# Thinking about making a change - need opinions.



## mattdean (Oct 23, 2010)

So, I had what I thought was an exceptional reef, however, after vinegar got dumped in the tank and all but killed everything, I have had an infestation of aiptasia, buble alagae and blue clove polyps (no idea where they came from). I still have some beautiful coral, but find it hard to get the tank back to it's former glory.

So....I had a thought. I thought I may sell off all the coral - or at least whatever I can get off the rock, and do a FOWLR. I could finally get some of the beautiful angels, butterflies, etc that I couldn't have because of the corals.

That being said, is there a fish that will eat blue clove polyps? I know I can get fish that eat aiptasia, but if there are not other corals to fight off the blue clove polyps, they will simply take over the tank.

My hope is that after a year or two, and the infestations are taken care of, I can swap the fish for coral friendly fish and start the reef again, without worrying about the unwanted infestations.

Is this even possible? Here is a recent pick of the reef. I've lost a couple of corals since


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## Rappyfly (Feb 3, 2012)

i had a small potter angel which clear my brown clove ploys within two days.


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

Another idea would be to treat it as if it were a FOWLF and get the "not reef safe" fish - butterflies and angels you've (I presume) always wanted. Keep the coral. If it works out with the new "not reef safe" fish then great! if not you've not really lost anything and your FOWLR tank will look awesome!

EDIT: your tank still looks awesome!


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## mattdean (Oct 23, 2010)

Thanks for the input. I wouldn't take a chance with putting the angels and butterflies in without removing most of the coral. I have some really nice specimens and it would be a shame to just let them be destroyed.

It's a hard decision because there is no guarantee it will work

Oh, and thanks for the props


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

I gotta ask.
How did vinegar get in the tank?
Stunning tank, wow, the corals look awesome. 
Can't help you much on the FOWLR set up. When we had ours with triggers and puffers, it was just a boring rocky background and the only thing that added colour was putting in the sunken pirate ship. Until the trigger bit all the fake plants off of it, and then it was a boring rocky background with a boring brown ship missing lots of little bits.


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## mattdean (Oct 23, 2010)

Hehe. I can picture the ship all chewed up. 

That's my fear. After all the colour we are used to it could be a let down. I have a feeling I'm just going to have bear down and try to get it back. Or I will have to start from scratch again. 

The vinegar got in accidentally during a water change when I grabbed a bucket that I was using to soak a pump in vinegar and dumped it in. It had been sitting for days do the smell was gone. I was rushing to get it done and paid the price. I wanted to take a hammer to it. I was devistated.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Wow, that has to totally totally totally suck! It's such an easy thing to do, too, with all the clear buckets of water we have sitting around.

So maybe another question would be, since some fish are "reef safe with caution" are there some types of corals, (like mushrooms ?) that might work with the cool fish that can't go into a normal reef tank.

If the objective is to have an awesome collection of cool fish, then all those amazing angels and butterflies would be super neat, and I bet there would be a couple corals they wouldn't touch. Like bcp. (JJ). Btw, I heard if you bury the rock in the sand, they die.


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

If you are worried about some long term effect of the vinegar in your system I wouldn't. People (including me) dose vinegar into their tanks as a carbon source. I pump about 50mL daily. So the livestock that survived the initial ph drop should be fine. 

Using fish to control aiptasia/pest corals is pretty hit/miss - you can always add a CB Butterfly to any reef setup. A FOWLR system won't help you deal with your algae problems.

Go with a FOWLR if you really want to keep angelfish etc. but I'm not sure if your issues will go away. Check RC - there are some nice FOWLR tanks with mostly soft corals (leathers, mushroom etc...). Go to Reefquarium to see the soft coral setup there - it rivals most Reef tanks in beauty.


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## mattdean (Oct 23, 2010)

OK, so I wasn't completely clear. First of all, it wasn't 50 ml, that got dumped, it was over a litre of vinegar and it nuked my tank and melted almost everything. I lost a thousand dollars worth of corals and fish. 

I don't want to load the tank with softies, as I eventually want to get back to a mixed reef. I just can't get the blue clove polyps under control, nor the cyano that popped up after the crash. If I put softies all over, I'll never get them out to get spa back in the system.

Taking the rock out is not an option. I have a centre piece made of 5 rocks all glued, zip tied together. It was a miracle I got it together in the first place.

So, looks like I'll just have to continue chipping away at it and hopefully get the tank back to where there is enough to keep the BCP under control.

Cheers


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank disaster*

why don't u try to start another temp tank where u can resuce what u want and nuke the ones u don't want and such , seems like u will not do well with a 
fowlr tank in my opinion u will want the next step.
not sure about space or what u have but u can get a simple set up and start the purge of the aptaisia and clove polyps u are looking for 
just my opinion 
cheers 
tom


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

mattdean said:


> OK, so I wasn't completely clear. First of all, it wasn't 50 ml, that got dumped, it was over a litre of vinegar and it nuked my tank and melted almost everything. I lost a thousand dollars worth of corals and fish.
> Cheers


OK, I got the impression you just lost a few corals but your tank was mostly intact.

Can you post pics of how bad your BCP problem is - i.e. can you just take out the rock that its on (and maybe even sell it). As for your aiptasia problem - that is going to happen in any setup - everyone goes through that issue at some point. Aiptasia eating fish (CB butterfly, filefish), peppermint shrimps, Berghia, chemical injections (Aiptasia X) - all possible solutions. The cyano is because of the vinegar - the abundance of carbon source feeding it. Lots of solutions to that - chemiclean / 3 day no light etc...

There are some meds that will take out BCP - but they have some drastic adverse and after effects (go to RC - check fluke tabs).

Part of keeping a marine tank is problem solving on all the issues. One might even say that's part of the fun.

Worst case is sell all your livestock - and clean your tank out completely - let it run dry for a week or so and start over.


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## mattdean (Oct 23, 2010)

So, normally these would be the things I would try, however, I have a huge clam and several beautiful LPS, like a huge lobo brain that my wife will not part with so a butterfly would pick at those things and I can't risk it.

I was tempted to sell everything off and start fresh, avoiding all the mistakes i made the first time around, however, that would be costly and take a lot of time. My lack of time is the reason things got so bad in the first place, so that would be a last resort.

I can't take rock out, as everything is glued/tied together to make an incredible centre piece with two arches in the middle of the tank. I'll never get that back.

As for the cyan, I have very low nutrients, fantastic flow, and have shut the lights off for days several times. The cyan grows right in front of the returns and where there is no light. *sigh*

I am leery using too many chemicals (although I use Aiptasia X generously) since it is such a mixed reef. Just going to try and slowly nurse it back to health and see how it goes.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

mattdean said:


> Just going to try and slowly nurse it back to health and see how it goes.


This. Small tweaks to regimens already in place are good, but from the sounds of it (and from the looks of your tank before the crash), you had a good handle on everything.

The cyano will go away eventually. For the blue clove polyps sounds like physical eradication (think a toothbrush or other scouring material) to get them off patch by patch might be your only hope. Sometimes you just gotta live with them now that they're in there.


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## mattdean (Oct 23, 2010)

Thanks. Actually, that is a pic 9 months AFTER the crash. It was even nicer before in some ways.

So, onward stepping up some maintenance and hope to have most of the headaches behind me.

Cheers


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## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

For the cyano, red slime remover will work but in a drastic way. These days I use Zeovit Cyanoclean. 25~26% off on Zeovit additives now!


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