Restarting Failed Tank

[grady15]

My tank is overrun with algae aiptasia and other nuisances due to lack of care by myself in the beginning of my tanks set up. Because of this I will be restarting my tank into a 20g long from a 60g tank and i need some advice on how to do so. I will be reusing my rock because I don't have the budget to buy new rock so would you guys recommend acid or bleach curing because i want to be sure that everything is dead and gone? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

if you do that you'll get dinos. we fix your current rock by hard work and then skip cycle it into the new tank, you wont get dinos. don't kill the rock, you w be trading off easily managed pests for roughest pest in reefing.

also resist the urge to cherry pick offers from several suggestions. pick one method, don't veer from it, and your tank will match that keeper's post history. since gha and aiptasia took over, you'll want to use methods that don't have those as invasion options, there are some. you wouldn't want to repeat any aspect of the prior reefs setup or running rules, take on new ones associated with total control vs invasion.

bare bottom, for example....or if you must have sand, don't guess around with options/keep the sand clean this round.

few pico reefs have those invaders, for a certain reason: accessible scapes.

when you build this system, plan on lifting the rocks out a few times to access in the air, outside of the water. see how each step so far is opposite of the prior condition that led up to startover, that's by practice. we like work projects

 

[Crustaceon]

It’s a better idea to just make a tub of salt water and toothbrush the heck out of your rocks. That way you don’t lose the beneficial bacteria in the rock and won’t have to cycle the tank again. You can however and probably should ditch the old sand and get a bag of “live sand”. Sand is where most of the “baddies” take up residence, so replacing it takes care of a lot of issues, plus sand is cheap.

 

[brandon429]

merely changing your algae control away from parameter detailing, testing, response, and into lifted out gardening will reverse your gha course. nobody thinks of the easy stuff. you are not covered in corals such that lifting out a few pounds of top rock once every three months to scrape off algae until coralline coats back over is a hard job

 

[grady15]

I understand but I would rather have a completely fresh start. What is the best way of going about this?

 

[Manny Tavan]

rock for a 20 g can't be that expensive. at $2-3/lbs for dry rock that's $40-60 and it will save you years of headache down the road

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Take the rock out and spot treat it with a kitchen blow torch to kill aiptasia. Peroxide spot cleaning with a tooth brush. Don’t waste all the maturity by nuking it as I did, it’s not worth it

 

[christopher wainright]

Bleach will kill everything on it for a fresh start. Just make sure to put it out in the sun for a few days until the bleach smell is gone then your good to go. You should dilute it though. I'd do a gallon of bleach to 10 gallons of water.

 

[grady15]

Bleach will kill everything on it for a fresh start. Just make sure to put it out in the sun for a few days until the bleach smell is gone then your good to go. You should dilute it though. I'd do a gallon of bleach to 10 gallons of water.

Thank you for the help.

 

[Miamialum620]

I've been thinking of restarting my 32g bio cube as well. One reason is to really secure some of the rocks Marco E-400. Right now if I try to brush some of this nuisance hair algae I'm always concerned everything is going to come toppling down.

Another reason is maybe restarting will motivate me to take better care of it which I know is kind of dumb but something I've thought about. I just really would like some of the successes of the reef hobby and unfortunately haven't had many in 2+ years. Today I was almost at the point of just posting everything on OfferUp but I really want to have be good at this hobby.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I think you should ask yourself if you really want to do this. Think about how much you “plan” on spending and double that at least. If that amount of work or finances isn’t an option maybe wait a while.

 

[Shmollica]

merely changing your algae control away from parameter detailing, testing, response, and into lifted out gardening will reverse your gha course. nobody thinks of the easy stuff. you are not covered in corals such that lifting out a few pounds of top rock once every three months to scrape off algae until coralline coats back over is a hard job

I did exactly this, also had a large aptasia outbreak (parents tank 60 tall). It’s been a month but the aptasia are no longer visibly there, cyano/dinos are gone and that rock has been in saltwater since 2009. I took 1-2 rocks out at a time (they also got sold old bleached acro colonies as “live rock” lol), put them in a bin with heated saltwater brushed them off then put them back in the tank. I had to repeat on some rocks, but right now the tank is clear!

 

[brandon429]

This method doesn’t help large stack aquascapes in big tanks very much, but it’s very powerful in smaller more accessible tanks. We noticed over the years everyone was using a water-only control approach, even 5 gallon tank owners would dose the system and wait for a param change or a medication to hopefully kill the target, but in 2 mins they had the ability to cheat kill it just the same