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24 gal Water of Life - Alexander


uisge-beatha

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uisge-beatha

Update on the cyano-battle... the enemy has advanced up onto my rockwork. I've been completely siphoning the sandbed to remove the cyano twice a week for months, and it's not getting better. The interesting thing is that my nitrates are 0.2 ppm and my phosphates are less than 0.03 (both Salifert tests). It's possible that the cyanobacteria are gobbling up phosphates as quickly as they're produced.

 

I started dosing the tank with MB7 today, as I've heard the bacteria in this product can out-compete cyanobacteria. I'll be monitoring the phosphate level as the cyano (hopefully) dies, to see if it's going up. I had planned to add a Phosban reactor to the tank, but I think it would be unwise with the current level of phosphates.

 

I also added a Tunze 9001 skimmer to the middle back chamber to try to combat my algae & cyano problem. So far, so good. I haven't noticed a huge difference in the tank yet, but it's pulling some good skimmate (by nano-skimmer standards, anyways). I have long-term plans to raise SPS (with a different light, of course), so a skimmer was going to be added at some point anyways.

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  • 2 weeks later...
uisge-beatha

It's now been a few weeks since implementing my plan of attack to fight the cyano outbreak in my tank. My approach was as follows:

1) Weekly sand vacuuming with 20% WC (as usual)

2) Daily cleaning of rocks and thorough sand stirring with turkey baster.

3) Daily dosing of MB7 (5 mL for 24 gal tank) for two weeks.

4) Adding Tunze 9001 skimmer to remove organics before they can break down.

 

Before starting this process, the cyano was advancing up my rock structure, and was threatening to cover my coral. Now, I'm very pleased to report that the cyano is completely gone from the rocks and mostly gone from the sand bed. B)

I'm going to slowly reduce the MB7 dosage until I'm on a weekly maintenance dose. However, I suspect that the skimmer was the major factor in the cyano reduction. I still have a pretty good GHA outbreak on my rocks, so that's next on my list of problems to solve. Interestingly, my sand bed is pretty clean, and passes brandon429's drop test. However, my rocks consistently release a huge amount of debris; I suspect this is a side effect of using Gulf live rock with its large amount of microfauna. I'm also going to monitor nitrate and phosphate levels, and consider adding adsorption media going forward.

Before pic:

IMG_2013_zpsmpuadpnt.jpg

After pic:

IMG_2034_zpsgu3prjxx.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
uisge-beatha
Sigh, and I was doing so well! :wacko:


I got back from a two-week vacation last night, and knew something was wrong with the tank as soon as I entered the house - I could smell trouble.


IMG_2132_zpsa8mx451o.jpg


My tank sitter must have bumped the autofeeder, because the opening was too wide. Instead of dropping a few pellets twice a day, it was dropping a metric tonne of food. Okay, more like 10x too much food, but still! :eek:


Don't get me wrong - I really appreciate that this person checked in on my tank while I was gone. He made sure the fish were okay, and topped up the tank with RODI exactly as instructed. It's just tough to give someone complete instructions on what danger signs to look for when they're not familiar with salt water tanks. I said "Don't worry if there's a film on the glass - that's normal" - I didn't mean sheets of cyanobacteria! :o


I think I'm gonna have to rip clean the tank to fix this problem. When I turkey baste the rocks, the water gets absolutely thick with uneaten food. I need to figure out how to get it out of there before it breaks down any further. Then I need to figure out how to battle back from all this cyano. This is not going to be fun. <_<

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uisge-beatha

Alright, I've formulated a plan for dealing with this situation. I'm going to rip clean the tank, replace the sand bed, and peroxide-treat the rocks, inspired by comments from seabass and brandon429 (among others) on other people's posts. I'll document it here, in case it's of use to anyone else.

 

Step #1

 

Line up supplies, and make 15 gal of new salt water.

 

9843B9AD-4A57-4A43-8F49-2975C32AFB51_zps

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uisge-beatha

Step #2

 

New sand. I'm replacing my Carib-Sea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink (0.5 - 1.5 mm grain size) with dry Carib-Sea Aragonite Special Grade Reef Sand (1.0 - 2.0 mm). I've got 15 lbs, which should be more than enough for my 24 gal tank. I'm aiming for a 1" sand bed thickness, on average.

 

I rinsed the sand in tap water until the rinse water ran clear, to remove dust and fine particles. It took 15-20 rinses until the water wasn't getting any clearer (I lost count). I'll rinse it again in salt water before adding it to the tank.

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Cencalfishguy56

Step #2

 

New sand. I'm replacing my Carib-Sea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink (0.5 - 1.5 mm grain size) with dry Carib-Sea Aragonite Special Grade Reef Sand (1.0 - 2.0 mm). I've got 15 lbs, which should be more than enough for my 24 gal tank. I'm aiming for a 1" sand bed thickness, on average.

