Tank rescue - advice appreciated!

[edmortimore]

Hi all, my first ever post and I am completely new to reefing. I have successfully been keeping freshwater (see pic below) for a year after having dropped the hobby a few years ago and have always longed for a reef tank.

I’m considering buy a Redsea 750xxl second hand, from someone who has fallen out of love with the hobby. It comes fully kitted out and has a LOT of live rock etc with it, however it really needs tearing down, stripping out, deep cleaning and starting from scratch (it is in a bit of a state).

There is a clown and a small regal tang in the near abandoned tank, and my priority is to get them into a hospital tank which I will pre-setup at home and get cycled (thinking around 30 gallons) where they can stay until the main tank has been re-established and cycled.

I would massively appreciate some input on the following questions.

Am I right in assuming that keeping the large amount of bio-media from the sump, in addition to the immediate addition of all of the live rock once the tank has been cleaned, significantly reduce the time of cycling? I am aware that it’s going to come down to simply testing until parameters are stable and the rest of the surfaces in the tank have established beneficial bacteria.

The reason behind my questioning is concern for the livestock as I don’t want to stress a tang for too many weeks in a small tank.

I am used to diligent maintenance, and do 60% weekly water changes on my current freshwater (never missed one) and have been through the motions of diatoms, cyano, hair algae etc. and know what to expect (I do understand that reefing is a different ballgame) but I feel that I have the discipline to give myself a good chance of success. I have also been digesting 100’s of hours of literature, videos, threads on here and long chats with LFS in preparation.

I would welcome any input, as it will be stripping the tank and kit back to bare (bio-media and live rock aside) with some repairs needed on the main return pump, one of the lighting units and I have an electrician friend ready to pitch in

 

[shakacuz]

in regards to using the biomedia to help cycle your/the tank quicker: it should, so long as the rocks remain submerged/wet to keep the good bacteria alive. most live rock are kept in tanks/tubs that are heated with water after movement to cook the rock with the good bacteria.

if you plan on keeping the rocks wet while you tear things down, revamp, then reset, i suggest doing the above. if not, you could definitely use bottled bacteria and seed the tank while it has its mini-cycle when you set it up again

you are definitely on the right path to success for your first reef. and welcome aboard the r2r board! hello from PA!

 

[Jekyl]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[CrimsonTide]

Welcome to R2R!

If you keep the rock wet when you set the tank back up theoretically ot should be cycled. There will be enough bacteria in the rocks to deal with any ammonia load the 2 fish will put out. Even if you're scrubbing the rocks if you keep them on saltwater while scrubbing them and everything stays wet you should be fine. You can even probably pit some ro k in the hospital tank or quarantine tank and the tank will essentially be cycled. If you treat the tank with copper or anything you should probably toss that love rock in the hospital tank or just keep it on there for.your next fish.

However you can Cycle the regular tank if you want and go through all the steps and make sure it can get rid of ammonia when you set it up bit the rock should take care of everything for just 2 or 3 fish.

Goodluck!

 

[edmortimore]

in regards to using the biomedia to help cycle your/the tank quicker: it should, so long as the rocks remain submerged/wet to keep the good bacteria alive. most live rock are kept in tanks/tubs that are heated with water after movement to cook the rock with the good bacteria.

if you plan on keeping the rocks wet while you tear things down, revamp, then reset, i suggest doing the above. if not, you could definitely use bottled bacteria and seed the tank while it has its mini-cycle when you set it up again

you are definitely on the right path to success for your first reef. and welcome aboard the r2r board! hello from PA!

Thank you! My plan was to use 2 x 30 gallon food grade plastic drums and run them as a mini system with a heater and plenty of circulation to keep the live rock going for the week or so between getting the tank and re-establishing and scaping it.

Will I need to utilise light on the system for that week to prevent any die-off on the live rock as worried if I don’t, when I add the rock back to the main tank the die-off will create a massive ammonia spike?

Thanks for your advice

 

[edmortimore]

Welcome to R2R!

Thank you! It’s good to be here

 

[VintageReefer]

Is there any coral in the tank, or has it had coral before? Can you post pictures?

I only ask because from the condition you’re describing, I worry the tank and rock might be filled with aiptasia or pests.

Which can be dealt with. But, would need extra steps added to your plan.

Is it overgrown with hair algae? That rock could have tons of phosphates bound up, and could take months for them to release

 

[edmortimore]

Is there any coral in the tank, or has it had coral before? Can you post pictures?

I only ask because from the condition you’re describing, I worry the tank and rock might be filled with aiptasia or pests.

Which can be dealt with. But, would need extra steps added to your plan.

Is it overgrown with hair algae? That rock could have tons of phosphates bound up, and could take months for them to release

I am waiting on up to date pictures as the ones I have been sent are not recent and I will be visiting the tank before I confirm going back for pickup at which point I will take some photos and post them on this thread

No coral. Just FOWLR.

What would be a good step to take to mitigate pests?

 

[edmortimore]

Welcome to R2R!

