Considering total system reset...

[asylumdown]

Guys I need someone to talk me through this.

Ever since my coral disaster, I have just not been able to get things where I want them. The corals are all growing like mad again, but while that whole mess was happening I developed MAJOR cyano issues and aiptasia has simply taken over. I've probably got 100,000 individual nems in there. I had success with Berghia once in 2012, but they missed a single anemone and two years later here I am. I've put Berghia in there twice again, once in January, and once about a month ago, and nothing. Something's changed in my system apparently and they're not able to breed like they did the first time.

This cyano cycle is really starting to wear me down as well. It seems like the only way to treat it is to dose the tank with unknown chemicals or play around with hydrogen peroxide every day and neither of those is really all that appealing. I take a week off from sticking my hands in there every day and it's back, all over everything. I've reduced my fish population by three large fish, and am trying to reduce it further, and everyone's on a diet, but I just can't get ahead of it.

The notion of shutting the whole thing down, draining it, cleaning it, and dipping all my rocks in acid keeps running through my mind. I'd have to re-home all my fish, and I'm not sure what I'd do with my corals (probably sell most and give someone big chunks for free on the condition that I can have frags back or something), but looking at this thing is really starting to bum me out, which is insane considering how well the corals are doing again.

Ugh. Am I crazy for just wanting to re-set and start fresh?

[tlhood]

I'm sorry to hear about the current string of issues you've been having. I saw your build thread and your tank looks/looked really nice! I am extremely jealous of your cowfish too. I saw a baby one in a LFS a while ago and it was sooo hard not to bring him home.

albeit my tank is smaller and newer than yours, and didn't have too much coral in it when I had cyano so I'm not sure I can compare my cyano issues/remedies to yours... But I was also weary of putting chemicals (even chemiclean) into my tank.

I ended up going the blackout/more flow/less food route. I would suck up as much as I could during a water change, and I blacked out my tank for probably three days (no sunlight or anything). I also made sure my filters and junk in my RODI unit were working properly. After the blackout period I did another change, and I would slowly ramp up the amount of time my lights were on, starting with as short as 4 hours a day. I still spoil my fish with food, but it seems my nutrients are being exported sufficiently now.

I read that some people with really bad cyano outbreaks would do the blackout, then dose the chemiclean while the cyano is down. Others said that tiger conches can eat it too.

[Wheelman76]

How many Berghia did you add the last two times you tried? As far as cyano goes , it's such a huge pain to deal with. It smothers everything and just stresses me out looking at it , not to mention all the time spent syphoning it. I've always been to afraid to use chemi clean because after all it is a chemical. A few weeks ago I decided to give it a shot and wow did it work well. Very easy to use , I just followed the instructions waited 48 hours did a 25% water change and changed the carbon. I used the trick that some member on here mentioned (sorry cant remember who it was ) and put the skimmer cup on at an angle so most of the water would pour back out but the skimmer would still be able to skim a little. To my amazement my skimmer was running normally with the lid seated properly within 45 minutes after doing the water change.

[asylumdown]

Yah that's the thing with this stuff, I've done all of that. I've done black out, I've done black out plus chemi-clean, I've done just chemi-clean (multiple times), I've done spot treatments with hydrogen peroxide, I've done whole system dosing with peroxide, I've changed flow patterns (I have this stuff growing on the screen plate of my vortech's at times, it's not a flow issue), I've done massive sand vacuuming, I've done manual removal (my tank requires a ladder to work in, not my favourite thing to do let me tell you), I've turkey bastered my rocks every day, I've starved my fish, I've wet skim, dry skim, and I'm presently spending an insane amount of money on Rowa-phos and changing it out every week.

The best I can get is a 2 week reprieve. It always comes back, and it comes back everywhere. It eventually reaches a point where I have to intervene because it damages corals, but it feels like that just sets up the cycle again.

