The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread

[jsdancer]

Well not sure how to start but I guess from the beginning. This past summer my work took my away for 4 months. While work these days is a rarity, to me it was a no brainer. Do it! Make money to pay bills and support your addiction.

While away I paid my nephew to take care of the 180 gallon reef tank which had been established now for about 2 years. My nephew took care of feeding, 10 % water changes every other week. I would have him photograph the tank and send me pics via email. Things would look very good, parameters good as well.
At this point you are saying well what the heck happened.

Majano anemones is what happened! In four months I had a massive infestation! I tried using the anaptaiser product but only got a few. I tried picking rocks out and scrapping the suckers off but they quickly came back! I tried boiling RO water but they seemed to laugh at me!!!

Then I felt I had no choice...... Total tank tear down!!! I hated the thought but it was the only way to get rid these pests!


I had been contemplating making a few changes so I thought this would be a perfect time. I was not thrilled with my aquascape, I wanted to go bare bottom and I wanted to get back to the basics.
Good old time tested techniques!
Kalk additions, monthly water changes, aggresive skimming and carbon filtration.
This is what I know best and what seems to work time and time again.

And so it begins........9-16-2011

Week 1 of tear down
I had to start slowly 25% water change removed 25% of the rock work.

Week 2 of tear down
25% water change and another 25% of the rock removed.

Week 3 of tear down
25% water change and another 25% of rock removed

Week 4 of tear down
Last of rocks removed no water change at this point. Why? I want to keep as much of the old water as possible for the good bacteria in the water column.

The rock is sitting on the side of my yard where I hose it down every couple of days to get rid of any loose dead life. I plan on letting it air out 4 weeks to make sure any possible majanos have completely died.

Here is my tank now with all rock removed and even though some sand is still visable it will be completely gone by this weekend.

As for the corals that were in my tank I have given them away to my fellow hobbists. I kept what I wanted. Like Blue Oregon tort.

Fish are doing well and are feed every other day. Only my mystery wrasse somehow got caught in one of my vortechs. Very strange!

I did not want just glass at the bottom so I opted for "starboard" material.
It is safe and salt water proof. In the industry it is used for boating material.
Several other guys on the forums use it and I know my lfs uses it exclusively.
World Wide Corals has installed the starboard material on their main display tanks. It allows coralline algae to grow on it's surface and in a short time looks really good.

My tank measures 6 feet long by 24 inches wide. It will take 3 , 2' by 2' square sections. The corners are jig sawed for the corner over flow boxes.

I plan on siliconing the pieces to the bottom of the tank so that detritus does not settle underneath the starboard and the glass.

Well this is it for now guys. I will update soon!

 

[dockery07]

I fired mine with a blow torch a year ago and they never came back -

 

[chrishayes]

Yeah, I had several as well in my last tank and was able to nuke them with a STRONG kalk paste in a hypodermic needle. GOod luck on the build. Can I ask why the starboard to the right has the curve in it at the bottom?

 

[chrishayes]

Oh and the kalk trick is 100% effective as long as you are quick and make sure you puncture them before they retract. Works equally as well for aiptasia. If you miss, dont worry, theyll be back to give you another try!

 

[jsdancer]

I fired mine with a blow torch a year ago and they never came back -

Hmmm I wish I had one! LOL But I hope having the rocks air dry out in my yeard will be enough!

 

[jsdancer]

Yeah, I had several as well in my last tank and was able to nuke them with a STRONG kalk paste in a hypodermic needle. GOod luck on the build. Can I ask why the starboard to the right has the curve in it at the bottom?

I was considering using bleach to run thru the system jsut in case any of them are in the piping. I rememeber using a kalk but it wasn't a paste more liquid.
The pic on the right is just the way the corner cut is. Each corner in my tank is where the over flows sit. I placed the cut outs so that you guys can see the labeling aspect of the starboard it self.

 

[jsdancer]

Oh and the kalk trick is 100% effective as long as you are quick and make sure you puncture them before they retract. Works equally as well for aiptasia. If you miss, dont worry, theyll be back to give you another try!

LOL! I know they will!

 

[rickyjai8]

looking good

 

[jbanks]

Bro, A bristletooth file fish would have eradicated them in a few weeks.. Those little guys are no joke for aptasia and majano destruction.

 

[MammothReefer]

nice re-start. I always tell myself next tank.. I will go starboard.. one day.

 

[jsdancer]

Bro, A bristletooth file fish would have eradicated them in a few weeks.. Those little guys are no joke for aptasia and majano destruction.

Unfortunately at the time getting one of those meant that the file fish would make my sps's another meal.

looking good

thanks

nice re-start. I always tell myself next tank.. I will go starboard.. one day.

