Bringing our BioCube back to glory.. questions ?

[J Fox]

Hello everyone, I'm back with a few questions concerning my 29 gallon bio cube reef tank  (That has not been up-kept as it should have been).  Tank has fallen into a state of disrepair. Not horrible but needs some help. I'll start with this post, hope to get some input and continue on with other questions here as well. And pictures - 

First of all I'm doing 4 gallon water changes twice a weekend to get the water back in check. Turkey baster daily and changing out floss as needed. 

My first question is the sand. It seems dirty and there was some pretty funky green algae on some of it. I was wondering if I started taking some of the sand and assorted grime with it a little at a time with the water changes, and then replacing with new when I had most of it out would that create any problems with anything? 

Mixing a batch of water now to start the weekends reef maintenance activities, which besides water changes includes reloading the media rack with fresh product, updating firmware on Apex and repacking DI resin in water system. 

[dling]

You dont need to replace the sand with new. Just do a good cleaning of the sand you have . I would recommend doing small amounts so as not to 

wipe out to much of the bacteria at one time.

[J Fox]

Thank you for the reply. I guess I will stick it out with existing sand. I worked on the tank yesterday and carefully vacuumed off the top and improved it very much. This morning there is a small thin spot of green on the one side already. weird. Waiting on my fresh testing chemicals to arrive so I can see whats up with the nitrate and phosphate.  

about 8 to 10 gallon water changes this weekend and last has surely helped I would think. Thanks again for the reply. 

 

[J Fox]

Here is the tank this morning. The network switch on floor is just for updating the firmware in APEX hopefully today. 

[dling]

Good luck. If all else fails you can give Vibrant a try. I've use it in the past. It works.

[Tired]

Order more cleanup critters (ReefCleaners is good), do appropriate water changes for awhile, and give it time. You should be able to get the algae under control by changing things about the ecosystem, instead of just taking the route of poisoning it all out. For the algae on the sandbed, get some ceriths and/or dwarf ceriths to help stir it up.

[mcarroll]

Looks from the pic like you have some cleanup crew already.  And at least from a distance it really doesn't look too bad to me.  (Maybe post some closeups if you see what you think are trouble spots?)

 

I'd play it by ear now that you did some cleanup -- and stay OUT of the medicine cabinet.  😉

 

If you see any major grow-back of algae over the next 2-4 weeks, then get some snails at the LFS and boost your cleanup crew a little.  

 

I'd probably only add 1-2 snails at a time if you're adding something like Astreas, Trochus or small Turbo snails.  More or less for larger or smaller snails....just don't overdo it.  (Too many and some end up starving to death.)

On 3/22/2020 at 8:38 AM, J Fox said:

The network switch on floor is just for updating the firmware in APEX hopefully today. 

A little like rabbit hunting with a bazooka?  😉

[J Fox]

On 3/24/2020 at 5:55 AM, mcarroll said:

Looks from the pic like you have some cleanup crew already.  And at least from a distance it really doesn't look too bad to me.  (Maybe post some closeups if you see what you think are trouble spots?)

 

I'd play it by ear now that you did some cleanup -- and stay OUT of the medicine cabinet.  😉

 

A little like rabbit hunting with a bazooka?  😉

Yes exactly ! "Rabbit hunting with a bazooka"  LOL loved that 🙂   For now that project is over and big switch put away.. However once the APEX firmware was updated now a new alert popped up that says one of the modules needs a firmware update. A question for another forum ! 

OK so YES I do have a clean up crew working hard - And honestly I think they are getting it. Actually the best clean up crew I've had. Not sure if the blue claw hermits are cleaning or what but fun to watch ! I am attaching a few pics of the algae situation. The Trochus snails ( I believe they are ?) have the back wall almost totally clean.. Amazing. I also have one HUGE Turbo snail that may have to move to a friends big tank.. He's golf ball size.

The bottle of Vibrant I bought is still unused. May be overkill for the problem I had.  

Going to keep the sand, that idea is off the table for now. Hoping to find a way to clean up algae that grows on it here and there.  

Changing out the resin in water system project last weekend was put on hold, dumping old resin in a rush to get out in trash that week I accidentally tossed one of the foam gasket pieces. ordered a new cartridge and started to reload them yesterday.  The color changing resin I had here "in stock" was about 2 years old and when opened I noticed had already color changed. I believe it has hit its shelf life so that project and this weekends water change is on hold until new resin arrives...  That's it for now. Here are the pics ..

pic 1 and 2 - Trochus ?

Pic 3 the algae on rocks

Pic 4 the sand algae issue