Best way to re-scape using existing rock

[Miamialum620]

I’ve got this continuous hair algae problem and I have to brush my tank often just to keep it at bay. While brushing helps I can’t fully clear the rock of it which leads it to keep coming back. Naturally the questions would be what are your parameters, lighting schedule, type of water being used. I’m running my light for 8 hours, recently bought a 6 stage BRS RODI unit, and parameters according to my kit are all in line.
What I would like to do is find a way to restart my tank without losing any beneficial bacteria I may have. Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

 

[brandon429]

here is literally a whole thread on that, not to overload but because we're darn good at delivering what you mentioned. I don't know how many before and after complete jobs are in here, hundreds. all of them are what you requested.

Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

What you are really in for: Hand cleaning, hard work siphon and rasp-removing of accumulations and invasions outside the tank and doing massive water changes is 90% of this thread, peroxide is 10%. We almost never dose peroxide into the tank water, this is a you-work-physically-hard as catch-up...

www.reef2reef.com

the reason cleaning is such a large portion of work there is because rescaping and fixing tanks that have varying degrees of waste build up results in recycles, its not lack of bacteria.

 

[brandon429]

key details you will not find commonly advised, but in play there its why we don't lose any reefs:

you have to deep clean even though that seems bad/antibacterial. its probiotic, not antibiotic, because the entire point of what you want is restored surface area. something you add or dose adds mass, we need export of it instead. algae reduces it and plugging from waste reduces live rock contact with wastewater and thereby lessens filtration.

we make it breathe and open up that's why all the tanks look great.

this isn't a sales pitch, its an explanation for fifteen years of work logged we can click to see its a done deal, this is just how we think it works.

losing bacteria has never occurred, and some of those jobs are massive and in reefs worth twenty grand. we can tame your average home reef, that's for sure. and unplug it...

sandbed cleaning is a big part of the final job

no need to read for hours, the first link there is a perfect nano running the job w pics.

 

[Miamialum620]

I’ve got a 32g biocube. Should I just give everything a good brushing and then apply peroxide to the spots still on the rock work?

 

[brandon429]

unfortunately there needs to be some separation between areas that retain waste and your sensitive creatures, we better plan a bit and brainstorm just to be safe before digging in.

can u post a pic, if its not very bad grown then its likely ok to do a lesser job but that total bottom to top rip clean from first thread in the post is a 32 I think, very thorough. lets see pics

*id say 80% of tanks can move rocks and disturb things fine. the 20% who can't like this guy below I don't want to cause so we always tend towards deep cleaning even though it seems unsafe. partial cleaning is unsafe ironically

Upgrade disaster

Recently had a huge leak in our 90 gal reef which forced us to upgrade sooner than expected . The upgrade being a 230 gal with a 48 gal sump . Mistake #1 I added some of the old sand assuming it would be beneficial to have a little bacteria .. I was wrong . Nuked the whole tank killing all fish...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Miamialum620]

unfortunately there needs to be some separation between areas that retain waste and your sensitive creatures, we better plan a bit and brainstorm just to be safe before digging in.

can u post a pic, if its not very bad grown then its likely ok to do a lesser job but that total bottom to top rip clean from first thread in the post is a 32 I think, very thorough. lets see pics

*id say 80% of tanks can move rocks and disturb things fine. the 20% who can't like this guy below I don't want to cause so we always tend towards deep cleaning even though it seems unsafe. partial cleaning is unsafe ironically

Upgrade disaster

Recently had a huge leak in our 90 gal reef which forced us to upgrade sooner than expected . The upgrade being a 230 gal with a 48 gal sump . Mistake #1 I added some of the old sand assuming it would be beneficial to have a little bacteria .. I was wrong . Nuked the whole tank killing all fish...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

I have a direct analog thread for that reef right there using only two reef examples below, worked exactly in the safe way its this one next post

very nice tank, we can move that w ease pls take pics so we can build up examples:

 

[brandon429]

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

that's the safe pattern. see how the tanks were rip cleaned where they sit

total sandbed perfection, no cloud

rocks...cannot be twisted harshly around in water and casts off waste, they already did that during cleaning.

in both the sand and the rocks, in the two final pics, both the rocks and sand had no clouding waste not one iota see how thorough that was

we can relocate the clean condition tank any number of times and it will never fail. if we move any portion of waste, loss is the risk.

notice how we attack the sandbed with tap water, that's so integral and cannot be customized. not even RO, has to be tap for a specific reason of total safety and RO rinsing sandbed is not. moving tanks is a world of opposites to the common rule

(the only reason anyone rinses with RO is because they fear bacteria loss, which tap water will strip totally. The key is waste. when using partial rinsing with RO we leave in waste, and with tap, its a limitless rinse blast which is clean. the rocks were handled in saltwater, their bacteria are all that matters)

if any of these rules sound crazy, they're right there above as a step model and after analysis.