Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

[brandon429]

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase so it’s been modeled already/ done

your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank.

the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks of detritus before reinstalling, but regarding anemone removal here are two specific threads:

 

[brandon429]

1. Thread where they won’t listen regarding anemone removal

Need help cleaning out tank fast

I have had a fluval evo 12 tank setup for going around 2 years. I have had a clownfish for a year and a half and a bubble tip anemone for close to a year now. But around the time I added an anemone I also added a zoanthid rock. Me as a beginner didnt check the rock or dip it so it became...

www.reef2reef.com

2. my then nine year old micro nano being ridded of 200 red shroom total takeover. Using that method above. Skip cycle rip cleaned:

9 year old 1 gallon pico reef, last full tank shot before cleaning

https://imageshack.com/i/idwEB5Edj I can't figure out with my ipad browser how to make the pic stick on the page but here's the link Would one of you computer savvy posters repost this pic as a big full tank shot ! Would be better than boring link. I pmd this crowded pic to maritza the vase reef ...

www.nano-reef.com

not one single mushroom survived. The other corals are bubbling here to my right side in the kitchen currently.


*pre model these big jobs*

take one rock, make it shroom free, swish rinse in a bucket of saltwater, reinstall one perfect tooth in that reef mouth. Check for regrowth details in a week or two I bet it’s fine. Upscale if results are warranted

 

[reefwreck]

wand says works on annemes will it work for mushrooms too

 

[reefwreck]

ok never mind didn't read enough

 

[chris124]

I replaced my sand and cleaned the rocks today. Everything is clean and the clowns seem happy. This is what the sand looked like before replacing. It's kind of hard to see because I turned off the lights when I saw it starting to grow again but within about a week the bottom would have been covered.

 

[chris124]

Heres the tank after cleaning.

 

[CoralClasher]

Heres the tank after cleaning.

Looks great!!

 

[brandon429]

Hey that was such a great run, you preserved the age/maturation look of the tank by keeping that purple coralline in place vs cleaning it off, thats a badge of years/months like a man's beard lol nice one


that is a 1000% clean cloudless rinse

thank you so much for documenting this for our team this will help others with similar tanks get ready for the dive surgery

you have reset the lifespan of the tank perfectly while maintaining the reefy look and function, excellent

 

[chris124]

Hey that was such a great run, you preserved the age/maturation look of the tank by keeping that purple coralline in place vs cleaning it off, thats a badge of years/months like a man's beard lol nice one


that is a 1000% clean cloudless rinse

thank you so much for documenting this for our team this will help others with similar tanks get ready for the dive surgery

you have reset the lifespan of the tank perfectly while maintaining the reefy look and function, excellent

It was a lot easier than I expected and let me tell you the old sand was nasty.

 

[Silent]

I have sand that has been in a 5 gallon bucket for about 6 years. What method should I use to clean it?

 

[brandon429]

I would rinse and bleach that to get floc and dried organics free, not sure if single pass rinse alone would work. once it’s sat with a little bleach in the water + sand, then I’d rinse until it’s totally clear and would take an hour of rinsing I bet to get clarity. Then you could let it dry out/inactivates bleach, rinse one more time and use. I think more than one rinse w be required

if it wasn’t stored heavily laden with waste regular rinsing in tap w probably work but if stored dirty I’d use bleach to help cut waste off the grains

 

[AdamD76]

Updated pics of my tank.

 

[AdamD76]

Before pictures.

90% of the sand taken out. Fresh water dip and rinse on most of rocks. I still need to brush the back and sides with a soft bristle bottle brush.

 

[brandon429]

Very well done for longevity on making the tank age in balance and keeping that beard-like coralline and polyp wall, nice c. jardenai elegance those guys won’t tolerate any kind of upset params they’ll recede and die when offended, ergo yours is happy in the cleaned out new sand system

 

[AdamD76]

Very well done for longevity on making the tank age in balance and keeping that beard-like coralline and polyp wall, nice c. jardenai elegance those guys won’t tolerate any kind of upset params they’ll recede and die when offended, ergo yours is happy in the cleaned out new sand system

It actually took a long time to get everything back to growing and not getting constant algae outbreaks. It all calmed down after the rip clean. I did brush the back and sides but not enough to remove 100% of the algae. The back has a nice low mat of hair algae. The addition of a Yellow eye kole tang and lawnmower blenny keeps most algae in check. The removal of the sand I feel stopped the constant nutrient swings and crazy Cyano-dino outbreaks. I'm really glad I found your thread documenting this process of rip cleaning / sand rinsing. Thank you.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Ode to @brandon429 ....super sand rinse project:

I’ve got a client with a nice 180 reef that, due to some outside circumstances, started to slide a little bit. Then COVID hit, and I wasn’t able to get to the tank for almost 4 months. When I got back to it, it was a disaster. The corals and fish were healthy, but it had turned into a coral swamp rather than a coral reef. After a couple of services, it became clear that a more intense remediation was needed in order to tip the scales back in our favor.

