Best way to reboot....

[Silverdot1211]

Long story short my tank went neglected for about 6-8 months then I spent a month in the hospital and a month in recovery and that when things went way out of wack. At this point I have brown slime covering everything. Half of the tank has what appears to be cyano and I have a massive aptasia problem. To top it all off I have a leak on my drain side that needs to be addressed.

So at this point I have lost all coral and most of my fish. I am at a tipping point. I either break it down and drop the hobby or figure out a way to fix this.

Sooooo what I need from you guys is some help or ideas on the best easiest way to salvage this disaster. I know I have to drain the tank to adress the plumbing, that's easy....BUT, how do I clean the sand and rock but still retain the ability to re-use it?

 

[reefsaver]

Keep the rock and sand submerged in buckets or a tub as well as any biological filtration media, keep the heating on them and add an airstone or water movement would be best no light is needed.
The fish should be okay in the temporary holding tub while you sort out the plumbing, with hopefully biological filtration, heating and it preferably escape proof.
Then once the plumbing is done, add the pumps, water back, biological filtration and fish then I'd might treat the rock for the Aiptasia problems inside the Tubs and outside of the aquarium to prevent recontamination.
My preferred way is to use Coral glue on the Glass Nems/Aiptasia covering their position, once covered I chip and scrape off that targeted area of rock with a chisel or flat head screwdriver.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Move anything live you want to keep out of the tank.
pour bleach in the running tank for 24 hrs then drain it and air dry the rocks and sand for 2-3 days with fans over it and rake the sand. fix the plumbing and fill it with saltwater again once ready.
Dose Fritz turbostart 900 and add fish right way.
Note: aerate the room by opening windows and running some fans, bleach will smell pretty strong

 

[reefsaver]

This is way easier than my method lol

 

[Dr. Reef]

This is way easier than my method lol

lol we do this monthly in our business.
Bleach then dry then refill, dose bacteria and add fish.
System is back up and running in 3-4 days.
Either use 3 to 5 times the bacteria or dose daily for 3-4 days.

 

[theMeat]

Either that ^ or
If the leak is on the drain side you should be able to fix it without draining the whole tank. Maybe just turn off the return pump.
Get a routine of blowing off the rocks with a turkey blaster or something and run filter socks that get rinsed daily or every other day. A uv light can help. No light ( black out) will help too.
Once parameters are safe enough for nudi branch would do that. Any other method, short of taking out the rock and doing something dramatic or long and drawn out, and you. won’t get all the aptasia and it will just multiply again.
Wish you luck. Post up some progress pics

 

[Silverdot1211]

Bleech

Move anything live you want to keep out of the tank.
pour bleach in the running tank for 24 hrs then drain it and air dry the rocks and sand for 2-3 days with fans over it and rake the sand. fix the plumbing and fill it with saltwater again once ready.
Dose Fritz turbostart 900 and add fish right way.
Note: aerate the room by opening windows and running some fans, bleach will smell pretty strong

Bleach.....The nuke method....I love it! So maybe it doesn't matter at this point but I have an 80gallon cube in the basement..... How much is too much? is 2 cups enough? Also, I don't have the ability to open any windows so its going to be pretty unpleasant for a while

 

[Dr. Reef]

1 cup is good enough and yes that room will burn eyes for few hours. You don't have to run bleached tank for 24 hr. Pour and run for 6 to 8 hrs and drain it.

 

[Silverdot1211]

In a weird twisted way its kind of funny.....The guy I bought my fish from about 5years ago is the same guy suggesting I nuke it with bleach.

BTW Thank you everyone for the help!