Cleaning aquarium for re-boot
Shut my reef down after an almost two year battle with dinos. It has been down a couple of months now, and I am getting ready to re-boot. I’m trying to avoid getting any dino’s Back- they really screwed me, but want to make sure I’m doing this the right way.
So far I have filled it up with a 3:1 water to vinegar mixture, and let all the equipment run for a couple of days. I then scrubbed off all the old coralline, and emptied it for another week. I have now filled it back up with just normal tap water to let all the equipment run again, and give it a good rinse from the vinegar mixture. I was contemplating mixing some h2o2 in the tank while it is rinsing- just for good measure, but I read that the mixture of vinegar and h202 could be hazardous. Now for me- the concentrations of each would be so low since they will be in the presence of 75 gallons of freshwater- but my questions- is it dangerous, and is it necessary. My biggest concern is getting any possible traces out of plumbing that I cannot get at behind the overflow. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions. Thanks |
I'm in a similar boat. I had dinos, aiptasias and runaway, invasive macro algae. After draining the tank, I sprayed it down with a bleach solution. After letting dry out for months, I've sprayed it down with water to rinse. I will rinse again before filling it. That's about it. Oh, also I'm starting with new sand and live rocks.
I think what you've done sounds really good. I don't know about that combo being dangerous. You could google it. I understand your paranoia. You want to make sure it doesn't come back! I share your concerns with traces in the plumbing, so I've added a UV sterilizer. Like many of us, I tried a lot of different things to battle the dinos. The UV worked. So I'm keeping it plumbed into my system to use whenever needed. I'll probably keep it on for a while after startup to combat any possible residue. Good luck, Steve! Here's to a dino-free future! |
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I've just seen that these dinos can survive a crazy amount. Trying to do as much as I can before booting back up |
You're probably OK to start now. After you've drained the tap water & filled with RODI, any remaining vinegar would be so dilute that it wouldn't be harmful. The hydrogen peroxide is probably not needed unless there is some organic build-up you are worried about. The vinegar, and the chlorine in the tap water, likely killed anything you need to worry about.
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It's likely that your procedure has killed a lot of microbes that were in the equipment. There might be encysted forms in the environment, but there's little you can do about that.
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