I want to start over

[Airborne]

I am frustrated with my tank. Too many issues going on with Aptaisa's, Bubble Algae, Phosphates, etc....

I have alot of SPS and a few LPS coral along with fish. How can I take out all the rock, let it dry out in the sun and start all over? Probably includes the sand as well.

I will also re-plumb the tank as well. When it was installed the guy restricted the flow from the Dart Gold Pump to 3/4". Almost no flow in the DT. If it were not for 2 MP-40's there would be almost no current or flow.

Either this or I am thinking of getting out! Too much frustration for the money that is going out the window. So is there a way to nuke the rock work and reinstall while keeping alive all these corals?

Thanks

 

[brannock_16]

I had the same issue about 3 months ago. I had some small patches of Hair Algae that was driving me nuts and I had a ton of blue clove polyps that were taking over! I took out over 150 lbs of live rock and put it on the back porch to completely dry and kill everything on it.

With that being said, I still have about 100 lbs of Tonga LR in my tank so I have plenty of room for the corals, fish, etc to continue to live and grow. With what you are wanting to do, I would suggest getting one of those rubbermaid water troughs or brute trash cans so you can put your livestock in one and the corals in another.

Just make sure to add powerheads to each so the water can have movement and oxygenation. Also, depending on where you live, you may need to add a heater to each. Once you have all your livestock and corals out, you can start "bleaching" the rock outside. This does take quite a bit of time...I believe from taking it out and killing everything to reseeding it and making it live again takes roughly 6+ months.

 

[kissman]

Sure there is a way. You can always take the corals to your LFS and then boil the rock and let it sit and let stuff die off. But, in my opinion I think you can beat this and not have to start over. Whats to keep it from happening again? If you have SPS in the tank then it was running well at one time. I had a lot of problems with my tank as well not long ago. Nitrates were 160ppm, Phosphates were very high, algae had taken over my tank. I started finding the cause and solving one issue at a time. It took me almost 2 years to get where I am now. But I like to think i have grown so much in knowledge about Reef Tanks becuase of the research I have done. Yes I have spent a bit of money but the rewards were worth. I am winning the battle not my tank. My tank went from this and this was after cleaning and starting big water chnages

to this

Now with that said i am still working on the rock work as you can see I still need to finish covering the pipe work. But the point is I felt the same as you do and I decided I need to fix it rather than start over and it happen again. Start with basics and post your stats and people on this forum will help get it straight