total cleaning before restart

[artie]

tired of on going battle with cyno, so im doing a total tear down and restart. what is the best way to clean. is there anything better than chlorine and if not, what is the proper mix

 

[thincat]

Welcome to AA. Have you already broken down your tank? iF NOT, what have you done and what seems to be the problem. We might be able to get things straight before you break it down.....If not then, Chlorine is good to disinfect the tank. I would then give it a good cleaning with vinagar to get rid of any calcium deposits. I would also soak your pumps and anything else first in vinagar then chlorine bleach. Then rinse everything with lots of water and air dry.

 

[melosu58]

I`m trying to understand the teardown also. Why not siphon the cyano up and do plenty of PWC`s and try to figure out what happened. If you start over and do the same things you did the first time then the same thing is going to happen. I would 1) siphon out as much as you can see. 2) repace with PWC water from RO/DI water. 3) Feed your tank everyother day. 4) Read our article on cyano in the SW articles section. Any more help just ask.

 

[artie]

I feel a restart is the only option because ive been trying everyones advice and it keeps coming back. new bulbs, less lighting time( down to only a couple hours a day), feeding less(down to every 3 or 4 days), r/o water(ive tried 2 different local aquaium stores) frequent changes. Ive tried chemi-clean, which knock it down pretty well, but it came back and the same product didnt do as good the next time. went as far as moving the fish and some of the live rock to a spare 30 gal tank, hosing down the rest of the live rock, cleaning the tank and pumps( tho I didnt use chlorine that time) refilling, live rock back in, cycle the tank, fish back in, hose the rest of the live rock and real good rinse of the substrate. couple months later, Its Back. So this time, ive moved the fish and some live rock again. I have a bunch of old coral(not live) from before I went with live rock, soaked them in a chlorine solution(10 %), am going to buy some new substrate, clean all pumps and hoses--- everything again(with chlorine) and start again. Maybe the live rock has been holding it somehow? I dont know. I just dont have much more hair to pull out. this site has been a big help for me. thanks