Need Help

[jeffs]

The 125 gallon reef tank I maintain broke out with Aiptasia which quickly took over the tank. Over the last few months I have been "rearranging" the live rock (turning it over, taking the top rock and putting it on the bottom) in an effort to eradicate same. I tried the "Chem-Marin" system with the syringe solution with no luck. Unfortunately last week I decided to soak half the live rock in hot water for approx 5 minutes which killed the Aiptasia and obviously the live rock as well. As you can tell I have no previous experience with reef tanks. At this point I think all the live rock is probably dead in the tank. I am looking for advice in how to start this tank over and properly manage same. I am willing to purchase all new live rock if that's what it will take. I just posted tank specifications which provides more information. I would appreciate any advice / help. Thanks

 

[danmhippo]

Assuming you have no other livestocks in the tank (eg. fish, shrimp, crab, corals....etc). You can start over by drain the tank, discard the old sand, and dry all LR. Sponge the inside of the tank with mild bleach solution and rinse well and leave it to dry. Leave the tank dry for a couple of days and make sure all LR are dried too.

Re-cure the now dead rocks in the tank. Leave them be for a couple weeks until you observe the nitrogen cycle is over. Add more quality pieces of LR to seed the dead rocks.

I hate throwing away the LRs. They are perfectly fine to be used as base rock.

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If you are willing to experiment, get 5 peppermint shrimps, and they will mow your aiptasia population away.

 

[trigger0214]

I wouldn't throw out all the live rock yet....you can keep quit a bit and resead it with new stock. Besides, it is always nice to have rock around to attatch frags to. I would however, watch you water parameteres closely before adding any livestock. Since most of the stuff on you your rocks is probably dead, it is definetly decomposing.

Next time you get Aiptasia try a few peppermint shrimp or a coral banded butterfly. I added 5 peppermints to a really Aiptasia infested 125 gallon tank and they knocked em all out within three weeks. Havent seen one since.

 

[danmhippo]

Holy crap, I just read your tank spec and obviously you still have quite a lot of livestocks in the tank. The boiling of all rocks, I am afraid, will trigger another nitrogen cycle. Coupled with lack of bacteria to take ammonia to nitrate, I am afraid you may be looking at problems bigger then you think.

I'd take out 1/2 of rocks and left them in a clean trashcan to re-cure, and leave the other 1/2 in the tank as surface area for bacteria to colonize. I would also prepare at least 75 gallons of salt water just incase you need to do water changes to bring ammonia and nitrite level down to safe levels if the cycle broke out again.

I would not put anything into the tank until water condition stablized for at least 2 weeks.

Next time, try peppermint shrimps on aiptasia before you boil all rocks.

Good luck.....

 

[Terry McGee]

Holy crap, I just read your tank spec and obviously you still have quite a lot of livestocks in the tank. The boiling of all rocks, I am afraid, will trigger another nitrogen cycle. Coupled with lack of bacteria to take ammonia to nitrate, I am afraid you may be looking at problems bigger then you think.

I'd take out 1/2 of rocks and left them in a clean trashcan to re-cure, and leave the other 1/2 in the tank as surface area for bacteria to colonize. I would also prepare at least 75 gallons of salt water just incase you need to do water changes to bring ammonia and nitrite level down to safe levels if the cycle broke out again.

I would not put anything into the tank until water condition stablized for at least 2 weeks.

I agree, Ok now settle down, keep testing for ammonia and nitrite, be ready to do water changes if those two tests show anything, need to skim fulltime. keep carbon changed every 3 or 4 days. put power head in the trash can and do your tests there also. Put cycle in the tank and trash can. I would also not put anything into the tank for 4 weeks. Take care Terry