How to prep a neglected reef tank

[Aseidman]

My reef tank has been severly neglected for quite some time. It is a 30 gallon extra high with a refugium running. It was quite beautiful once.. but after someone turned the Air conditioner off during vacaiton, all my corals seemed to have cooked... and I have just never fully cleaned it up.

It now has one hard plate coral, a few hundred aptasia and lots of little bugs and bristle worms...

i plan to change my metal halide bulb, get the water chemistry up to par, load up with hermit crabs and snails, etc...

The questions I have are...:

Do I fresh water dip all my live rock to kill thigs off ?
Do I do anything to mass kill aptasia and bristle worms or just let time and water chemistry take care of it ?

Thanks,
Allen

 

[Jamesurq]

What else do you have in there as far as delicate inhabitants? Any fish?

Sudden changes may not be the best plan if you do. If not, then scrubbing rock, 100% water change, etc is probably a good plan.

 

[Aseidman]

no fish... no animals that I have purchased or put in. I am still wondering of the life that is there is worth preserving or worth killing at the expense of getting rid of the aptasia and bristleworms.

I would not dip two rocks. one has the plate coral, the other has button polyps.

what do you think ?

 

[LockeOak]

I would say if you don't have any major algae problems you're probably in pretty decent shape. The only real problem I can think of is the aiptasia. Buy a few peppermint shrimp, they should go to work on them pretty quickly. Kalk paste will kill them as well but you can only do a few at a time without pH shocking the tank. Don't worry about the bristleworms, they're not harmful and have probably kept your tank pretty clear of dead waste buildup. When your tank gets clean and functional again their numbers may decline on their own. Just wear latex gloves if you're moving the rocks around. I would say try the peppermint shrimp, take out and scrub off aiptasia on the rocks if you can, do several big 10-15G water changes, clean up and do maintenance on all of your equipment (clean pumps and powerheads etc.) and it should be looking good again pretty soon. With the exception of the aiptasia there's probably nothing wrong with your tank a few good water changes can't cure.

 

[Aseidman]

my glass if full of algea.. but once i scrape it off, the water is crystal clear. Not sure about the chemistry so I need to check it out.

As for the liverock, at one time it was full of hair algea and red algea, but it seems to have dies off to a large extent.

I think the pepermoint shrimp is a great idea. I did not know thery would eat the aptasia. will buy some soon.

If I can kill the aptasia, then i think i can deal with the worms.

 

[Aseidman]

also.. I am getting some slimey kind of algea.. but if I swoosh a stick in the tank it peels off the rock easily. will any snails or crabs eat it ?

 

[IFbettas]

Not all peppermint shrimp eat aiptasia. It is hit or miss. IME most peppermint shrimp will not eat aiptasia. You can still try them though. I would use Joe's Juice to kill the aiptasia.

 

[HumbleLobster]

Sounds like cyano algae. Most CUC will eat that. Changing your bulbs will help with that, assuming there has been a spectrum shift, and water changes will help bring down your nutrients from the stagnant water.

How has the flow been during this time?

 

[Moonstream]

I would get some aptasia eating nudibranches, a trio of peppermint shrimp, and wait for the aptasia to go bye-bye. while you let these creatures eat the aptasia, get the water up to par, change the bublb, ect.

next, once at least 75% of the aptasia is gone, add the hermits and snails and crabs you want. let them settle, keep doing water changes, start adding fish.

I would leave the bristleworms be, but if you want to get rid of them, I have heard that yellow coris wrasses (also called canary, yellow, or bananna wrasses) eat them, and thye look awsome too!

 

[Sk8r]

My advice would be to restore it to life just by supplying life at the next-most basic level: after the worms (good guys) come the crabs, shellfish and shrimp. The one will take on the algae, the other the aiptasia: juvie peps are the best if you can find them. Let them condition the place for a while, replace your bulbs, tune up your skimmer, fine-tune your fuge, and start doing (and logging) weekly water tests including your 10% water changes. Within not too long you can begin thinking about corals/fish again.

 

[Aseidman]

Question for HumbleLobster: what is "CUC" ?

 

[HumbleLobster]

CUC = clean up crew such as snails, hermits, shrimp, etc.

My bad there for not specifying. Glad to see you are looking to take action to fix your tank!

 

[Aseidman]

i so not have the heart to shut it down... I MUST rebuild it.

It was small (30 gallon extra high) but magnificent. A work of art.

 

[jadeguppy]

I received some aiptasia covered rock from a tank that had gone a long time without being handled. Literally there were hundreds of aiptais on the rocks. 4-5 peppermint shrimp later and the tank is clean. It took a few weeks to start seeing results, but then it went really fast. I used nearly every piece of the rock that was in his tank. In the year since then, I have had two show up. They may have been brought in on some macro algea I received, but they have been easy to get rid of.

 

[Hodori]

If you are ok with taking the long natural route, probably best to do a large water change and add a large CUC. You said you have couple HUNDRED aptasia...its gonna take a little bit of time and at least 4 hungry aptasia eating peppermint.

Just take it slow, its pretty much impossible to have a 180 degree turn around quickly.

good luck.

 

[aquaman67]

This would be the time to start over, IMO.

You could get some new rock and cycle you tank again.

It may not be worth the headache of using your old rock. Have you done a phosphate test? Your rock could be fueling the algae on your glass.

This might be the time for a fresh start...