IM 25g AIO build

[LifeIsGreat]

How often do you vacuum the sand bed right to the bottom? If it isn't being done regularly and if the sand is less than 4 inches deep, the sand could be trapping a lot of detritus which is leaching nitrates and phosphates into the system and fueling the algae. Reading back in the tank's history the nitrates and phosphate were slowly climbing, then there was the algae outbreak, and now there is enough algae to bring the water-borne nitrate and phosphate to low levels, but they are still being added to the system and growing more algae.

If the sand hasn't been cleaned to the bottom in a while I would start with just a small section at a time per week, say 10% or less, so that the system isn't destabilized too much. Then after a couple months once the whole bed has been initially cleaned, start cleaning the whole thing every two weeks or so.

I don't know your tank or your methods; this is just a guess on my part so take it with a grain of salt. Anyone else want to chime in on this?

[Llorgon]

Right now I vacuum the sand bed once a week when I do my water change. At first I wasn't really doing it, then I started to do it every other week. Now for the past few months I do it weekly. And yes I do go down all the way to the bottom of the sand bed.

[Dash]

Hi Llorgon
I’ve been having a bit of a battle myself with green cyano that came in after my Vibrant treatment for bryopsis. I feel like I’m gaining some ground and it’s after I finally stopped the Vibrant (they claim it takes care of cyano but um, NO). It’s been several weeks of manual removal (blowing off the sheets and netting it out). I think you have to export it however you can out of the tank rather than have it recycled by CUC, chemicals etc. I even took some rocks out of the tank to brush off in a bucket. There were a couple of tuffs of some kind of turf alga that I couldn’t pull off so I scraped it off with an exacto knife. So yeah, a lot of elbow grease. I just spent an hour blowing the rocks with the turkey baster and now my thumb hurts haha. But the tank looks much better.
Anyway, good luck and stay with it. I really believe in vacuuming the sand too

[Llorgon]

Thought I should revive this thread since the tank is still going. This tank is my longest running tank, no other tanks made it past 7 ish months. I have definitely noticed that as time goes on the tank gets more stable.


I still have a bit of an algae issue, but nothing like before. I was able to get some snails and did a dose of fluxRx and it worked wonders. I also removed the rock on the left and replaced it with some live rock from an established system.



The original large frogspawn I had in the tank on the left slowly died for unknown reasons. I added a new one and it has been doing well. I moved the skeleton to the back of the tank and I can see some new small heads on it so it must not be completely dead!


The piece of liverock I got from the established tank had a rock flower anemone and some zoa's on it. Both have been doing well. I have added a couple hammers and frogspawns that are growing nicely and I am hoping to start a small euphyllia garden in the top left. Hoping to find some nicer ones since I seem to now be able to keep them alive!


On the right side of the tank, I have those staxx rocks that I made a bit too high. I have an unknown red sps that is doing really well near the top of the tank. I am thinking of adding some more encrusting corals to the structure, but I'm not sure what kind. I've tried a few cyphastrea that never take. So any suggestions on what would work are welcome!


The favia that literally did nothing for almost a year has finally started growing and spreading which is nice to see. The jedi mind trick I have in the back corner has also exploded in growth. I keep hoping that it is going to spread up the back wall, but so far it's going on the sand instead.

In the front I have started a little acan garden. Really like these corals. They grow decently well and I seem to be able to keep them alive. Although one of them hasn't been doing well and is down to one head. Maybe one day I can get most of the bottom covered in acans then I don't have to vacuum the sand!


The one part of the tank that still struggles with algae is the back wall. I've wanted to get a coral that will cover it, but all my attempts have failed so far. I tried some montipora and none of them took. Maybe I just need some gsp and trim it to stay on the back wall...


Stocking is still the 2 clowns and the royal gramma. They are all doing well and eating like pigs.


Right now, my main issue is aiptasia. I have been injecting them with lemon juice, but more keep coming up.