Redoing My 90g Reef

[Squishie89]

Hello people of WAMAS! I currently have a 90g tank that was set up in September 2012. I have 7 fish (2 clownfish, 1 randalls goby, 1 fancy gumdrop coral croucher, 1 mandarin and 2 pipefish. And in a couple weeks a starry blenny will be added), a billion inverts, and mostly LPS and soft corals.

 

I have decided to take on the task of re-building my tank by completely dismantling it and then redoing it. The reasons; hydroids that have invaded everything, bubble algae, poor aquascaping resulting in lots of dead zones now filled with detritus, possible water quality issues due to cucumber toxins.

 

Right now the loose plan is to set up 2 temporary tanks, one for fish and inverts, one for corals and rocks. I plan to get rid of the fake reef in my tank and replace it with rock. I intend on doing some tests soon to see how dipping rocks/corals in a hydrogen peroxide mixture does on killing bubble algae and hydroids. The reason behind seperating the inhabitants is so I can do what I need to do to the rocks without any fear of killing inverts that may try and live inside the rocks.

 

I am really going semi-blindly into this and would like to hear any and all advice/opinions/input/experience. I am hoping to soon set up the temporary tanks to start them cycling and I will need to dump a billion pods into the fish/invert temp tank as I have 1 mandarin and 2 pipefish that need pods. The long term goal is to make the tank healthier, cleaner and more stable. And easier to care for would be fantastic. I am not rushing into this as I really cherish my animals and want this to go as smoothly for them with as little losses as possible. I am aiming for the end of summer for the main dismantling. Then possibly the end of fall/beginning of winter for the rebuild, and then slowly, very slowly adding back animals.

 

 

One of my first questions is; what is one of the best dry rock places out there?

[wildcrazyjoker81]

I'm a fan of reef rocks personally. I have ordered from brs too, but ended up liking reef rocks better. Good luck on this daunting task. Maybe you should try Paul B's method of feeding live brine for the mandarin and pipe fish.

[YHSublime]

If you want to get rid of bubble algae, try an emerald crab, or a few. Worked for me, and I had a really bad bubble algae issue. As for the hydroids, I don't have a solution.

 

You could re aquascape inside the tank, do a water change, and probably be good to go. Just my two cents.

[John Ford]

reefcleaners.org

Johns a great guy and his prices for rock and cuc are good

 

Good luck with your rebuild! Nothing good happens fast in this hobby

[treesprite]

Question One: how long have you had your pipefish in a tank with clowns, etc?

 

Question Two: did you get inspired by some stuff on the forums?

 

Re-doing a tank is a lot of work, but every time I have done it (which includes using moving to a new home as an opportunity to re-do), I've felt better about my tank afterward, with a refreshed feeling about it.

[Squishie89]

I'm a fan of reef rocks personally. I have ordered from brs too, but ended up liking reef rocks better. Good luck on this daunting task. Maybe you should try Paul B's method of feeding live brine for the mandarin and pipe fish.

Thank you! As of right now, the fish are doing great on tisbe pods, so I will try and keep with that. But thanks!

 

If you want to get rid of bubble algae, try an emerald crab, or a few. Worked for me, and I had a really bad bubble algae issue. As for the hydroids, I don't have a solution.

 

You could re aquascape inside the tank, do a water change, and probably be good to go. Just my two cents.

I have an emerald crab, all he does is hide. I don't think even an army of them would work as a lot of the bubble algae is quite hard, which seems to be their least favorite type. If it was just the bubble algae I would look into other solutions, but the problem is it is more than that and I feel it will be better to get on this before I go insane.

 

I need to redo the sand as it is infested with hydroids, unfortunately there does not seem to be any any easy solution to this. The changing of aquascape is just sort of a bonus with this. But thanks, Issac!

 

reefcleaners.org

Johns a great guy and his prices for rock and cuc are good

 

Good luck with your rebuild! Nothing good happens fast in this hobby

Thank you so much! I could not agree more.

 

Question One: how long have you had your pipefish in a tank with clowns, etc?

 

Question Two: did you get inspired by some stuff on the forums?

 

Re-doing a tank is a lot of work, but every time I have done it (which includes using moving to a new home as an opportunity to re-do), I've felt better about my tank afterward, with a refreshed feeling about it.

 

1. I think I got the pipes around September 2013. I have had 0 problems with the clowns and the pipes. My female clown who is quite territorial has had no problems with them, but I don't think she knows that they are fish XD

 

2. What spurred me to commit to doing this was I noticed my flowerpot colony is being smothered to death by the hydroids that have infested the corals skeleton. I thought the hydroids were just an eye sore, but seeing that they are killing things was the last straw.

 

Thanks so much!

 

[gwweber]

I like marco rock     prices are good and the rock has always been very nice and porus

[davelin315]

I have not seen hydroids infesting a sand bed before, do you have pictures? Typically they live on rocks, at least the ones we typically see in the hobby.

[Squishie89]

I have not seen hydroids infesting a sand bed before, do you have pictures? Typically they live on rocks, at least the ones we typically see in the hobby.

Here is a link to a thread I made when my problems originally appeared- http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-discussion/140062-aiptasia-hydroid-mystery-creatures-problem.html

When I had a CBB she took care of the aiptasia looking ones (I found out they were not aiptasia because I got berghia nudis and they would not touch them), but they are slowly making their way back now. My main problem is the white q-tip looking ones. I can try and grab some more recent photos of my problems, and I probably should for the sake of this thread.

[davelin315]

Wow, you certainly do have a lot of different pests! I am surprised the white hydroids have not disappeared on their own. The brown hydroids are a big problem... Manual removal and eradication are difficult. In my experience, scrubbing them off is the only way to get rid of them other than nuking your system...