 

I rinsed the sand in tap water until the rinse water ran clear, to remove dust and fine particles. It took 15-20 rinses until the water wasn't getting any clearer (I lost count). I'll rinse it again in salt water before adding it to the tank.

good luck!
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wonderful post and thread it is now linked here:


http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/


So glad there are no losses

 

the tiny mistake didn't compound wastes already left in that tank, it happened on top of a *prepared* sandbed where it became the mass waste, but you still had enough active surface area to reduce its ammonia=no crash. To me your documentations about fixing it go hand in hand with your prep phase which made the mistake compound at a lesser rate than the typical dsb tank.

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uisge-beatha

Step #3

 

Feed lunch to kiddos, and repeal ban on TV before 5 PM. Put 8-year-old in charge of siblings, and tell her to govern wisely and well. ;)

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Your lysmata shrimp is the mine canary for the procedure

 

he must be isolated first and alone before any removal in my opinion because minor ammonia pockets can indeed be there but unliberated into free water for testing results and bio effects...as you begin to part out the tank it may kick them up so we like animal isolation first before the rip

 

these always feel on-the-edge :) as people watch tank deconstruction before outcomes are known

 

but its repeatable and after several rounds we're numb to the process and just run it

 

the only bad outcomes are had by not factoring in a place detritus and waste existed, and then burning our sensitives with that miscalc

 

given all normal luck on hardware/not dropping things etc, the only biological factor we must control that I can see are acclimations and never mixing waste with sensitive animals until the waste factor is mediated.

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uisge-beatha

Step #4

 

Without disturbing the sand bed or the algae on rocks, I siphoned about 10 gal (50%) of the tank water into a large holding bin. I moved the rocks to bin, then moved fish, shrimp, and crabs.

 

A29D53A8-11B2-461E-9200-FCD17E250633_zps

 

E9CB9F52-C7B2-445A-A1A0-FEDF92629649_zps

 

Next I siphoned the remaining water into a bucket for disposal (including water in back chambers), and combed through the sand to find the snails, which I moved to the holding bin. Then I removed the sand, and disposed of it as well.

 

Wear gloves for this step – it’s pretty disgusting, even though my sand bed was relatively clean because I’d been vacuuming thoroughly with my weekly maintenance all along. Actually, I recommend wearing gloves throughout the procedure to protect the animals from whatever oils and soap residue you have on your skin. And wear eye protection – that giant green paly in my tank looked like he was taking aim at me. <_<

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uisge-beatha

Step #5

 

I scraped the glass and the back partition of the tank, and rinsed it with some of the discarded tank water. Then I siphoned the dirty tank water back out again. I used paper towel to sop up the rest of the water, mostly because I wanted to wipe any remaining gunk off the tank bottom.

 

BC8F9989-DF98-4D6A-857C-1D5DEA6CD914_zps

 

Next I cleaned all the equipment really well with vinegar, and rinsed with discarded salt water, before putting it back in place.

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uisge-beatha

Step #6

 

I dumped about 10 lbs of the new (rinsed) sand into the tank, and spread it out. It created about a 1” deep layer, which is what I was going for. I re-filled the tank with 10 gal of new salt water, which caused the sand to cloud again. I think I didn’t rinse it well enough – hopefully that won’t cause problems for the livestock. :unsure:

 

Around this point, I decided to add a heater and powerhead to the holding tank, because this was clearly going to take a while.

 

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Nano sapiens

2 week vacation with an overambitious pellet feeder...been there:

 

12g2WeeksVacFront_020314_zps741268d5.jpg

 

In this case, just needed a bit of cleaning/vacuuming to set things aright. Hope the deep-clean goes well!

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uisge-beatha

Step #7

 

I took each piece of live rock, removed it from the holding bin, and picked off the algae with tweezers. Then I scrubbed the rock surface with an old toothbrush in a bucket of salt water, and blasted it with a turkey baster to knock the debris out of the corner. After a salt water rinse, the rock piece went back into the holding tank.

 

57735A8D-1463-45C8-A0DF-6510C09368CC_zps

 

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uisge-beatha
Step #8


I mixed up 1 L of 3% hydrogen peroxide with 2 tbsp salt mix (i.e. my normal ½ c salt mix to a gallon of RODI water formula, but with peroxide in place of the water). I took each piece of live rock, checked it very carefully for critters, and dipped it in the peroxide solution for 1 minute, then let it drip for 10 seconds, followed by a rinse in a new bucket of salt water. Then the pieces went back into the holding bin. While dipping the rocks, I made sure to keep the coral out of the peroxide solution, but used a turkey baster to apply the solution around the coral without getting any on them.


