SessionThree's Piece of the Ocean (redo)

Ok, first attempt with my 110gal is here: http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/sessionthrees-110g-tank-53773.html Due to numerous pests and (probably) uncontrollable macroalgae, I'm restarting. My first step: NUKE THE ROCK! (Bleach method).

All 200lbs of rock is in a 36-gal trash can with a 50/50 bleach solution (actually, I believe I have more bleach than 50%.) Here's a picture after about 24 hours:

Live Rock Being Nuked in Bleach Solution​

My procedure will go as follows (as suggested by several on 3reef):

1. 3 days 50/50 bleach water
2. 3 days freshwater soak
3. 3 days 2-5 lbs. baking soda soak
4. 3 weeks drying out

I'll be taking out all my sand and running a water/bleach solution through the aquarium/sump/plumbing in the next day or two. I want to make sure I thoroughly disenfect the system to keep the nasties out.

On a side note, I received my AquaController III today. It's not doing anything, but I did convert the scripts on my linux box I was using for the Biomatix to work with this unit.

AquaController 3 Pro Mounted in Garage Next to Sump/Fuge​

I'll keep updating this thread as I make progress.

 

Excellent. True to your word, you started the thread. K+ to ya. Looking good so far. Did they take the Biomatix back?

 

Yes, the RMA for the Biomatix was approved. I'm sending it back tomorrow. Both Biomatix and Richard at SaltySupply.com have been great about it. Biomatix is really trying to improve their product, so that have been asking me about problems I had, etc.

 

By the way, I may need to move the rock into a fresh bleach solution tomorrow night. I think I may have saturated this one. (There was A LOT of life on it afterall.) It seems to have slowed down, and there's still some crap on the rock.

 

How is it saturated? I am clueless on what you are doing. What kind of reaction are you getting from your rock?

 

Good luck on the new beginning. You will love the ACIII, not much it can't do.

 

Oh, I can already tell I'm gonna love it. I'm pretty much done with my signature generator script (see below.)

 

Dude I love the script, you are the man. You need to do one for me like that with Harley Davidson in it some where....

 

Small update

Transferred live rock to new bleach bath:
Last night I moved the rock to another trash can with a fresh 50/50 bleach mixture. The old mixture turned really yellow with a lot of foam on top and wasn't smelling like bleach as much anymore. I just wanted to give it a fresh bleach bath for any further killing. (However, absolutely nothing was alive on that rock when I moved it over!) I did see some fleshy remains of some of the encrusting sponges (very white at this point.) I'm assuming I can get rid of those with a wire brush before I do the frash water bath.

WARNING: Wear gloves (which I did) and a mask (which I did NOT) when working around this much bleach. The bleach bath and rocks were definitely giving off chlorine gas when I was transferring them to a new can. It really became irrtating. I woke up in the middle of the night unable to breathe and coughing like a mad man. This morning, I have a slight cough and a tingle in my throat. My nose is dried out and I'm pretty sure my nose hairs are gone!

Removed Baffles Before Sump Return Pump
I emptied the water out of my sump and wet-dry vac'ed the sand out of the fuge. I removed the baffles before the my return pump section. I am going to re-silicone the baffles in a different location making the return pump section smaller and the fuge section larger. I have an ATO in place, so I don't need the large return section that I had before. It will be nice to have a larger fuge section as well.

That's about it.