Neglected tank...need help to fix

[hclaveria]

Unfortunately, I went on a 2 week business trip that turned into 6 weeks. My wife and kids maintained the tanks with simple feeding (probably too much), topping off of water and controlling lights.

The tragedies:

1) My green torch is gone.

2) I have pulsing xenia growing everywhere. It covered a bunch of SPS, started killing a purple Monti (actually attached and started growing on it). I am trying to remove it but I am loosing this battle. Looking for a Pencil Urchin or any Sea Urchin that will trim it for me. I dont care if it eats all of it.

3) GSP is also outgrowing its rock and grew over a small hammer. It is extending into a rock that I have my Pallys. I dont know how to control it. Some of it I can cut but how to remove what is attached to rocks?

4) Lost lots of my cleanup squad. Hermits, Snails, Sallys, all mostly gone. Should I replace them now?

5) Lost a green tip BTA but watermelon BTA looks very healthy.

6) Loosing a neon green tip / yellow Birdsnest. Has patches of white throughout the skeleton but my Pink Birdsnest is healthy and doesnt look effected. I hope it recovers.

7) All my caps have new growth and look great. No problems there.

8) Have small patches of nuisance algae (Cyano, Hair) but it doesn't look to be spreading and the Fox Face seems to be picking at lots of the green. The Cyanobacteria seems to be also receding.

I have been doing weekly water changes and my protein skimmer is on overdrive, cleaning the water.

I dont want to start over but I need to start controlling some of the problems above.

Any and all advice welcomed.

Thanks,

Hector

 

[troywalkerphoto]

Water test, clean, water change, water test!
Cycle cleaning of your rocks (direct power heads or turkey baster) , siphon sand (super important also works in conjunction with water change!), clean sump, when thats done change all socks pads and media. Water test.
When all is back to norm then add new cleanup crew (the conditions prob lead to a die off of previous crew (it plays Taps in the background for the fallen!)).
I found the best way to remove weed corals is to remove the rock and sun bake for a week or two then scrub. Then I chuck it in the sump to jump start the "live" process. This also gives you the opportunity to buy some new live rock! That will fix those pesky kids and the missus for over feeding! LOL
Trim a dead loss on coral as this will keep coral from suffering additional loss due to new infections, etc.
Good luck and though it seems like work, enjoy it! Reconnect with your tank!

 

[evoIX_Reefer]

I would just run through a few water changes to cleanup any current mess with your parameters and replace any media that may be exhausted during that time.

 

[sgdcover]

Agree on good test of water and water change.

GSP you should be able to peel off with some patience. I've used thin flat screwdrivers and tweezers.

The Xenia and GSP growing crazy is a good sign of a lot of dissolved organics in the water, they've always done better when i'm lazy with water changes or got to free with food. Probably a combination of overfeeding and the remains of dying animals.

Should probably significantly cut down on food. Don't feed corals and minimals food for fish (don't starve them, that's inhumane).

Instead of baking live rock and killing it, you can peel/cut off the stalks and use a toothbrush to brush off remainders so they won't grow back. Once you get the water in shape you'll probably see their growth slow down significantly. This is good too because you can give away the stalks (and gps) without killing them off.

 

[hclaveria]

Thanks! Appreciate all the great advice.

 

[Swimmy]

If you change a lot of water too quickly it'll be harmful towards anything alive in the tank. I'd say change 10-20% of water every 5-7 days and make sure you match the salinity to your tank before adding the water. Most common problems in old tanks are nitrates and phosphates and are fixed through dilution. Nitrates could be trapped and leeching from your substrate if you have a deep sandbed or large amount of any substrate.. Phosphates are tricky because if you have algae (hair algae) growing, it's consuming phosphates. Algae = phosphate rich water. You could use a phosphate reactor but those tend to drop phosphates too quickly. I'd suggest chemipure elite in your sump filter sock or something. Over feeding contributes to all of this and is never recommended..

 

[sgdcover]

Checking in. How'd it go???

 

[hclaveria]

Going good. Still working on it but most of my corals look good. Lost lots of cleaner crew and a blood red shrimp.

Still working on controlling algae but it's improving.

Thanks for all the help.