Rip Clean...on a 300g?

[NanJ]

Has anyone done a "Brandon429 type" of rip clean on a large tank? The thought is overwhelming to me. I am looking for advice on how this could be navigated and emotionally managed (joking....only a little).

Our tank is 300g with a large sump. Lots of rock work and a 2-3" sand bed. Many, many corals but not to the point of covering rocks more than 3-6" in diameter. About 15-20 fish. Assorted CUC: hermits, shrimp, urchin, snails.

85-90% of rock surface covered in some type of hair algae, maybe Derbesia. (I started an ID thread called "Derbesia?")

Like this allllll over the tank:

 

[Afrashz]

Have you tried manual removal? It appears it will come off fairly easily.

 

[Ribo15]

Following. Curious as well if others have taken that daunting task. I feel rip cleaning anything less than 75 gallons would be so easy but then over 200g and it seems like it would be a huge job..

 

[NanJ]

We have tried manual removal many many times. It does not come off the rock, just breaks.

For several months we were weekly siphoning off what would come off, then using a pump to blow off the rocks to lift off detritus, then scrubbing and scrubbing. This was our Sunday afternoon pastime. Then my husband became ill and our energy was focused on him and neither of us have been able to resume the weekly process.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I have done it on my 210g. Maybe not fully followed instructions, but took out every rock to clean, sucked out sand to rinse and put all back in. Not an easy task, but helped a ton in fighting the algae issues I was having. Did another one maybe 75% a year later. Now, everything has settled down and no algae issues had before.

Just have lots of bins for rock, water to rinse after cleaning rocks, gloves (thick to handle rock), eye wear because many corals spit, lots of towels. Some good music going. It will take all day.

Have fun!

 

[Acros]

Rip cleaning a 300g tank is a daunting task. If it is hair algae, you might be able to get it under control with cleanup crew and nutrient control.

What cleanup crew do you have now? I am very impressed by what Mexican turbo snails could do.

 

[NanJ]

Rip cleaning a 300g tank is a daunting task. If it is hair algae, you might be able to get it under control with cleanup crew and nutrient control.

What cleanup crew do you have now? I am very impressed by what Mexican turbo snails could do.

We have always had a large, varied CUC - turbos and other snails, shrimp, hermits, urchins. We've tried Lettuce Nudibranchs twice. Even when this algae was in the early stages, we did not notice CUC or fish eating it.

James, I see you are in Greenville - we are down the road outside Spartanburg.

 

[Acros]

We have always had a large, varied CUC - turbos and other snails, shrimp, hermits, urchins. We've tried Lettuce Nudibranchs twice. Even when this algae was in the early stages, we did not notice CUC or fish eating it.

James, I see you are in Greenville - we are down the road outside Spartanburg.

Awesome! Nice to meet you . We just moved here and so far have only been to Ocean’s floor.

There are posts here on r2r where cuc started eating hair algae (that they previously ignored) after dosing fluconazole. Fluconazole presents its own set of issues. Some have lost SPS after dosing fluconazole. I have never lost SPS, but it always gave me cyano and dinos.

Rip cleaning a 300g tank is not easy, but if you go that route, I will give you a hand during during the weekend.

 

[dmsc2fs]

I don't recall which thread I read, but in one of the RIP cleaning posts is someone that did a large tank. From what I recall it was broken down into cleaning it 1/4 of the tank at a time over 4 weeks. Somehow this turned into a SC thread.

 

[Cell]

Let's hear it straight from the source.

@brandon429


Hmmm...he might be on vacation or something.

 

[Little c big D]

Let's hear it straight from the source.

@brandon429


Hmmm...he might be on vacation or something.

Test nitrites when you cycle. ::hides::

That should get him here

 

[Jekyl]

Never was a fan of the rip clean idea. Thought is to create a stable system for coral and fish. Rip clean seems to be contradictory. I dealt with hair algae for months when my tank was maturing. Reducing white light, managing nutrients, increasing CuC and manual removal during water changes helped me. Other than that an algae turf scrubber or increasing macro algae growth in the sump.

 

[Jekyl]

We have always had a large, varied CUC - turbos and other snails, shrimp, hermits, urchins. We've tried Lettuce Nudibranchs twice. Even when this algae was in the early stages, we did not notice CUC or fish eating it.

James, I see you are in Greenville - we are down the road outside Spartanburg.

CuC gets the stuff when it's short, once it grows out not much will touch it. As far as your current CuC are you sure it's enough? I'd check out reefcleaners.org and see what the package for a 150g offers.

 

[NanJ]

CuC gets the stuff when it's short, once it grows out not much will touch it. As far as your current CuC are you sure it's enough? I'd check out reefcleaners.org and see what the package for a 150g offers.

Thank you for the suggestion about Reef Cleaners - great resource for information. Based on their website, no, we do not have enough CUC. I have contacted them about sizing and specifying a CUC package.

 

[NanJ]

Awesome! Nice to meet you . We just moved here and so far have only been to Ocean’s floor.

There are posts here on r2r where cuc started eating hair algae (that they previously ignored) after dosing fluconazole. Fluconazole presents its own set of issues. Some have lost SPS after dosing fluconazole. I have never lost SPS, but it always gave me cyano and dinos.

Rip cleaning a 300g tank is not easy, but if you go that route, I will give you a hand during during the weekend.

Thank you!! What an incredibly kind offer. We have some family health issues to get past before we could even think about a rip-clean project so will try fluconazole and increasing our CUC first.

Patrick and Corey at Oceans Floor installed our system and help us maintain it. Oceans Floor is a great family-owned business.

 

[ecrumpler]

I'd be interested to know if you've tried any bacterial supplement of any kind? How old is the tank?

 

[Cell]

Unfortunately you won't be getting a personalized response from the master and I'm no expert myself but from what was relayed to me, the key is how you handle the sandbed and once you do the rip clean, the need for active ongoing maintenance moving forward. It's best to go barebottom for awhile until any re-emergence is dealt with and you "earn the clean sustained condition without sand, then when the tank is compliant you add the sand back full rinsed and cloud free and it'll run well."

 

[NanJ]

I'd be interested to know if you've tried any bacterial supplement of any kind? How old is the tank?

The tank is a little over 3 years old. We have not tried a bacterial supplement such as Vibrant by itself because the system has a refugium with chaeto. (Supposedly Vibrant has a negative impact on macro algae.) Back in November we tried back-to-back fluconazole treatments which can damage chaeto so, with the chaeto removed, we added Vibrant. I admit, though, I did not add it for more than about 3 weeks. We had concern that eliminating micro-type algae might starve the CUC.

 

[NanJ]

Unfortunately you won't be getting a personalized response from the master and I'm no expert myself but from what was relayed to me, the key is how you handle the sandbed and once you do the rip clean, the need for active ongoing maintenance moving forward. It's best to go barebottom for awhile until any re-emergence is dealt with and you "earn the clean sustained condition without sand, then when the tank is compliant you add the sand back full rinsed and cloud free and it'll run well."

Thank you for the advice! Attacking this project will require quite a bit of planning and mental preparation and TIME.

 

[i_am_mclovin]

How long have you been dealing with this? My suggestion would be to add a filter roller and ATS if you don't have one. Add a lot more cleanup crew if need be. You can beat this without having to do crazy stuff, and doing it through ways that allow a natural balance within your ecosystem.