Starting fresh with an established tank??

[Tony Gio Offshore]

Hello!!

First of all I just wanted to say it feels so good to be back! I had an 80 gallon reef tank for about a decade but that was 20 years ago. I’m finally getting back into it. I was graciously gifted a 60 gallon established tank by a neighbor. I will be moving the tank to my house this weekend. The tank could use a refresh as the algae is pretty bad. I just have a few questions..

1. I’d like to start as clean as possible. How would you recommend getting rid of the algae during the tear down and resetting of the tank?

2. If I keep the majority of the substrate, live rock and water, but empty the tank, scrub the algae then reset it up, will I have any issues with needing to cycle? I’m thinking as long as I keep the established filtration, live rock, and sand, I shouldn’t have too many issues with parameter spikes?

3. Should I empty everything, donate the fish and start completely fresh?

I’ll be honest I don’t know much about the components. I saw the tank once and will have to figure what all is there once I start the transport. Aby input, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Please see the pics of the tank as it is currently for reference.

 

[T Diddy]

That looks like a very nice, poorly maintained aquarium. Congrats on your acquisition!

Even if you keep everything, scrub the rock, and rebuild using existing equipment, rock, livestock, etc. you can still expect a “minicycle”, but nothing to really worry about. Test the water frequently, feed the fish sparingly, and don’t add anything until the ammonia/nitrites come back down.

If it was mine, I’d keep everything and add an equal amount of dry rock, in addition to 10-15 pounds of some premium live rock. The hair algae will come back one way or another, irrespective of your decision to start from scratch (should you go that route).

Get yourself a diverse clean up crew, and be sure to get a phosphate test kit for continued monitoring. scrub the rocks in a bucket of tank water, and rinse it another of the existing tank water. There’s no sense in eliminating the main driver of bio filtration that you’ve inherited…just my humble opinion.

Welcome back and good luck!

 

[Reefing102]

Welcome back!

I’m seeing a dosing set up. And some other equipment I don’t quite recognize off the top besides the skimmer.

That said, I’d either rinse the sand very well or start with new sand as disturbing a mature sand bed (if it wasn’t regularly stirred) can cause issues.

As for the algae, as mentioned, just scrubbing the rock in a separate bucket (either in current water or new saltwater will work). Also cutting back light (depending on the current settings) may help.

I’d still expect a mini-cycle but nothing major. I’d also consider starting with most current water but some new water won’t hurt either.

 

[Tony Gio Offshore]

Thank you very much for the help. That sounds like a good plan. I’m going to try to keep 80% of the original water, use 20% for scrubbing the live rock. Also, rinse and add more sand. I want to completely change the reef scape so I’ll be adding more live rock and a diverse cleanup crew.

Anything else I should be thinking of? Anything I’m missing?


Again, I don’t even really know what components it has as far as filtration but I need everything to be under the tank so I’ll have to play with that this weekend when I start to set it up

 

[midnightbast]

Consider scrubbing off algae during the tear-down. Keeping existing substrate, live rock, and water should help maintain balance. Starting fresh isn't a bad idea if algae seems overwhelming.

 

[griss]

Good advice above. Following.

 

[Tony Gio Offshore]

Thank you for the help here’s what I ended up doing… first I took the fish to my LFS for holding. then during tear down I kept 50% water volume in buckets, the other 50% I used to keep the rock, substrate, bio balls etc. Then once I got the tank to my house I scrubbed the glass, took all components, pumps, skimmer etc apart and cleaned them. As well as replaced bulk heads.

Once the sump and tank were cleaned and plumbed I lightly scrubbed all live rock in a bucket of tank water. I also added roughly 10lbs of new live rock and 20lbs of live sand mixed in with current substrate.

I then constructed the new aquascape and filled the tank with the 50% of saved tank water and fresh RODI water using the same salt used by previous owner.

The tank is now running smoothly however the ammonia did spike a little. Current parameters after 24 hours of running
Ammonia 0.25p
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.2
SG 1.026

Based on the current parameters do you think I can add the fish back in? LFS can’t hold them for much longer without charging me.. here are a few pics. The pics don’t do it justice it’s crystal clear, I think the blues messed up my camera.

 

[Tony Gio Offshore]

Better pictures with softer lights

 

[griss]

I would test again in 24 hours and see what parameters are.

 

[Reefing102]

Looks great. I agree. I’d test again in 24 hours and I would say you’re probably good to go

 

[Dustin07]

I think the blues messed up my camera.

my camera defaults to blue pictures (although my wife's iphone does not) under our LED's. with my android I can choose "pro" setting, and it lets me adjust the white balance to get a slightly cleaner picture although I still have to learn more of the fiddling.

I'm a little surprised everyone recommends keeping the substrate, the rock for sure, but historically I had been advised just to start over on the sand. It's honestly what I did on my last build and will do on my next one. Just seems like there is so much crud most likely built up in the sand and sand is so cheap in the grand scheme of things.

I love your aquascape though, looking forward to seeing this tank dressed out !

 

[FlamingHeart]

Beautiful set up! I wish I had neighbors like yours, haha. What livestock do you have?

 

[Tony Gio Offshore]

my camera defaults to blue pictures (although my wife's iphone does not) under our LED's. with my android I can choose "pro" setting, and it lets me adjust the white balance to get a slightly cleaner picture although I still have to learn more of the fiddling.

I'm a little surprised everyone recommends keeping the substrate, the rock for sure, but historically I had been advised just to start over on the sand. It's honestly what I did on my last build and will do on my next one. Just seems like there is so much crud most likely built up in the sand and sand is so cheap in the grand scheme of things.

I love your aquascape though, looking forward to seeing this tank dressed out !

I heard both as well. So I decided to meet in the middle, I rinsed the sand thoroughly with the previous tank water, siphoned off roughly 30% of crud sand then added the new sand and mixed it all together. Figured I’d get the best of both worlds.

As far as the aquascape… thank you! I’m ashamed to say it took me a tremendous amount of time to get it just right lol

 

[Tony Gio Offshore]

Beautiful set up! I wish I had neighbors like yours, haha. What livestock do you have?

Thank you!! I know im super fortunate there’s no
Way I would have convinced my wife to let me get back into it without the donation. Currently there’s nothing in the tank but my LFS is holding the fish from the previous owner for me. He had 6 pajama cardinals, a clown, and two yellow tail damsel’s. In all honesty though I’ll probably only get the clown, damsels, and maybe one cardinal back. 6 of them seemed excessive,

 

[griss]

As far as the aquascape… thank you! I’m ashamed to say it took me a tremendous amount of time to get it just right lol

It always does and you'll always find a rock the just doesn't look right where it is

 

[Dustin07]

So I decided to meet in the middle, I rinsed the sand thoroughly with the previous tank water

I'm not a squeamish person but I'll admit last time I did that the number of bristle worms I found was a bit off putting lol

As far as the aquascape… thank you! I’m ashamed to say it took me a tremendous amount of time to get it just right lol

I really liked the aquascape we had in our upright 10g but honestly I'm not satisfied with our 30g, so I totally understand how it can take awhile to figure out what you want lol