Resurrecting a neglected reef

[JohnnyRambo]

To start off, I have a 29 gallon standard size tank. My goal is more of SPS dominated mixed reef along with focusing more so on the intensity of the coral colors. I currently have:
Midas Blenny
Mystery wrasse
Stubby black and white ocellaris
Pair of regular firefish
Pair of engineer gobies
Pair of blue damsels
Pair of chromis
Red scooter dragonet
Royal gramma
Green banded serpent star
6 turbo snails
6 emerald crabs

For my current set up:
25lbs of LR
3-4in DSB
T5HO light 2x bulb ATI aquablue special and a blue+
Med. size CPR aquafuge 2 along with factory pump.
Gfo reactor
Two hydors one rated for 15-20 gallon tanks and the other 45-55 gallon tanks.

I plan on removing the two engineer gobies along with the pair of chromis and firefish to different friends tanks. Along with potentially removing all of my bimini pink sandbed to replace it with Hawaiian black sand. I don't mind using a plastic scrubber either due to the potential magnetism with the sand.

Basically I just want to be able to bring my tank to look like every reef keepers dream. I'm pretty clear with the basics of reef maintenance but seem to still be lacking in some aspects and have trouble understanding where I might need improvement.

 

[JohnnyRambo]

So just so we're clear I'm only really dealing with slight algae issues and just recently started using ROWA Phos to deal with phosphate issues. Just assume my phosphates are about 1-2 ppm, nitrates 10, and cal,alk, and mag are in check. Chaeto has never really grown in my refugium and I just recently added flame algae in my display to see if it should help combat phosphates and nitrates. I feed once a day with new life spectrum pellets with garlic. I feed frozen mixed with vitamins and garlic after straining fluids about twice a week.

 

[JohnnyRambo]

 

[brandon429]

Looks good already

But if I read correctly you want to rip clean the whole tank and replace all sand at once, lose nothing, make all rocks free of algae, use black sand that has no silt component, and skip the recycle upon setup? you want to break reefing laws in three countries?


Hope so
we have a thread for that


http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-of...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

 

[JohnnyRambo]

I'm not trying to rip the entire tank apart. I want to restore my tank to ideal conditions and would like an idea of what people would recommend to first do to help stabilize my aquarium. I don't mind replacing the sand gradually. If anything I was planning on buying 40lbs of CaribSea's Hawaiian black live sand drying out 20lbs and adding the other live 20lbs over a couple weeks. And definitely not trying to break any reef laws! 100% legal aquacultured beauty is the goal here.

 

[brandon429]

Alot of what I write is facetious self entertainment lol the laws just mean must people want to take a while to fix algae and go slower

nothing wrong with that. The thread is handy tank cleaning reference either way