Tank Restart Help

[ChilledReefer]

OK i messed up my Red Sea Nano max tank by not keeping up with the testing and I'm going to start it over.  I also am going to take out the powder fine sand and go bare bottom.  The wavemakers and every time I siphoned it would cause a dust storm.  I plan to transfer the coral frags to a 10 gallon AIO tonight for rehoming until the new cycle is complete. 

 

If I reuse the two base rock mounds from the tank as the bacteria source and dump in some more Dr. Tim's, can I take the bio balls out of the back chamber and use that as the bio filter in the 10 gallon for the frags to chill out in?

 

The main tank I'm going to let cycle again with no lights for a couple of months or until the tests say its done. I think the last time I rushed it and the reef gods punished me!

 

Thanks, 

[mcarroll]

On 11/3/2022 at 5:00 PM, ChilledReefer said:

OK i messed up my Red Sea Nano max tank by not keeping up with the testing and I'm going to start it over. 

A total reboot (cycle and all) is rarely worth it, unless you're going to restart with some really nice live rock.

 

What IS "worth it" is correcting any missteps (ID them if you're unsure!) and making a new path forward where you don't repeat those things.

 

Setting up a second tank, transferring corals, etc. is just extra stress on your AND the corals.

 

What's the main problem making you want to give up on the current tank?

[ChilledReefer]

On 11/6/2022 at 12:26 AM, mcarroll said:

A total reboot (cycle and all) is rarely worth it, unless you're going to restart with some really nice live rock.

 

What IS "worth it" is correcting any missteps (ID them if you're unsure!) and making a new path forward where you don't repeat those things.

 

Setting up a second tank, transferring corals, etc. is just extra stress on your AND the corals.

 

What's the main problem making you want to give up on the current tank?

Wish I'd seen this last week, but the deed is done now. My main issue i think was high Phosphate.  Its the Red Sea Max nano 20 gallon and I had a deep (too deep) powder sand bed and some live rock and 3 fish. I think I feed too much for one. Other thing is the built in program has the lights on for 11 hours although it ramps up and down, but I think it grew algae too  much.  I was having to scrape the glass almost every two or three days.  Then the hair algae was on all my snails and some of the corals.

 

But the main issue I believe was not keeping up with water changes and too little when I did.  I have a 10 gallon bucket now and I will be at least 50% moving forward.  I'm going to use reef salt as well. 

 

But the biggest thing is I'm going to let that rock sit and cook for at least two months.  Already since I started the Dr. Tim's Method Sunday its off.  The ammonia reads 2 ppm and is dark green on the API test, but the Nitrite is the aqua blue color indicating close to zero.  I'm not going dose any more ammonia until it comes down unlike the last time where I used the wrong instructions and dosed too much. 

 

The 9 small frags of coral I have are in a 10 gallon with the Reef LED 50 over it so getting plenty of light and doing ok. None look bleached and all are open. I changed the water in it by about 30% last night. 

 

If people on  these forums can get coral to grow in a dang Jar with no flow and a gallon of water, I should be able to make it work in a 20 gallon!  LOL 

[mcarroll]

5 hours ago, ChilledReefer said:

Its the Red Sea Max nano 20 gallon and I had a deep (too deep) powder sand bed and some live rock and 3 fish. I think I feed too much for one.

One thing to consider is that 20 gallons is SMALL and 3 fish was A LOT.   By definition this necessitates A LOT of feeding.

 

"Feeding too much" is relative to the 20 gallon tank being unable to handle that amount.   I'm sure the fish were happy, and maybe being fed just the right amount FOR THEM.

 

5 hours ago, ChilledReefer said:

Other thing is the built in program has the lights on for 11 hours although it ramps up and down, but I think it grew algae too  much.  I was having to scrape the glass almost every two or three days.  Then the hair algae was on all my snails and some of the corals.

 

Unless the intensity of light was REALLY HIGH or the color was set to be TOO WHITE this should be one of the less likely problems.

 

More likely (tho confirm or deny for me!) is that you didn't have enough cleanup crew (herbivore snails) AND that you didn't get in the tank with your hands to manually remove algae when it appeared until it was "too late".  (Too late to prevent the outbreak. It's really never too late for the tank.)

 

5 hours ago, ChilledReefer said:

But the main issue I believe was not keeping up with water changes and too little when I did.  I have a 10 gallon bucket now and I will be at least 50% moving forward.  I'm going to use reef salt as well.

Water changes should have very little to do with algae growth.   I wouldn't go trying to to mammoth-sized water changes just because "more is better".  Water changes can cause problems too if they are done when not needed.

 

5 hours ago, ChilledReefer said:

But the biggest thing is I'm going to let that rock sit and cook for at least two months.

You don't want to do this with actual live rock.  You said "really nice live rock," right??   Not "really dead rock"...

 

FYI...The whole ammonia spike thing is pure science experiment.  It's unnecessary in a fish-only tank. (Dr Tim says so right on his website.)  It's twice as unnecessary in a reef tank....inadvisable, IMO.

 

Follow the directions on the Dr Tim's bottle of bacteria for a simple improvement on your plan.  But remember that even that is a fish tank move.  You get no benefits other than a bio-filter that can process ammonia.  The tank is practically a monoculture at this point relative to a healthy reef.  Know anything about the stability of monoculture ecosystems?  Not stable.  Reefs?  Super stable AND resilient.

 

For an even better improvement, use the natural method.

 

Natural method means the rock goes in along with a few very small critters (maybe a hermit and/or a small snail) to provide a SMALL ammonia source.

 

If your rock is actually DEAD ROCK then you might have to feed, but ONLY A TINY AMOUNT that they actually eat.  You are NOT ghost feeding.

 

(If your rock really is "nice live rock" then you might be able to accelerate the following process.)

 

After a few weeks you can add a coral, or another 1-2 small CUC critters.

 

After a few more weeks, repeat again.  Work your way up to larger critters (eg fish) at the end of the stocking list.

 

You'll never see an ammonia spike, so none of the animals will ever be in any danger AND you get a VERY reefy cycle and not just a bio-filter.  (Did you notice how quick the corals can start going in?)

 

So anyway....did you get live rock or dead rock??? 😉

 

5 hours ago, ChilledReefer said:

The 9 small frags of coral I have are in a 10 gallon with the Reef LED 50 over it so getting plenty of light and doing ok. None look bleached and all are open. I changed the water in it by about 30% last night. 

 Is that the light you had over the tank before the reboot?   That's a lot of potential light for such a small tank....depending on how it was set up, that could have been a part of the problem.

 

Did you ever get any lux or PAR measurements from that setup?

 

5 hours ago, ChilledReefer said:

If people on  these forums can get coral to grow in a dang Jar with no flow and a gallon of water, I should be able to make it work in a 20 gallon!  LOL

No offense to the jar keepers, but I would not try to take anything but general inspiration from those tanks.   "Wow.  Neat trick."   ...once you know what you're doing.