That's it! I'm ripping my reef down!

[paddyob]

Do you have to toss them?

Can't you find someone willing to deal with and "treat" the corals for the bugs? Maybe a local LFS has a hospital tank or something???

If you are already killing them... why not give them away to others with the knowledge of the issue?

[Myka]

Hey Brett! I don't have a calcium reactor, so I don't have much use for the dead corals. Only 3 or 4 of them might have "bugs" on them, the rest are just corals I'm no longer interested in. I just can't sell them because of the "possibility" that something bad might tag along.

Paddy...SPS are SPS are SPS. The ones I'm tossing are cultured corals that have little value. People could buy them pretty much anywhere. Treating them is not worth it. The ones that DO have value I am keeping.

Here are some pre-renovation shots of the tank in all its dirty, disgusting glory:

[StirCrazy]

hey, if you don't mine the look, try a bare bottom tank, or use a travitine tile type bottom. i think you would be surprised by the results.

Steve

[Wingin It]

I personally don't think the tank is that bad. Nothing a little work can't fix...syphon out the substrate, suck out some of the unwanted algae...could look tip top soon? Though i'm still a newbie at all this, but I don't know that starting all over again would solve anything if your work schedule is going to be the same? Anywho, just my two cents.

[lorenz0]

I totally know how you feel. couple weeks ago i found flat worms in my old tank while i was caring for it at my parents. wasnt to happy to say the least and its been a tough year as well. but in my case they are happy with it (gosh who wouldnt be after getting a free tank that has eaten me alive) and i am just going to deal with the issues since they are happy with it.

how do you plan on going on with the reno?

[Myka]

Well, I am now mid-reno. Taking a break right now to look at the rock 'scape with fresh eyes. The corals are mostly all out of the tank in a holding tank. I finally got the chance to move the Blue Assessor into my 20 gallon which I have been wanting to do since spring, but I couldn't catch him. I also moved the large male Banggai into a spare tank I have with other random fish (lol). I got the 7 1/2" Eunicid worm out (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!!!!). I took out most of the rock. I'm going to go for a less is more approach this time, but that will mean space for a lot less corals. So I have to find a happy medium.

Steve, I would LOVE a bare bottom tank, but I have 2 Jawfish in there. I did already remove the majority of the sand, just leaving some deep sections for the Jawfish. I might move the Jawfish out and remove the rest of the sand in the future.

Wingin It...well, I've already done that. A few months back I did a renovation in there, removed a bunch of sand, added a couple powerheads. The tank really needs a renovation to make it easier to keep clean...it's been needing it for many months.

Lorenzo...keep posted! Pics to come. My fingers are wrinkly from being in the water so long! Oh, and ugh on the flatworms.

[reefwars]

im doing the same keeping the best of what i got and gone are the rest starting new, keeps it exciting its been a long time coming and now with rock going i can finally catch half of the fish i couldnt catch in forever like my goby's lol good luck myka!!

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Myka

Steve, I would LOVE a bare bottom tank, but I have 2 Jawfish in there. I did already remove the majority of the sand, just leaving some deep sections for the Jawfish. I might move the Jawfish out and remove the rest of the sand in the future.

ah, forgot you had sand fish in there. I did sugest that because I found after about a year with a DSB I started getting algae/crap like you were describing and after going to a bare bottom, I didn't thave the problems anymore. I feel there are a couple main reasons for this.. after a while I think the sand bed gets "full" of crap as there is no way in captivity we can keep the amount of different critters required to keep a sand bed healthy, so eventualy as it gets disturbed all that junk is re-released into the water. the second reason is that with out the sand it allows you to creat a much larger flow through out the tank which prevents cyno and other things from acumalation by keeping them suspended in the water which allows more efficient removal by the skimmer.

now when I start up my next tank, it isn't going to be a glass bottom but rather I am going to use travintine tiles(or how ever you spell it) which are a natural lime stone for the bottom. it is porus and will alow corals and what not to attach more easily, and seeing I am going to be setting it up as a very high PAR tank, I will have encrusting SPS and others SPS right on the bottom of the tank, with only a few rocks as show pieces. kinda like a zen style tank.

Steve