Cleaning/ restarting

[crizzleb]

Hello :wave:. Tonight I tore down my 28g JBJ LED nano. It had not received enough attention so I have to restart it to get things right. I have scraped all the coraline algae off the sides with a scraped and rinsed with water. I then put vinegar in and filled it up with tap and scrubbed it down. rinsed it out, then I filled it back up put more vinegar in and am currently letting it run with all powerheads on to get them clean as well. My question would be how long should I let it run, or should I not do this? I tried to search forums and web but could not find much info. Did I do this correctly? Any help appreciated

Thanks
Chris

 

[senji]

in getting ready to do the same thing to my 20g this weekend then build it up state of the art. allready building new tank. just want to focus hard on 1 reef for a mont and get some things down.i also want to cook the rock and start right like you. ive been only reefing for 9mos and know so much more than i did then. so the best of luck to you and most important of all have fun. i think its some of the best times is building the reef. imo cheers

 

[pandora32]

When i bought my wifes 110g, it was NASTY dirty! I hosed it out first. Then did like you. Scraped coraline, tubeworm tubes, etc etc. Vinegar/water scrub down and rinse. I ran vinegar/water with the sump setup and all associated equipment, minus lights, for a week. No ill affects that ive noticed. That was back in febuary. Sure was, and still is, clean. Hope that helps. Also as stated, startup is as much fun as enjoying your hard work. As always, my opinion and expieriance, yours may differ.

 

[IPisces]

Your doing every just fine. You dont need to let it run any longer than it takes to get the equipment clean. Maybe a couple days, depending on how much vinegar you used. When your done, rinse the tank real good with fresh water. If the powerheads are really covered with algae I will put them in a bucket with vinegar and water and let them run in the bucket for a few days and then scrub them off with a hard bristle brush & green scrub pad. Koralia makes a great product for cleaning equipment.
Like senji said, have fun setting it up again.

 

[crizzleb]

Thanks for the information guys! It wasn't too bad. It was up and running but it got nasty and gross and I didn't have anything in it so I decided to break it down and start over. Next question would be what are you opinions on sand or bare bottom? I've always had sand but was considering going sandless ie. bare bottom.

 

[pandora32]

Theres a never ending debate!...lol. Imo, sandbeds are your buffer. Ive tried barebottom, wont do it again. The tank always seemed like it was missing something. I dont feel it looks natural. My tank is also 6'x2'x29". Alot of rock, so its not easy to get in there and suck out the detritus with a bare bottom. Also, theres alot of bacteria that grows in/on the sand. As well as lil critters to help with cleanup. Also if your planning on having any livestock that likes sand, maybe not now, youll want to add sand. I have 2" in the display and keep around 4"-5" in the fuge. I like running a dsb in the fuge. Krish may chime in here also. Hes a bare bottom advocate...lol. He used white pvc board for the bottom of his tank. I thought it looked pretty clean.

 

[pandora32]

Maybe this will help.

Ron Shimek's Website...Deep Sand Beds

 

[mojoreef]

I've always had sand but was considering going sandless ie. bare bottom.

Theres a never ending debate!...lol. Imo, sandbeds are your buffer

I dont think their is really any debate, their just two different ways of having a tank. I always tell folks that ask me this question that they should base their decision on what LOOKS the best for them, after all you are the one that looks at your tank the most? Here are some of the things to keeps in mind when running either.

Sandbed: Beyond looks, a sandbed uses a bacteria model similar to LR for an amount of filtration. The bacteria with in the bed are skewed towards the reduction of Nitrogen based products and very little else, so if its not in the N family it will simply sink to the bottom and build up. As it build the anoxic zone raises and you loose you Nitrification zone. A simply way to deal with this and extend the life of the Bed is to maintain it by doing monthly syphoning of the top 1/2 inch of the bed. This will remove the excess detritus and take the pressure off the bacterial system. As per buffering I personally dont believe you get much, if any, which is a good thing IMHO as aragonite sand is not only saturated with Calcium Carbonate but also with Phosphate. Again doing regular husbandry by syphoning out the detritus from top layer will not only relieve pressure on the bacteria but will also keep the nitrification zone oxygenated and prevent the P from passing through it.

Bare Bottom: You will see the detritus coming from the LR and the leftovers so it kind of forces you to do husbandry and remove it (or the tank looks dirty). I always hated when the corraline would form on the bottom and then come up in sheets ( I had a 5 foot by 12 inch peice that would come up and then crumble into a million pieces, lol). A little tougher to stand your LR on. You kind of have to look at it like a real time thing, with sand it sinks your problems for a period of time and then you have to deal with it all at once, with BB you see right away what the lack of maintenance looks like and have to deal with it on a regular basis.

So both have their goods and bads and both have work associated with them so........ go with what is more appealing to you.


Mojo

 

[IPisces]

Bare bottom is so easy to clean up. For a display tank, I personally like some sand. I have one tank that is bare bottom. I have the rock work come out at the bottom almost all the way to the front of the tank, so you're not seeing much of the bottom. It has also been covered by coraline algae. So you dont really notice the bottom of the tank.