If it was just cyano, I could probably deal with it, but the cyano LOVES the aiptasia. It's like the little aiptasia gardens create the perfect micro conditions for cyano, and you can never get at all of it, around the base of the anemones is the first place it comes back, it's like the two feed each other.

and all the while, many of my corals are looking the best they've ever looked. All the places they had died, I cut them back, and all the places I cut them back have erupted in multiple growth tips, so their colours are more concentrated and vibrant than ever.

[tlhood]

As for the berghia, I've heard that some pods, and bristleworms eat them and their eggs (which may account for why yours aren't multiplying?), and that even aiptasia will eat the larvae. Filtration also can harm the larvae and kill them.

Perhaps try breeding them in a small barebottom tank with no predators, and feed the larva small aiptasia until they are big enough to mow down the ones in your tank?

[ronau]

Well if you need my tub again to store your corals while you reset just let me know.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

How many Berghia did you add the last two times you tried? As far as cyano goes , it's such a huge pain to deal with. It smothers everything and just stresses me out looking at it , not to mention all the time spent syphoning it. I've always been to afraid to use chemi clean because after all it is a chemical. A few weeks ago I decided to give it a shot and wow did it work well. Very easy to use , I just followed the instructions waited 48 hours did a 25% water change and changed the carbon. I used the trick that some member on here mentioned (sorry cant remember who it was ) and put the skimmer cup on at an angle so most of the water would pour back out but the skimmer would still be able to skim a little. To my amazement my skimmer was running normally with the lid seated properly within 45 minutes after doing the water change.

I think 15 in January and another 11 a month ago. The first time I did it I added about 20, and it took three months for them to reach 'critical mass' and steadily take out all the nems. But at the time I added them, the tank had no fish in it and had been fallow for like 4 months or something. My worm and pod population had collapsed in a major way from lack of food, and I had no shrimp or crabs of any kind. This time around I have about 1000 bristle worms per square inch from the amount of food the cowfish eats and thus poops back out, a huge amphipod population, and 3 emerald crabs in there somewhere that I put in to deal with a concurrent problem with bubble algae. Lots more things to either eat them, or their eggs. Since they're not doing anything I'm considering peppermint shrimp, but those guys are hit and miss as well. My Copper band recently died, which in a way might be a blessing as he ate maybe 1 aiptasia a week. If I get another one it might like them better.

And yah I have had temporary success with chemiclean. Usually stays away for 2-3 weeks, then it slowly starts creeping back in. Slowly at first, but the end result is always the same. This stuff is insidious.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by ronau

Well if you need my tub again to store your corals while you reset just let me know.

Hmmm, that's actually not a half bad idea. I've got the lights, and the powerheads, and the dosing equipment, and if it were just the corals I wouldn't need much by ways of filtration. I'd probably lose some but I could probably live with that. If I was going to go through all the trouble, I might be able to convince Kelly to let me buy a new display tank that doesn't have those awful internal overflows....

This is something to think about for sure.

Come to think of it, I could probably even just do it using my sump and do it in stages. I could put all the corals in the 45 gallon water change chamber in my sump, set the lights up over top, and use one of my spare submersible pumps to move water from the water change chamber back to the skimmer chamber. I'd still have access to my skimmer, dosing, and auto-top off equipment equipment while I cleaned out the display, as well as a fully cycled, rock filled refugium chamber.

Once I was done with the display, I could cycle it, then move all the corals back up there and run it sump less for a couple of weeks while emptied, cleaned, and dried the sump and equipment.... This is doable.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by tlhood

I'm sorry to hear about the current string of issues you've been having. I saw your build thread and your tank looks/looked really nice! I am extremely jealous of your cowfish too. I saw a baby one in a LFS a while ago and it was sooo hard not to bring him home.

Well if you want a happy, healthy, foot long cowfish, he is aaaaaaaall yours.

[tlhood]

Haha, if only I had a big enough tank! He would make mine look like a shoe box.