Reef clean up! How too?

charlieborg

Member
I'm getting ready to take all my live rock and corals out of my tank and do a good cleaning. I was thinking of scrubbing the rock with a tooth brush? Also whats the best way to vacuum the sand bed?
 
I have had several fish die in the past few months, and I lost most of my corals about 6 months ago. I'm just seeing the corals that lived start to grow again! I thought it might be a good idea to do a good cleaning.
 
If it were me instead of just cleaning everything figure out what is going on first. Test ur water since everything is dying. Hate to see you clean then the same thing happens again
 
Or worse yet, clean and it gets worse.
I don't recall reading about anyone breaking a tank down in order to clean it. I just did a reef central search for tank cleaning and what you describe isn't in the top 15 posts.

I agree. Find out what's really wrong before taking what I think may be a drastic step.
 
try running a diatom filter a couple of times a week first blow off your rocks with a turkey baster and gently stir the top of your sand bed to mix up detritus you may have a flow issue
 
after 7 years.... you should test No3 and Po3, without a doubt they are higher than they should be. The higher nutrients is why you have excess algae (fuzzy) . I have never removed my rocks to clean them (almost at 7yrs now too), but I do - on a rotating basis, clean/siphon the DSB. every 4-5 months I clean 1/4 section. This helps get the gunk and deep settling debree out. I have a sulfur denitrator for No3, and run GFO + drip lanthanum chloride for PO4.
 
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