[Squishie89]

Yeah, I managed not to get some pests *knock on wood* but these hydroids are insane, especially because there is either nothing or very few ways to really kill them (in a reef tank).

What was interesting is when I started using red sea nopox, it had an effect on them, however the hydroids either grew immune or something. Even though this whole situation sucks, I am embracing it as a chance to make my tank that much better having been in the hobby almost 2 years and with the help of my fellow club members.

 

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[Squishie89]

I did a test just now of about 50 oz of tank water with about 5 oz of hydrogen peroxide (~10:1 ratio). I did this to a flowerpot colony and a small rock, the FP colony was/is infested with hydroids and the rock has/had bubble algae on it. I did the FP first and I immediately saw bubbles coming from the hydroids/coral skeleton. I used a toothbrush to really scrub the skeleton to try and loosen any dead things and really get the HP in there. I had the FP in the HP solution for about 5 minutes, and then put it in plain tank water to rinse off. So far the live coral seems fine, although a bit upset (who wouldn't be?). Hopefully I will know in another day or two the affect it had on the hydroids. For the rock, it did not really fit in the bowl but it was in about about 10 minutes. I used the toothbrush again but left one colony of bubble algae on the rock so I can monitor the affects. No noticeable affects on bubble algae or the coraline. Again, hopefully I will see the affects in another day or two.

However, somethings that WERE immediately affected were inverts, brittle stars, stomatellas and limpets DIE from this, so do be careful with this when putting this in your tank or doing dips and such. I only let these guys die so I know in advance the affects, usually I would not have let these critters go in a dip like this.

[Squishie89]

Some bad news. Either the HP helped a little with the hydroids and they came back, or it barely helped and they came back.

 

If you have ANY ideas on how to kill hydroids, I am willing to hear it and try it.

 

I am probably going to set up my QT so I can keep the flowerpot in there for testing. Some thoughts I have; Do a stronger solution of HP:saltwater, maybe even pour straight HP onto the areas covered in hydroids. Another thought is to raise magnessium, this is used for problems with algae. Possibly in the QT without so much extra nutrients it might kill them off.

 

If I cannot figure out a way to eradicate the hydroids, this whole rebuild will almost be for nothing, and I will probably have to ditch all the corals and rocks.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Squishie89

[davelin315]

Try an urchin or a chocolate chip star. They eat a lot, including corals, but perhaps you can get them to eat the hydroids by smearing some food on them. The digestive processes of the seastar or the ability of the urchin to eat down to the rock may get rid of them. Also, perhaps camel shrimp might do the job. All of these come with the risk that they will eat your coral first, though. I suppose you could try and protect the coral with some netting, but the hydroids were growing on the base so this may not be possible. There are some fish that you might want to try as well, but not certain which might eat a hydroid.

[Squishie89]

Thanks for all those suggestions, Dave! You reminded that I read about a nudibranch that might hydroids so I may try that on the QT.

 

Luckily these tests are not postponing the rebuild at the moment as I first need to get rid of a bunch of parrot cages from the basement before I can set up the temporary tanks. Essentially I am multitasking at the moment =)

 

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[John Ford]

I didn't read into it but thought of you when I saw this article

 

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/general-invert-forum/163943-fringeback-nudibranch-dondice-occidentalis-hydroid-lawn-mower.html

[Squishie89]

I didn't read into it but thought of you when I saw this article

 

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/general-invert-forum/163943-fringeback-nudibranch-dondice-occidentalis-hydroid-lawn-mower.html

Wow, thank you so much! Can't believe I missed that

[John Ford]

I hope it helps.

The more I was looking into hydroids the more I started wondering if my feather dusters were hydroids so I stopped. Best wishes with it

[davelin315]

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/general-invert-forum/163943-fringeback-nudibranch-dondice-occidentalis-hydroid-lawn-mower.html

 

Saw the same thing on Facebook today posted by Chris Mah (echinoblog guy).

[s2nhle]

wow, interesting. Thanks

[Squishie89]

As far as I could, the hydrogen peroxide did not help with the hydroids. I currently have some clumps of hydroids in my QT which is completely barren trying to see if they can be starved to death.

 

Anyways, I had a question. I plan to set up an additional 90g as the fish and invert temporary tank. I already have a canister filter that can handle 90g. Should I go with the canister or do a sump ?

[YHSublime]

Anyways, I had a question. I plan to set up an additional 90g as the fish and invert temporary tank. I already have a canister filter that can handle 90g. Should I go with the canister or do a sump ?

 

IMO you could go with the canister, but you would need to clean it pretty frequently to make it worthwhile. That alone would probably make it not worthwhile. I would go with sump, if you can make that an option. How long are you planning on having it setup? At this stage maybe it's easier just to clean your rock and start fresh?

[Squishie89]

IMO you could go with the canister, but you would need to clean it pretty frequently to make it worthwhile. That alone would probably make it not worthwhile. I would go with sump, if you can make that an option. How long are you planning on having it setup? At this stage maybe it's easier just to clean your rock and start fresh?

I plan on using all dry rock/ceramic pieces.

Thanks for the response!

 

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[treesprite]

How "temporary" is it going to be? he time frame might factor in to whether or not you go the sump vs filter route.

[Squishie89]

How "temporary" is it going to be? he time frame might factor in to whether or not you go the sump vs filter route.

3-4 months tops. It is not looking good on any coral safe way to kill the hydroids. 99% of the snails are going to either be euthanized or given away to brave people. The corals are iffy. I am thinking that the hydroids cannot take hold on flesh, so as long as no skeleton is showing they may be in the clear, but all corals will be quarantined and examined and watched. I have not decided yet whether or not to euthanize the coral or sell them very cheaply instead of risking it since the whole rebuild will be almost for nothing if the hydroids get back in. Sorry for the rant.

 

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