Step 1: remove as much water as possible before disturbing anything. I was able to very quickly get more than 2/3 out while keeping all the solids in the tank (I usually shoot for 3/4, but whatever).

Step 2: I carefully remove all rocks w/coral attached, and brush off any unwanted algae as well as full as much detritus as possible out of the coral and rock. Those are placed in bins with ‘clean’ water from tank.

Step 3: remove all other rock and remove algae and detritus as was done in Step 2

Step 4: remove all other animals, and place in the bins

Step 5: scrub down back and side surfaces to get as much junk as possible off the surface and into the water.

Step 6: rigorously stir up the sand bed. This allows us to free sunken detritus/nutrients, as well as free more toxic substances like hydrogen sulfide. All of this sand is stirred over and over, and then ultimately pushed into one corner of the tank and piled up. This helps preserve micro-fauna and bacteria.

Step 7: gently push as much detritus as possible to opposite side of tank and allow everything to settle out.

Step 8: remove the rest of the water/detritus/waste from the tank. Once that is removed, flatten the sand bed out and begin scraping the rock w/o coral. Then add the water stored in the bins plus new water to replace removed water, fish, corals, inverts, etc

 

[brandon429]

Gregg I always enjoy your updates there isnt anyone I know getting to document live tank surgery for clients, their $$ and time on the line it’s a big deal to part out someone’s reef.


they trust you big time
and your last build/job was on the scale they do on an animal planet show well done please keep us updated on progress


nice idea for internal workings and piling of sand, to preserve what microfauna you can, creativity wins again !

simply storm it until it’s pretty darn clean I see, doesnt have to be total clarity as the rocks are going back rinsed in sw/ejected waste and that much water dilution is perfect. Just wonderful work

a way to preserve bed life, eject at least 90% of waste, old tank syndrome fuel removed

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Gregg I always enjoy your updates there isnt anyone I know getting to document live tank surgery for clients, their $$ and time on the line it’s a big deal to part out someone’s reef.


they trust you big time
and your last build/job was on the scale they do on an animal planet show well done please keep us updated on progress


nice idea for internal workings and piling of sand, to preserve what microfauna you can, creativity wins again !

simply storm it until it’s pretty darn clean I see, doesnt have to be total clarity as the rocks are going back rinsed in sw/ejected waste and that much water dilution is perfect. Just wonderful work

a way to preserve bed life, eject at least 90% of waste, old tank syndrome fuel removed

Thanks, @brandon429 .

Yeah, definitely a lot of trust...on the part of the client, but maybe even more so in myself. At this point, it’s a routine part of my tank management...typically every 2 years or so. I believe it promotes longevity, and the clients like it because everything becomes rearranged and looks new. I guess I trust myself a lot more now than I did when I first started doing stuff like this. It takes a bit of faith to say ‘Here’s a perfectly good reef tank...I think I’ll completely tear it apart’.

But in many years of doing these kinds of interventions, I can’t really think of a single time it wasn’t an improvement. Even with the tanks that were very healthy and looked really good, they ended up looking better afterward.

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis...corals are built for that kind of shake-up.

 

[brandon429]

perfect. Although Ive never had a reef bigger than eight pounds all up running with water I can tell by micro models that eutrophic condition is onset by detritus and fixed by ridding however creatively we can muster that

large tanks have a nice bell curve they can ride for a while compared to micro models, but eutrophication warnings look the same tank to tank/scaleable biology pretty neat

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

perfect. Although Ive never had a reef bigger than eight pounds all up running with water I can tell by micro models that eutrophic condition is onset by detritus and fixed by ridding however creatively we can muster that

large tanks have a nice bell curve they can ride for a while compared to micro models, but eutrophication warnings look the same tank to tank/scaleable biology pretty neat

Exactly.

Also, thanks for reminding me of that other tank project. I had completely forgotten about that thread. I’ll have to update it when I get a chance to get some pics.