If you keep the rock wet when you set the tank back up theoretically ot should be cycled. There will be enough bacteria in the rocks to deal with any ammonia load the 2 fish will put out. Even if you're scrubbing the rocks if you keep them on saltwater while scrubbing them and everything stays wet you should be fine. You can even probably pit some ro k in the hospital tank or quarantine tank and the tank will essentially be cycled. If you treat the tank with copper or anything you should probably toss that love rock in the hospital tank or just keep it on there for.your next fish.

However you can Cycle the regular tank if you want and go through all the steps and make sure it can get rid of ammonia when you set it up bit the rock should take care of everything for just 2 or 3 fish.

Goodluck!

Great stuff thank you. I will likely take that advice and utilise some of the live rock for the hospital tank and just leave it in there for future fish where I can quarantine them, and furthermore I can use it for copper based medications as I plan on going very heavy on the coral in the main tank

 

[VintageReefer]

I am waiting on up to date pictures as the ones I have been sent are not recent and I will be visiting the tank before I confirm going back for pickup at which point I will take some photos and post them on this thread

No coral. Just FOWLR.

What would be a good step to take to mitigate pests?

Most, but not all, pests would come from coral. The risk is lower because a lot of pests would feed on coral

I would keep an eye out for aiptasia. They are super annoying and multiply rapidly

When we see the pictures we will better understand the tank and offer advice

Try and get some pictures under white light and sone closeups of the rocks

 

[Cell]

Large used Redsea tanks should be avoided imo. Too much of a liability.

 

[edmortimore]

Large used Redsea tanks should be avoided imo. Too much of a liability.

You know this has been on my mind a bit.. the 1st generation 750XXL has supposedly been a culprit and when I go and see the tank before buying I will be checking every inch of silicon.

If I don’t buy this tank I’ll be getting a DD Reef Pro 1500s new and starting from scratch.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Great stuff thank you. I will likely take that advice and utilise some of the live rock for the hospital tank and just leave it in there for future fish where I can quarantine them, and furthermore I can use it for copper based medications as I plan on going very heavy on the coral in the main tank

If you keep the rocks wet and while scrapping them wash them off in a bucket of saltwater you should get a lot of the die off to fall in that bucket.

The ammonia should not spike super high probably as the rocks should be able to handle it with all the bacteria. Just make sure you are rinsing them in a saltwater bucket before putting then back in to get rid of any debris.

It will kind of be like hand washing your dishes. You will keep the rocks soaking and then pick one out of a bucket then scrub it until you are satisfied and then dunk it in another bucket and rub it to get lose debris off. Then you can put it back in the new tank.

If you keep a powerhead in the container with the rocks that are waiting to be cleaned they should be fine and there won't be too much die off to worry about.


I had to break down my tank for a move recently and did all of this and cleaned all my rock and put it back in a container with my fish the same day and all was fine. No spikes everyone was fine. The rocks were in a tub for 3 months prior to be doing it. They just had a powerhead and that was it for 3 months.

 

[Cell]

You know this has been on my mind a bit.. the 1st generation 750XXL has supposedly been a culprit and when I go and see the tank before buying I will be checking every inch of silicon.

If I don’t buy this tank I’ll be getting a DD Reef Pro 1500s new and starting from scratch.

Check that front bottom seam very closely. This issue has affected more than just the 750 as well. Smaller tanks have also been affected. Here's a good thread if you are interested.

May we please discuss seam breaks in 2-3 yr tanks

I'm noticing an uptick in posts about seam breaks can we get input on the matter pls/ prevention or assistance details There are enough breaks logged, not acknowledged much other than web forums. Buyers have honed down a concern over a certain production lot so as to warn one another about...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

it's not that checking silicon will help

it's that checked and visually passing silicon from them simply comes apart one night in that gen


do the skip cycle rip clean we show below, but land it all in another different tank no compromise there is advised. ditch that tank.
a thread on eutrophication reef tank rehab with turnaround jobs done

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

notice we didn't have to recycle the setup, it was a skip cycle cleaning every time. no rocks are stripped back to white etc, those were all kept live. all the systems went from wrecked to fixed overnite because of the cleaning and flushing and rasping work directly done on rocks.

this is the summary:
a wrecked reef is taken apart and before the rocks and transported into a clean new tank they're cleaned as we did there

any sand is pre rinsed as we did there, doesn't matter if you use old or brand new sand in the new system, new live sand. You'd still rinse that exactly as we did without changing the method, and your results will be those. only land the clean materials in the new tank, manual cleaning will work.

 

[shakacuz]

Thank you! My plan was to use 2 x 30 gallon food grade plastic drums and run them as a mini system with a heater and plenty of circulation to keep the live rock going for the week or so between getting the tank and re-establishing and scaping it.

Will I need to utilise light on the system for that week to prevent any die-off on the live rock as worried if I don’t, when I add the rock back to the main tank the die-off will create a massive ammonia spike?

Thanks for your advice

no light needed if you're going to keep the rock in tubs while you get things rolling. just keep it in the tub with a heater and circulation