Considering a rolling restart.

[BigBearMD]

I’m considering what I’d like to call the rolling restart. I have a few tanks and between work, kids and other hobbies they have been seriously neglected. I just spent a couple of hours cleaning and doing a small water change on my 180 and I am trouble shooting some problems.

First. My water change habits have been spotty at best. I was running Triton but never seemed to get that dialed in between dosing and analysis. Honestly, it felt like every time I sent an analysis in I had to go buy more trace elements that were either expensive or out of stock. I feel like a 100% water change would be a nice way to reset the water and I’m planning on multiple 40gal changes over 2-3 weeks to do this, unless someone has another suggestion.

My real issues is Aptasia and GSP (should have listened and never put it in the tank). I’m considering removing big rocks and either nuking them in a bleach bath or just tossing them in the woods and putting a whole new scape in. I think this would have to be done in stages though to maintain the biofiltration. Any thoughts or experience?

thanks.

 

[BigBearMD]

 

[BigBearMD]

I don’t consider myself a computer idiot but I can’t get these pics upright.

 

[amazongb]

You mentioned Triton, and it sounds like you're over it.. so water change reboot sounds like an okay plan considering the corals in your tank. So, I'll focus more on the rock reboot. Here's what I did in a similar situation as you're in.

On water change day, put your old water in a rubbermaid bin, you can use this water to place your GSP rock in while you scrape the GSP off the rocks. GSP has a nice rubbery base, you can almost peel it of using tweezers in combination with brushing it off with a dish type brush. It will take some work.. If it were me, I'd do it in three steps, 1/3 of the scape at a time with each water change. I did it all at once, and my tank responded with sort of shock which raised my ALK ( I swear I think corals send out a death signal to each other).. it all turned out okay with only one coral lost, but just keep an eye on parameters while you're doing it. Good live rock is hard to come by, so I would personally keep using what you have.

If you do all this, and the GSP returns in small little spots, use tweezers in the tank to remove as soon as they appear. It's pretty easy. I no longer have GSP on my rocks anywhere.

As far as Aptasia, you can get Peppermint shrimp pretty cheap, or Berghia Nudibranchs, but Berghias are expensive, so I'd try Peppermints first. Algae Barn usually have them in stock at a good price.

Hope this helps.

 

[BigBearMD]

Thanks. I was considering buy a bunch of new dry rock and rescaping the aquarium 1/3 at a time but that’s not exactly a cheap option.

I had three peppermint shrimp but they were probably 2 years old. I haven’t seen signs of them in a while and likely that explains the aptasia bloom.

 

[ImaFlippinDolphin]

I took the 1/3 at a time meaning scrub your existing rocks of gsp 1/3 at a time. Eradicate both pests and save precured rocks!

 

[BigBearMD]

Any tips on the scrubbing part? Are we just talking about a sink stiff bristle brush or going full strength with a grill wire brush?

 

[Nigel35]

I would sell the GSP like amazongb said. You can probably make a decent amount of money off that whole colony.

 

[amazongb]

Any tips on the scrubbing part? Are we just talking about a sink stiff bristle brush or going full strength with a grill wire brush?

I was afraid of using anything metal, I used a stiff plastic brush. Make sure to wear rubber gloves and eye protection just in case there's anything with toxins on the rock.