restarting tank- how to clean?

[katsreef]

I am restarting my 20g tank. I've had nothing but problems lately - the latest being a dino (LCA) outbreak that I have been dosing silicates for the last few months for. My tank needs a fresh start- so I am planning to move all my fish/coral/inverts to a temporary tank along with the rocks and a bit of sand for my pistol shrimp. I have ordered all new rock and sand. Basically, I plan to completely empty my 20g and fill it with freshwater as I heard this kills dinos. let it run for a few days like that, then empty and clean it out, let it dry for a few more days, and begin a new cycle with the new rocks and sand.

What kind of cleaning should I do to my empty tank besides freshwater? What is safe to use to clean it?

 

[Lemons]

Dinos will come back with the livestock... since its now on the coral skeleton and in/on inverts. Be sure to have tons of pods and competing algae/bacteria before you reintroduce any of that coral.

After my rant LOL

For tank cleaning you can use a whole bunch of stuff. For your purposes i'd just use some 3% white vinigar in a spray bottle and clean it that way. And rinse it out well

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

OP, what would be different the 2nd time around?

 

[katsreef]

OP, what would be different the 2nd time around?

I starved my tank trying to get rid of bubble algae. It bottomed out the nutrients and caused these issues. just want to restart and not have that happen

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I starved my tank trying to get rid of bubble algae. It bottomed out the nutrients and caused these issues. just want to restart and not have that

Ahhh, didn’t know that

 

[katsreef]

Dinos will come back with the livestock... since its now on the coral skeleton and in/on inverts. Be sure to have tons of pods and competing algae/bacteria before you reintroduce any of that coral.

After my rant LOL

For tank cleaning you can use a whole bunch of stuff. For your purposes i'd just use some 3% white vinigar in a spray bottle and clean it that way. And rinse it out well

i dont have many corals anymore and im going to try to quarantine them first to not reintroduce. I dont expect to never see any again- but I am going to try to get the bacteria biodiversity going like you said. Thanks for the tip of vinegar!