Rescaping, done with bryopsis, advice welcome

[Mr. Microscope]

Hello All,

This will be a long one. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible. Your advice and suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

I few months ago, I decided I wanted to mix things up a bit with my tank. I can't afford to start a whole new one. So, I went with the next best thing and got new rock to start over again with my current livestock. I've been slowly leaching all the phosphates out of my punkani and will be ready to start the redo soon.

In the meantime, I have taken on some bryopsis. It's not too bad, and honestly I'm not concerned with eliminating it from my tank (no nudis or tech-M). I just want to make sure it doesn't carry on to my new rock. I've been told that bryopsis can even be in the water. So, I'm getting rid of my water as well.

Since this will be a complicated redo, I decided it would be best to thoroughly plan it out and get advice on tweeking the protocol before I start.

TL:DR
I'm redoing my tank. I want to make sure the bryopsis I have doesn't transfer over to the new rock. Keep in mind I'm not planning to fight the bryopsis. So, again, please no advice on Tech M or Nudis.

Here's a rough draft of my protocol:

 

Holding Tank

• Make water

• One heater from sump and WP10 from DT. Soak with H2O2, Thoroughly clean, and let dry. (I don't think the heater has any bryopsis on it, but the pump does.)

• Lighting will just be from 100watt lightbulbs or something

Eliminating bryopsis from livestock

• Most of my LPS colonies have bryopsis around the edges of them. So, I'm going to use a dremmel with a diamond saw to cut into the colonies, sacrificing a small portion of the coral. Only coral will be left behind.

• SPS will be clipped, only leaving coral, no rock or exposed skeleton.

• All frags will be removed from plugs and remounted to new plugs if necessary.

• All non-SPS will be subjected to a standard H2O2 dip after fragging. Rinsed thoroughly in fresh SW, and placed in holding tank.

 

Holding tank observation (for bryopsis), two weeks

LPS will be fed frequently to boost the nutrient levels of the holding tank. This should help to spark any growth of bryopsis that I failed to cut away.

 

NOTE: clownfish and nems will stay in DT during the observation period.

 

Start making water for new tank (33 gallons)

 

Seeding new rock:

I'm not going to put any of my new rock anywhere near my old rock. So, transferring bacteria from my current live rock is a no-go.

• I purchased Dr. Tim's all-in-one nitrifying bacteria, the ammonia, and a Salifert ammonia test kit to get the new rock properly seeded and cycled before starting the new scape.

• I'm planning to do this in a three day process, continuing to feed with ammonia each day to really build up the biological filtration.

Remove remaining livestock from DT:
During day two of the seeding process, if all is going well with the Dr. Tim's and the holding tank, I'll remove my clownfish and anemones from the DT and put them in the holding tank. The anemones will get plastic baskets to sit in.


Drain DT and Sump

• After last of livestock is transfered over to holding, I'll dose the tank with a massive amount of H2O2. This might be unnecessary, but will help put my mind at ease a little.

• Remove rock

• Completely drain tank and sump

• Thoroughly clean equipment

• Let tank and equipment dry two days

Start over

• Refill tank and get equipment going

• Build rock structure

• Add livestock back to tank

 

 

 

Any thoughts, suggestions, or advice is welcome! Thank you in advance! Here's a preview of the new rock and island structure that will go in my tank after all the mess is over:

 

 

 

[gena]

Sounds like you have all the bases covered! Love that new rockscape!!!

 

Good luck with the overhaul .

[Felicia]

Woah! Sounds like a TON of work! I think your plan sounds very organized and well thought out. I hope it all goes really smoothly. Transfers are always so stressful. I can't wait to see how it all looks after the redo. Its nice to change things up once in a while. I got so much more excited about my tank again after the redo.

[Polarcollision]

I can only add encouragement/support that 50% H2O2 for 3 minutes killed bryopsis on a zoa plug and the good news is that it never spread to the rest of the tank through the water.

 

Best of luck with the change!

[Chadf]

Did you try tech-m before you went so drastic? I had terrible bryopsis in the old 26 bowfront at one point, growing all over my frag plugs and inside paly colonies killing off polyps. Tech-m wiped it all out.

[Mr. Microscope]

Woah! Sounds like a TON of work! I think your plan sounds very organized and well thought out. I hope it all goes really smoothly. Transfers are always so stressful. I can't wait to see how it all looks after the redo. Its nice to change things up once in a while. I got so much more excited about my tank again after the redo.

Yeah, it will be quite a task, but I'm looking forward to the new look. I played around with the new rocks last night again, and was easily able to replicate what I made before. I also added a few branch pieces. I'll post pics later. This new setup is going to leave a lot more room for corals.

 

I can only add encouragement/support that 50% H2O2 for 3 minutes killed bryopsis on a zoa plug and the good news is that it never spread to the rest of the tank through the water.

 

Best of luck with the change!

Thanks PC. I've done a lot of H2O2 dips and it wipes out GHA no problem, but bryopsis always seems to come back since it roots its way into the rocks.

 

Did you try tech-m before you went so drastic? I had terrible bryopsis in the old 26 bowfront at one point, growing all over my frag plugs and inside paly colonies killing off polyps. Tech-m wiped it all out.

I'm not planning to fight the bryopsis. I want a new rock scape and just want to ensure that the bryopsis doesn't find its way back into my new stuff. Thanks for the suggestion though.