I have seen some really nice looking tanks w/ starboard covered in coralline algae and other encrusting monti's.

 

[jsdancer]

Just out of curiosity do you guys think as a precaution I should bleach the entire system?
How about the live rock that has been sitting out in my back yard? Should I bleach them as well?

 

[jsdancer]

Well guys here is the middle of the 3rd week and the sand bed is almost gone.
I am stocking up on some items that will be needed.
I bought more IO salt mix and changed all my RO cartidges.
I also bought a couple of tubes of aquarium silicon for "gluing" the star board.
In order to get the aquascape I am aiming for I am stocking up on the 2 part epoxy. One mistake I made before was that I just put rocks on top on each other and hoped for the best.

Here are a couple of shots to show the live rock that has been sitting outside. Looks like it is clearing up nicely. As for smell not too bad either!

Next week is a big week! Stay tuned.........

 

[chrishayes]

I bleached mine before it went back in my tank. If im in my right mind, algae spores are not killed by lack of water. Also, if you did nothing but hose them off, all the dead decaying "things" are still in there. Id do the ol bleach and acid bath. Or likely one or the other would be fine. If you had heavy phosphates in the tank id go the acid route. Just go easy on the stuff and make sure you know the HCL concentration before using it. You just cant believe what comes off the rock. Seriously.

 

[chrishayes]

 

[jsdancer]

Hey Chris where can I get the HCL to water ratio?
Btw thanks for your input!

 

[chrishayes]

All the threads I could find all say 10:1 water to 31-33% muratic. The rock we just did we used 8 cups to 17gal of water. It was enough in my opinion had we done that amount twice with 20 minute soaks but we ran out so we got more that didnt list HCL% so we guessed it was weaker since it said it had 90% less fumes. Well we used a gallon of it to about 20 gal of water and it didnt eat the rock to dust but it did make the rock brittle where it was naturally thin. Ill tell you though after seeing that rock today at my buddies house after he soaked it in baking soda to neutralize the acid, it was still covered in slime from the algae that was on it right out of the box. It was brs rock. If I had it to do over I think bleach woulda been the better route to take with a single lower strength acid bath once the clorine had been removed followed by a baking soda soak. He just didnt have the time to wait for bleach to disipate nor the desire to buy a bunch of chlorine remover. I tested the water he was soaking it in for PO4 and it was .71 with a hanna meter FWIW. Cant imagine what it was before but that rock was filthy!

Oh and I got this info from the bleach vs acid thread. Just type it into the search function. Its long though but Randy Farley Holmes weighed in so I feel fairly confident using his advise.

 

[jsdancer]

I have decided that while I was at it I will do some other upgrades.
I would like to upgrade my main pump. It is an old gen x and i can tell it is about to die on me.
I would like to get a gph flow rate of about 10 times my actual gallons which when up and running is about 220 to 225 including sump.
What pumps do you guys recommend that are energy efficient ? And quiet? And can do about 10x the turn over of my tank?

I am upgrading my mp 40's vortex pumps to the es model by upgrading with the hardware kit like this one.

I have also taken the advice of a fellow reefer and ordered mortar for the reconstruction of the reef aquascape. This product is more cost effective than buying tubes of epoxy.

The tank is now almost ready. I got rid of most of the sand and did a 10% water change yesterday. This will be the last water change.
I have put most of the larger pieces of rock into a 35 gallon garbage bin with tap water. So far in one day I have not noticed any bad odors.

I do not want to add bleach to the rock but will be soaking with vinegar. I will also add a pump for circulation. The rock will be held for one week and then rinsed throughly and left to dry again for another week while the smaller pieces are soaked in vinegar, rinsed and dried.

Well guys that is the update for now.

 

[D' kingfisher]

I heard about the buble blaster as energy efficient.

 

[chrishayes]

Sweet new upgrades! I cant say after going from a gen 2 mp10 to a new esw model mp40 that the new es is worth the money they cost to upgrade unless you have multiples and even then, ive not seen many rave about the ecosmart modes when used with multiple pumps. I mean if your old drivers can sync/anti then there isnt much gain to the new modes imo. But again, I have only one and I do like the NTM but other than that, I just pick a mode and leave it there like most folks do...I think they should lower the price of the 40 upgrade to around the price of the 10's. $60 sounds more reasonable I think for fancy new packaging and some firmware updates, but thats just me.

Do you have a way of measuring PO4 in your brute? That could lead you in deciding what to do with it if anything...

As to the pump, the iwakis are nice, supposedly the japanese model is the must have. Also, I dont know if the water blaster pumps are large enough but they put out a TON of flow while using less wattage. Good luck and keep the updates coming! Must be getting excited, huh?