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Step #9


I moved the rocks and livestock back to the display tank, and then topped up the tank with the reserved (clean) tank water that had been in the holding bin and re-started the tank. I also added a 5x dose of Prime to combat any ammonia spikes that might result from the cleaning procedure and the resulting algae die-off.


The tank is still really cloudy, and the clownfish is freaking out a bit (i.e. swimming all over the tank). Everyone else seems mostly okay, although the coral are understandably pissed off. I’ll reconstruct the rockscape tomorrow.


EDIT: The cloudiness settled within about 6 hours, and didn't seem to cause the livestock any distress. Note that I rinsed the sand 15-20 times in a bucket before adding it to the tank, but I probably should have done more rinsing.


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All told, the procedure took 5-6 hours. I’m hoping that everyone survives the procedure, but I’ll post the results here either way.

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uisge-beatha

brandon429: thanks for your encouragement. Hopefully, I handled the process adequately well, but as you say, the shrimp will be the canary in the coal mine. I'm actually more worried about him having been exposed to peroxide than ammonia, and the acclimatization shock. I matched the salinity, but the temperature of the display tank was about 2 deg cooler than the holding bin when he went back in, which is more than I'd like. He's hiding right now - I hope he pulls through. :scarry:

 

"the tiny mistake didn't compound wastes already left in that tank, it happened on top of a *prepared* sandbed where it became the mass waste, but you still had enough active surface area to reduce its ammonia=no crash. To me your documentations about fixing it go hand in hand with your prep phase which made the mistake compound at a lesser rate than the typical dsb tank."

 

This is a really good point! I hadn't considered that the autofeeder problem would have been much worse without the maintenance I had been doing. I don't know if there was an ammonia spike or not, but I didn't lose a single creature. Yet. :unsure:

 

Nano sapiens: LOL glad to know that I'm in such good company! :lol:

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uisge-beatha

Happily, everyone looks good this morning! The shrimp survived, and even a hitchhiker feather duster that I was sure I'd lose to the peroxide dip. The mushrooms and the hammer are still looking a little unhappy (i.e. not open as fully as usual), so I'm keeping a close eye on them.

 

No cyano is visible, and the remaining algae is dying. I've got the media reactor running with biopellets, in an effort to prevent the nutrients from building up again (obviously, I'll continue with weekly sand vacuuming as well). It's currently running off a MJ400 in the display section, but I'll plumb it into the return pump next week. I'm also going to baste the rocks daily to remove dying algae and get it into the water column.

 

A6E19DBD-AE73-4C8E-BA46-E1D5AD970AA1_zps

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Wow! Great job! You're brave to attempt this. Your documentation is really helpful for the community

Tank looks great . This 5-6 hour investment will do infinitely more than spending 30 min cleaning x forever . I've been more diligent with my sand bed and it's great vs letting the disaster build up

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Nano sapiens

Happily, everyone looks good this morning! The shrimp survived, and even a hitchhiker feather duster that I was sure I'd lose to the peroxide dip. The mushrooms and the hammer are still looking a little unhappy (i.e. not open as fully as usual), so I'm keeping a close eye on them.

 

No cyano is visible, and the remaining algae is dying. I've got the media reactor running with biopellets, in an effort to prevent the nutrients from building up again (obviously, I'll continue with weekly sand vacuuming as well). It's currently running off a MJ400 in the display section, but I'll plumb it into the return pump next week. I'm also going to baste the rocks daily to remove dying algae and get it into the water column.

 

A6E19DBD-AE73-4C8E-BA46-E1D5AD970AA1_zps

 

That does look a whole lot better!

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uisge-beatha

Looks like I'm getting a cycle as a result of the cleaning, as I suspected I might.

 

Ammonia = 0.25 ppm, nitrites = 0 ppm (API)

Nitrates < 0.2 ppm (Salifert)

 

It's not surprising, since I changed the sand, changed the filter sponge, killed the surface bacteria on the live rocks with the peroxide, AND killed a bunch of algae and benthic critters. The nitrifying bacteria should repopulate the tank fairly quickly, but I'll keep monitoring the cycle and dosing Prime to bind the ammonia (and nitrite, if necessary).

 

I also started dosing MB7 today, in an effort to prevent the cyanobacteria from taking hold again. I'll continue it daily for about two weeks, and then start to taper off to a weekly maintenance dose.

 

The livestock and coral aren't showing any stress from the ammonia, with the exception of the hammer. However, it's expanded a little more than yesterday, so I think he's just mad at me. :P I'll also do a big water change tomorrow, once I make up some new water.

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that low level if accurate w be just fine, active live rock even after the dip has its bacteria and cycled lr can digest a few ppm in 24 hours itll be ok w balance out. is ok to just change out half the water if concerned matching temp and salinity. your documentation steps are gold im so glad we linked this to our sand rinse thread. that was quite the rip cleaning wow lol

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