean reboot on my 38-gallon, literally, 100% new everything but equipment with 100% live sand and 100% live rock. It’s been roughly 2ish weeks since the reboot. My plan is to let this thing ride. Don’t know for how...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[WheatToast]

That being said, any advice on where to go from here? Water change over the weekend and I’ll siphon as much of the junk as I can out then, but anything else I can do? Or just keep daily feeding and let it ride?

You reminded me of this thread:
Tigahboy's Macroalgae Tank(s)
Specifically the 2nd post on the 15th page.

Perhaps this could work… but it would require quite a bit of macroalgae.

 

[Apollo7235]

I reached out to John at ReefCleaners (what an amazingly helpful, super nice guy, by the way), and he recommended I aggressively manually remove what I can from the tank and perform a large water change to try and combat the dinos and other algae.

I did a bunch of reading and here is my game plan:

Raise the tank temp to 82 degrees. This is supposedly an ‘immediate’ solution and oftentimes produces large bacterial blooms as a result.

Drastically reduce the photoperiod using the ‘acclimate’ function on my lights beginning at 0% for 5 days.

I will be ready to do a 30-40% water change on Sunday, if necessary. I will also test nitrate and phosphate just to see what I’m working with.

I went ahead and reinstalled my heater a few minutes ago and cranked it up to 82. I’m really hoping the temp doesn’t severely bother my inhabs, but if I don’t get rid of these dinos and algae, they’ll all be smothered.

The good news is my skimmer broke in again, yay! So that is running nicely as of a few minutes ago and I am feeling optimistic. Last night, I saw some bristle worms and what i am assuming to be spaghetti worms come out to eat. I think the 2 bristle stars may actually just be one very large star, but I suppose we will see once it really comes out of hiding.

The microscope will be here this evening, so I will probably try to take a look at what’s really going on in there tomorrow.

Here are some photos from last night just for the sake of a starting point:

 

[BostonReefer300]

I'm not sure the webs are dinos. While some dino types don't show a huge amount of bubbles, most at least show some. And I'm not sure I see bubbles in the webs----trapped detritus maybe instead. However, maybe it's just my bad eyesight. Anyway, the microscope will help you figure it out if it is dinos. If not dinos, it could be a bacterial bloom. In any case, let's see what the microscopic examination shows.

 

[WheatToast]

Updates?

 

[Apollo7235]

Updates?

Yes, so sorry!

Things have been insane; hubby tested positive for Covid and things have just not slowed down, but here I am!
I think I can say things are actually getting better; the dinos are not returning like they were and my little duncan is sprouting two new heads! Unfortunately, my poor NPS are suffering. I am going to try to help them and get them all deep in some shaded areas, but I have been afraid to move them since the pistols have been causing regular rock slides. I think I finally have the rocks in solid positions now, though, so hopefully that helps.

I have been following a controversial method to get rid of the dinos:

- raise the temp to 82 degrees F (my tank has been around 83-84 because of this ridiculous Florida heat)

- dose Vibrant at full dose every other day (at least twice a week, for me)

- scrub the rocks when I can and the glass regularly

-run the skimmer (what I’m assuming is) ‘dry’ and leave it unemptied. Yeah, it’s gross.

-heavy feed/overfeed

-no water changes

This far, I have certainly seen some results. Definitely a significant decrease in the dinos and an increase in some actual green algae, and I’ll take it! I’ll take algae over dinos any day; at least CUC eats most algae!

Anyway, here we are right this second:

 

[Apollo7235]

Oh, and by the way, the microscope didn’t work out. The light wouldn’t turn on so I had to return it. I just haven’t had a chance to buy another one, but especially now that things seem to be on the mend, I’m not sure I need one. I actually just reached out to John at ReefCleaners about it and we’ll see what he says!

 

[WheatToast]

Another suggestion. You could try to make your aquascape more "cohesive" by wedging rubble into the crevices where your rocks meet. They have live rubble at Salty Bottom Reef Company and there are several dry options on Amazon.

Also, is that a CPR Return Jet in the corner? Has it worked for you well? I have enjoyed using mine so far.

 

[Apollo7235]

Another suggestion. You could try to make your aquascape more "cohesive" by wedging rubble into the crevices where your rocks meet. They have live rubble at Salty Bottom Reef Company and there are several dry options on Amazon.

Also, is that a CPR Return Jet in the corner? Has it worked for you well? I have enjoyed using mine so far.

I would honestly love to be able to tell you, but since BRS bought out MarineDepot, I can’t access my order history so I have no idea which return I have, ugh!

I do like it, though!!

I definitely like that idea about the rubble!! I’ll certainly have to look into it in the future. For now, though, I am really just trying to find some stability, get rid of the dinos, clear up the algae, and work on maintaining a beautiful, clean reef!

thank you so much for the suggestion though, I will definitely be looking into it in the (hopefully) near future!!

 

[Apollo7235]

Update!

As of today, things are looking quite…. Green, hahahaha

So, I put in that order I mentioned with ReefCleaners, to ship Tuesday, should come in Wednesday, YAY!

I ordered some fun stuff along with the necessities. I tried to keep from ordering hermits, but I just…couldn’t do it, ahahaha

Order is as follows:

(8) Astraea snails
(50) Dwarf ceriths
(17) Florida ceriths
(5) Mexican turbo snails
(4) Nassarius vibes snails (I have 5 already)
(14) Nerite snails
(2) Bumblebee snails
(5) Spiny astraea snails
(1) Blue eyed hermit
(1) Blue knuckle hermit
(1) Halloween hermit
Assorted hermit shells
(1) Pod pack, so I can hopefully keep a mandarin and a ruby dragonet in the future to make hubby happy, haha!

