Sad Reef

[stevenfreeves]

Hi All, I have a 135 gallon reef that has been setup for about2.5 yrs it was setup with some old on the shelf coral and let slowly become live. this worked ok it did support life but never became beautiful. then I got busy on the farm and such and did not maintain it properly. now it is a mess, tons of algae of different sorts and tons and tons of aptasia. my question is how do I get it back in good condition? I have done a water change recently but it is still in sad shape.
thanks.

 

[Mattiejay6]

put microbacter 7 on a dose to dose the recommended dosage everyday.. get your biome back to good

 

[thedon986]

Tangs make quick work of hair-type algaes and your aquarium is large enough for many different kinds. You'll definitely need more than 1 water change to get things back in shape and need to be monitoring your nitrate and phosphate levels using something accurate like Hanna checkers.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

get it back in shape with a hard work weekend. Pull all the rocks, pull all the sand, clean it all, put it back. Its called a 'rip clean'.. its hard work, but if you really want it, then its worth it.

 

[Jekyl]

Water changes, clean up crew and getting parameters correct. Peppermint shrimp can help with aiptasia.

Check out a cleaner package from reefcleaners.org

When doing water changes, remove as much excess algae as possible.

 

[shadow_k]

Water changes, clean up crew and getting parameters correct. Peppermint shrimp can help with aiptasia.

Check out a cleaner package from reefcleaners.org

When doing water changes, remove as much excess algae as possible.

I agree ^ but I would order peppermint shrimp from algae barn they are true peppermint shrimp cleared my aiptasia problem in 2 weeks.

Also I would hand remove all the hair algae that you can and introduce some turbo snails they are algae eating machines.

 

[twentyleagues]

manual removal for most of what you said is the best way. Obviously waterchanges to get parameters in line. Using "critters" to help with algae/aipstasia rarely works imo either other fish, inverts or flow get in the way of them doing their job not to mention other easier food sources. Shrimp mess with corals too so there is a possibility of that. I believe in a good cuc but thats to help prevent issues not fix ones that are already present.

 

[stevenfreeves]

get it back in shape with a hard work weekend. Pull all the rocks, pull all the sand, clean it all, put it back. Its called a 'rip clean'.. its hard work, but if you really want it, then its worth it.

will this kill all the beneficial bacteria? I do have some live animals and fish in the tank.
thanks.

 

[stevenfreeves]

manual removal for most of what you said is the best way. Obviously waterchanges to get parameters in line. Using "critters" to help with algae/aipstasia rarely works imo either other fish, inverts or flow get in the way of them doing their job not to mention other easier food sources. Shrimp mess with corals too so there is a possibility of that. I believe in a good cuc but thats to help prevent issues not fix ones that are already present.

how can you manually remove thousands of aptasia?

 

[brandon429]

the only way to remove thousands of aiptasia is surgically which you will not want to do

get all new rock/restart/you can choose pre cured live rock from a pet store that will skip cycle easily into your new setup. don't use dry rock, pay for the good stuff with coralline. = a costly delay. to remove aiptasia you get a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and tap up under each one, digging out like a golf divot, nothing else will work on an invasion of that scale. you wont want to do that.

 

[twentyleagues]

how can you manually remove thousands of aptasia?

Thousands! well yeah thats going to be really time consuming. Replace all the rocks or do the work either way sounds not fun. On a side not you could take some of those infested rocks buy a few berghias set up a 29g and try raising and selling them......

 

[Troylee]

Throw the rock in a trash can with muratic acid and let it cook for a hour and rinse it well and dry out.. place back in tank and rock and roll!

 

[twentyleagues]

Throw the rock in a trash can with muratic acid and let it cook for a hour and rinse it well and dry out.. place back in tank and rock and roll!

yup thatll do it but will kill off all the bacteria. I think we are past that anyway.

 

[stevenfreeves]

I agree ^ but I would order peppermint shrimp from algae barn they are true peppermint shrimp cleared my aiptasia problem in 2 weeks.

Also I would hand remove all the hair algae that you can and introduce some turbo snails they are algae eating machines.

for 135 gallon how many peppermint shrimp should I get to attact the aptasia that are litterally everywhere. are those better than Berghia nudibranch?

 

[stevenfreeves]

Throw the rock in a trash can with muratic acid and let it cook for a hour and rinse it well and dry out.. place back in tank and rock and roll!

doesnt that kill all the beneficial bacteria?

 

[stevenfreeves]

yup thatll do it but will kill off all the bacteria. I think we are past that anyway.

I still have live fish in the tank and a few zoos and a couple of other things.

 

[Bullnose]

Depends on the algae you have. Sea Hare will mow down just about everything especially GHA within a week or two. Syphon off their poop with small water changes every 2-3 days. Have a plan to give them back to someone because theyll starve once they do the job. Urchins work well at keeping it from taking over again afterwords.

 

[twentyleagues]

I still have live fish in the tank and a few zoos and a couple of other things.

Yeah that's kinda what I was saying. You are really between a rock and a hard place. If I were to try a biological way to rid yourself of aipstasia I'd try berghia over peppermints. I don't hold much faith in either approach tbh. Many factors come into play with animals. Muriatic acid is probably the easiest and fastest way to handle the issues you asked about. The cost of that is restarting the entire tank. Mich cheaper then getting all new rock. Possibly cheaper then enough nudis or shrimp also.

 

[Troylee]

doesnt that kill all the beneficial bacteria?

Yep! And everything else and gives you a sterile tank… do you have a sump? Do like 80% of it and put it back in the tank and use the other 20% in the sump to seed it! Give it a week or 2 and pull the sump rocks and acid wash them.