I think David100 has done one of the most thorough, hardest working rip cleans I’ve seen. Proud to watch him force compliance in a decent sized reef, not an easy job
start:
years of aging are turned around in these specialized steps:
this was a rare time we did not do all the rocks and sand in the tank on the same day
we staggered the job- rocks externally worked about 90% by themselves first, set back on top of uncleaned sand for an extra couple weeks when an absolutely huge rip clean job all at once could be ran, correctly, with no rush. 100% all new water matching temp and salinity was attained
we couldn’t do all the rocks as thorough + the sand in one day, it would be 36 hours straight work
the rocks were cleaned in repeat jobs from start / bulk removal to endpoint micro fine knife point detailing, look how algae abutting the large toadstool coral was detailed clean exactly like reef dentistry, exacting
no bottle bac, no testing rip clean skip cycle enacted
the tank mid cleaning, where rocks were majorly removed and detailed about 75% of the way, put back, then re accessed a few days later gaining to fully detailed clean:
he built a holding tote of a deep cleaned rock for the filter base, heat and circulation:
he rinsed sand to true cloudlessness
and verified it was clean, in a test cup of water for each rinsed section, before putting back in the main tank
he took the main tank to the grass and washed it out, 100% of glass accumulations razor scraped then washed off so the tank looked clean
multiple days of dedicated cleaning were enacted but we did it all in a two week span / large tank old tank syndrome reversed
hes not going to get dinos now, or cyano…
for this final result
look at how eutrophic reefs are yellow, green, bright reflective palettes of color
look how oligotrophic reefs are muted, contrasting tones of blue and red and deep purple and black, modeled like the abyssal shelf reef what an amazing turnaround
******look at this degree of waste that would be left in the tank had he opted for fluconazole or other kill methods that degrade the algae in the tank
there was already the waste from years running, plus it would have taken on degraded algae waste, full surgical evacuation was key and required
the surface area is restored, the plugging growths no longer cover the live rock
the live rock crevices now see wastewater and nitrification rates are restored, the live rocks can now express waste vs have it pent up
he is free to use fluconazole now, as a preventative not the remover -if- required
he’s willing to do a few simple guiding runs of rocks outside the tank, they can be lifted out easily, before resorting to medicines
in some reef dentistry runs more than one cleaning visit is needed
the system will take on a new life trophic state since mass was evacuated by force vs hands off guiding
his topoff water can now be verified perfectly clean zero tds
Identification of his invader did not matter: any mass of that degree would best be handled by surgery and not internal degradation of the offending mass
allelopathic plant / cellular compounds and irritants are now fully gone, the reef will start to regenerate hermatypic corals and look at the quality of coralline and pigmentation and true rock aging that existed under the growths.
this isn’t a tank start over, we preserved his original cycle. A tank start over requires a new cycle: this was solely plant ejection.
now that's a rinse!
