Trying to rebuild a neglected tank... I could use some advice.

[TinyChocobo]

Hello!

The reef tank at my work was barely taken care of for about the last year or so. I wasn't there and the staff that were supposed to be taking care of it basically just fed the fish and added water to the top off and nothing else.

I would like to get this tank back into healthy shape - but I worry about doing too much too fast - I don't want to make things worse.

There are presently 2 clown fish and a yellow tang in the tank. When I left there was ... more diversity.

I did peel up and out a LOT of green star polyps - some of which you can still see in the tank. They had basically covered the whole tank - even the glass sides and the overflow.

All of the corals that were in here beyond the GSP are gone, although I am thinking that I might just want to get a few anemonies once the tank is back to being healthy... For now healthy is the goal.

Any and all recommendations are welcomed.

Thanks!

 

[Tahoe61]

Looks like it could use more flow. That's cyano on the rocks to the left opposite the GSP right? Or just clean what power heads it does have.
Look at rejuvenating the CUC. Perhaps a Pincushion Urchin for help keeping the Coralline in check.
Myself I am not a huge fan of GSP, perhaps the LFS will take some of those larger rocks covered in GSP off your hands.
Look at getting some type of ATO, that would probably be the most beneficial thing you could do.

Good Luck to you. The tank certainly has potential.

 

[TinyChocobo]

Looks like it could use more flow. That's cyano on the rocks to the left opposite the GSP right? Or just clean what power heads it does have.
Look at rejuvenating the CUC. Perhaps a Pincushion Urchin for help keeping the Coralline in check.
Myself I am not a huge fan of GSP, perhaps the LFS will take some of those larger rocks covered in GSP off your hands.
Look at getting some type of ATO, that would probably be the most beneficial thing you could do.

Good Luck to you. The tank certainly has potential.

It does still have a Tunze ATO although the motor sounds like it is on its last leg.

Yeah, that does look like cyano to me - there is also a lot of bubble algae. I'm likely going to pull up the rest of the GSP. I much prefer anemonies these days as that's what I converted my home tank to.

 

[sfin52]

It does still have a Tunze ATO although the motor sounds like it is on its last leg.

Yeah, that does look like cyano to me - there is also a lot of bubble algae. I'm likely going to pull up the rest of the GSP. I much prefer anemonies these days as that's what I converted my home tank to.

Bubble add a black spot foxface. Start slow that sandbed is going to need work. Work about 10% of that sand bed and week.

It really isn't that bad nothing like a little elbow grease and water changes won't fix.

 

[Tahoe61]

It does still have a Tunze ATO although the motor sounds like it is on its last leg.

Yeah, that does look like cyano to me - there is also a lot of bubble algae. I'm likely going to pull up the rest of the GSP. I much prefer anemonies these days as that's what I converted my home tank to.

An emerald crab will eventually take care of that bubble algae if you don't feed him too much.
Cheaper BTAs are easily had. Add one now, end up with 6 by next year lol.
Maybe a Tiger Conch to stir up the sand bed, they are relatively cheap.
The clowns might be a challenge if you're thinking of adding new fish.
The tank would look awesome with some taller soft corals like sinularia, or some leathers.

 

[TinyChocobo]

Bubble add a black spot foxface. Start slow that sandbed is going to need work. Work about 10% of that sand bed and week.

It really isn't that bad nothing like a little elbow grease and water changes won't fix.

Would I just clean the sand while siphoning, or do I need to do something more drastic?

I do know I want to only do a little at a time regardless.

An emerald crab will eventually take care of that bubble algae if you don't feed him too much.
Cheaper BTAs are easily had. Add one now, end up with 6 by next year lol.
Maybe a Tiger Conch to stir up the sand bed, they are relatively cheap.
The clowns might be a challenge if you're thinking of adding new fish.
The tank would look awesome with some taller soft corals like sinularia, or some leathers.

Yeah, cheaper BTAs is all I would be after. Not worried about going fancy.

The LFS has emerald crabs handy all the time, I'll probably grab a couple of little guys and toss in there and see what happens. From what I remember they're pretty sturdy.

I hadn't planned on adding more fish, but either some coral or anemonies. Personally I prefer the anemonies until they try going into the power heads at the back of the tank. There are some guards over them now that keeps them out but it does reduce their flow.

Beyond the GSPs I can't remember the names of the corals that were in here before. I think they were LPS, but it's been a while and my memory isn't as good as it used to be. I might have some older pictures somewhere.

I'm not opposed to having corals again in here, it's just not something I am going to do right now.

 

[BryanM]

Cleaning 10-20% of the sand a week seems reasonable.

Honestly doesn't look that bad to me.... I've seen far worse on here.