I will also be placing an order with Dr. Reef for a fully quarantine Yellow Coris Wrasse and a Randall’s Prawn Goby. Very exciting!

Really hoping this new and improved CUC helps me finish getting this tank on track!

 

[Apollo7235]

So, call me crazy, but I think I see improvement. This is my first time dealing with any of this, so hopefully my educated guesses are pretty near the mark!

08/12/21: Dino outbreak

08/24/21: Dino recession, algae bloom

08/29/21: What I believe to be further dino recession, further algae growth

CUC should be here later this week, so we’ll see what happens once they get to mowing!

In the mean time, I cleaned the skimmer and will be removing the heater so the tank can go back to riding between 76 and 78. We’ll see what happens!

 

[Apollo7235]

YOU GUYS.

I am so excited to share what I just ordered, but FIRST, let me leave some very positive feedback for John over at ReefCleaners. He is absolutely amazing and I HIGHLY recommend him and his products.

My order came exactly when I expected it to, early because I am local in Florida, and everything was packaged so nicely.

Acclimating and adding everything to my tank was a breeze. Instead of shipping 20 bags full of water, they shipped 20 bags with very wet paper towels which made it extremely easy to add my new inhabs very quickly. I had only 2 DOA’s: 1 Mexican Turbo that my other inhabs are happily munching away on and another Mexican Turbo which turned out to be just an empty shell, haha. An honest mistake. The Halloween Hermit was missing from my order and the pods didn’t show any movement, so I reached out to John and he immediately refunded the two dead snails, pods, and missing hermit. I was a little disappointed because I would honestly have rather just had them sent to me because I really want that hermit, but I get it. Shipping is expensive and he’s a small business.

No worries, though. Everything else in my order is very healthy and motoring around the tank. The blue knuckled hermit is STUNNING. If I can get a good photo of him, I will post it for your viewing pleasure. I highly recommend.

On to why I am so excited: ReefCleaners just happened to get more Pom Pom Crabs in stock and I was already planning on placing a second order to replace my DOA and no-show inhabs!

A Pom Pom has always been one of those ‘man, I sure hope some day I have the opportunity to keep one of these guys in my tank, but I’m sure it will never happen’ kind of things, but here is my opportunity!!

I seriously can’t wait, I’m SO excited. With this order I bought the following:

(2) replacement Mexican Turbos
(1) replacement Halloween Hermit
(1) Pom Pom Crab (YAY!)
(1) ornamented Decorator Crab


And then I’m DONE until after I get my Yello Coris Wrasse and Randall’s Prawn Goby from Dr. Reef (I was advised these should ship some time after next weekend).

Anyway, here is a shot of the tank from yesterday after I added my new CUC!

 

[LRT]

Don't be afraid to pull that rock out weekly and scrub vigorously. I actually went super old school with my premium gulf rock and rinsed it after I scrubbed for 5-15 seconds in bath tub with plain old tap water at tank temp. I have a high powered spray nozzle I picked up for this.
Key word is don't be afraid with that. The old school guys used to take all new live rock out back at lfs at wash with power sprayers when needed during there curing process. Your not going to kill your rock I promise.
And there's just something about the fresh tap that really gets the nuisance algae to stop growing at surface level.
Pretty sure Dans premium gulf rock has a minimum of 15yr soak on it if it remember correctly.
Be careful around hitchiker corals you want to keep. Having said that I never lost one I didn't want to lose with this technique.

 

[Apollo7235]

Don't be afraid to pull that rock out weekly and scrub vigorously. I actually went super old school with my premium gulf rock and rinsed it after I scrubbed for 5-15 seconds in bath tub with plain old tap water at tank temp. I have a high powered spray nozzle I picked up for this.
Key word is don't be afraid with that. The old school guys used to take all new live rock out back at lfs at wash with power sprayers when needed during there curing process. Your not going to kill your rock I promise.
And there's just something about the fresh tap that really gets the nuisance algae to stop growing at surface level.
Pretty sure Dans premium gulf rock has a minimum of 15yr soak on it if it remember correctly.
Be careful around hitchiker corals you want to keep. Having said that I never lost one I didn't want to lose with this technique.

My primary concern is all of the sponges, clams and feather dusters on the rock. I loooove them. The sponges are bright red and orange and the feathers are just beautiful in their own right.

I haven’t scrubbed the rock much, but now that it seems like the dinos are all but gone, I will take the toothbrush to what I can gently reach this weekend. I can actually already see the difference in the rock since the Mexican turbos and Astraeas have gone to work on them, so I am optimistic!

 

[Apollo7235]

I am so beyond happy with the progress of my tank.

09/11:

I truly cannot even express the relief I have felt this week as I have enjoyed this beautiful landscape and all of the life it has faithfully sustained.

It looks like the dinos have almost completely receded. I had tried removing the heater and letting the tank ride, but they can back terribly, to the point that I actually ordered the Dr. Tim’s treatment. Thankfully, I didn’t have to use it. The tank has been right around 82.3-82.5 F and all has been well.

Now that things have started going so well, I am honestly terrified to touch it, but I know that I need to start replenishing the trace minerals and get back into a consistent maintenance routine. I think I will test some parameters tomorrow (for the first time in I don’t even know how long) and see if nutrients are reasonable. If so, I will find a solid dosing solution, if not, I suppose I will need to figure out a non-disruptive water change schedule to help with export.

Thank you all for following along and hanging with me on this wild ride! I will post some livestock photos once I have the opportunity to capture them!