Can this aquarium be saved?

[MrGrub]

Hi, I am taking over this aquarium and I do not know how to make it nicer and healthier. Can this be saved at all? I have kept tropical fish most of my life so I know a thing or two, but this would be a first salt water for me. This has been running for at least 4 years.

Setup:
55 gal tank
7-ish gal sump
2 power heads, return pump, heaters, ATO, etc. (all seem decent quality)
2x Red Sea 90 LED lights

Livestock:
2x clown fish (regular flavor)
6 line wrasse
Goby + pistol(?) shrimp pair
Blood fire(?) shrimp
“handful” of crabs and snails
All livestock seems healthy – active, eating, no signs or disease of any kind.

Corals (sorry if I got names wrong):
Green palys
7+ different zoanths
Toadstool
Some mushrooms
Birds nest
Psammacora
Favia
Hammers
Some sort of macro algae I think
And few other I do not know the names of

Issues and possible fixes:
Algae and / or bacteria bloom – there is Chaeto in the sump but I am thinking about removing it completely and adding a good quality skimmer. Also adjust light intensity and schedule. Water changes. Am I on the right track here?
Vermetidae snails – there are 20 that I can see - cut them and super glue ends should get rid of most of them.
And now the biggest issue – over 100 Aiptasia…
From what I know the only way to remove them would be to nuke the whole setup?
I imagine they’re everywhere – in sump and all the plumbing. I could take that apart and clean but what do I do with display tank?
I have a 15 gal and 5 gal spare aquariums I could set up as quarantine tanks.
What would be the best way to approach Aiptasia problem here?
If starting fresh is the only way should I setup 15 gal for fish for couple of months or just give them away?
I don’t know if its possible to save any of the corals and if so, what would be the best way to do it?

Is it worth time and effort to try and save it?

I haven’t tested the water yet but it ‘seems ok judging by how corals and fish look’ and I will test in few days when tests get here.

Thanks for all the help.

And sorry if I used some wrong terms and for poor quality photos.

 

[Saltyreef]

Looks like a very healthy tank TBH.
I would keep the chaeto and skip the skimmer.

Your aiptasia problem can be easily eradicated with about 10 berghia nudis or a cheaper option a captive bred aiptasia eating filefish.

Keep it going, just maybe do a nice deep sand vacuuming with water changes and rescape. Youll find a new love for it soon.

Corals look healthy to me so no reason to change husbandry. Just keep an eye on your macros and nutrients to keep them as stable as possible.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

@Saltyreef got it right.

That tank looks pretty flippin nice. It's got some issues. B. Nudibranch will take care of the Aptasia for you. They are an investment tho. Not super cheap.

Learn as much as you can about What the previous owner was doing. Try to not change too much at one time.

 

[tharbin]

Welcome to R2R! I agree with the others, that is a pretty healthy tank. Berghias or a trained filefish are the no pain option. You can also just go after them one by one but if there are a lot it may be much more work than the natural options. I also would try to change as little as possible right now. Just improve the husbandry by going after the aptasia and keep an eye on the halimedia that it doesn't become invasive. Nice set up.

 

[Spare time]

Looks like a very healthy tank TBH.
I would keep the chaeto and skip the skimmer.

Your aiptasia problem can be easily eradicated with about 10 berghia nudis or a cheaper option a captive bred aiptasia eating filefish.

Keep it going, just maybe do a nice deep sand vacuuming with water changes and rescape. Youll find a new love for it soon.

Corals look healthy to me so no reason to change husbandry. Just keep an eye on your macros and nutrients to keep them as stable as possible.

The filefish may also nip at those corals.

 

[Spare time]

The first thing I would do is make sure you keep alkalnity and calcium levels in the proper range. That is the most common routine step on a reef tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks stable. Key is to keep it stable. Fish and coral dont talk - Test kits do. Test and confirm parameters are in range.
Parameters:
Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .10
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-11
CA 400- 440

 

[Sean Clark]

A little clean up and this tank will be looking great.

 

[Saltyreef]

The filefish may also nip at those corals.

Possible. But less likely with the captive breds that are raised on aiptasia.

My wild doesnt touch coral fwiw but he also wont touch majanos as some unbiased filefish will lol

 

[uhgster1]

Find a TRUSTED lfs or friend and get some true peppermint shrimp. They will decimate those aptasia. I had a small infestation in my 65 gallon and two peppermints took care of them in a couple of weeks. Haven’t seen one since. The shrimp never touched any of my coral but they did die. I suspect they starved once all the aptasia were gone. I was surprised since I thought they would just switch to regular food, but they didn’t. They are a lot cheaper than nudis.

 

[MrGrub]

Thanks for all the replies and kind words.
Previous owner left the aquarium in the house I bought (asked me first though so it wasn't a complete surprise)
I only read horror stories with aiptasia but I will see if I can get filefish or peppermint shrimps from LFS in couple of weeks / months
I'll test water tomorrow and post back here.
Should I relocate halimedia [had to google it first ;-) ] to the refugium in the sump? I forgot to mention there is a pinkish-red LED light for refuguim set on a timer to come on at night. I believe that is preferred?
Thanks.

 

[Spare time]

Thanks for all the replies and kind words.
Previous owner left the aquarium in the house I bought (asked me first though so it wasn't a complete surprise)
I only read horror stories with aiptasia but I will see if I can get filefish or peppermint shrimps from LFS in couple of weeks / months
I'll test water tomorrow and post back here.
Should I relocate halimedia [had to google it first ;-) ] to the refugium in the sump? I forgot to mention there is a pinkish-red LED light for refuguim set on a timer to come on at night. I believe that is preferred?
Thanks.

You can keep the halimeda in the display. It's more of a decorative macroalgae

 

[MoshJosh]

Yeah, I agree with others, tank looks pretty good to me.

 

[tharbin]

Thanks for all the replies and kind words.
Previous owner left the aquarium in the house I bought (asked me first though so it wasn't a complete surprise)
I only read horror stories with aiptasia but I will see if I can get filefish or peppermint shrimps from LFS in couple of weeks / months
I'll test water tomorrow and post back here.
Should I relocate halimedia [had to google it first ;-) ] to the refugium in the sump? I forgot to mention there is a pinkish-red LED light for refuguim set on a timer to come on at night. I believe that is preferred?
Thanks.

Like @Spare time said. Keep the halimedia in the display. I'm probably going to buy some soon for mine. It is a nice macro algae. You just need to keep an eye on it, or really most, macro algae to keep them contained to certain areas in the tank. Halamedia is pretty easy to control. It is a calcareous algae so it does utilize some calcium from the water column..