Live Sand VS Bare Bottom

[lighthammer]

Hello Everyone!! I am new to marine aquariums and have a question for all you experts out there! I have a 30gal. Oceanic Cube and was wondering what if any, are the benefits of live sand vs. a bare bottom aquarium?

I rescued this setup from a friend of mine who didn't have the time to maintain it very well and I am nursing it back to health. I have a wicked bubble / hair algae problem and am wondering if the sand could be the source. Also I know that hand removal of hair algae is probably the best so is there any "GOOD" way of cleaning my live rock?

Water chemistry / salinity seems good although I am still working on my nitrite level, nitrate is good, I have been doing regular water changes to control the nitrite level.

 

[alki]

Clean up crew. Lots of snails and hermits will help with the algae.

 

[lighthammer]

Clean up crew. Lots of snails and hermits will help with the algae.

I have two hermits, one green emerald and a turbo snail. Is this enough or do I need more?

 

[alki]

Many, many more.

I would get around 20 astrea snails. And 20 hermit crabs, if you like them. Some people will say get even more. some will say less.

But 2 hermits and one turbo snail isnt nearly enough to combate the algae problems your having.

Here is a clean up crew example from saltwaterfish.com
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_1...category=4&category_search=5&root_parent_id=4

I wouldnt get all this, but you get the point.

 

[lighthammer]

wow!!! My CUC is a little overwhelmed.....lol. Glad hermits and snails are cheap! Thanks much for the link very helpful.

 

[roscoe]

I'm a BB guy myself. Easier to maintain for me. However I did go half BB and SSB in my new tank. Only reason I have sand in the new tank is I plan on having certain types of wrasses that requires sand to hide/sleep in. Otherwise it would be completly BB.

 

[apollothesun]

well with barebottom you have to invest in some powerheads to keep the gunk suspended so the skimmer can get. got make sure there's no deadspots where the detritus settles. if it does settle in one corner you can easily vacuum it out. with sand you still have to vacuum the sand once in a while or you can use cucumbers, they do wonders for sand beds. sand sifting stars i believe do too much damage to sand beds

 

[lighthammer]

Ya I knew that water flow was an issue with this aquarium, it came with a Hydor Korilia Nano!! only rated at about 240 gph.....so I bought a MaxiJet 1200 with the SureFlow 1600 mod....works awesome! I still use the Nano but its at the bottom and pumps behind my live rock to the MaxiJet.

Kinda sounds like, from the input I have received that the problem lies with a poor CUC and possibly my lighting drifting into the red spectrum (LFS input) so I ordered some new bulbs for my fixture as well.

 

[makeme1098]

I would go easy in the Hermit Crabs. They tend to eat snails. I have Oceanic 33 cube and I only have one Hermit Crab and maybe 20 Snails. I think the flow is pretty important. I run 1 Koralia 2, 3 Koralia 1s and 1 Koralia nano. I also turkey blast the rocks every other day. My tank stays pretty clean.

 

[Chichas01]

Hello Everyone!! I am new to marine aquariums and have a question for all you experts out there! I have a 30gal. Oceanic Cube and was wondering what if any, are the benefits of live sand vs. a bare bottom aquarium?

I rescued this setup from a friend of mine who didn't have the time to maintain it very well and I am nursing it back to health. I have a wicked bubble / hair algae problem and am wondering if the sand could be the source. Also I know that hand removal of hair algae is probably the best so is there any "GOOD" way of cleaning my live rock?

Water chemistry / salinity seems good although I am still working on my nitrite level, nitrate is good, I have been doing regular water changes to control the nitrite level.

OK, you say you have are detecting nitrites? Your tank is cycling and not ready for any live stock.
What kind of live stock is in the tank if any?
If none, you might consider getting everything in good shape before adding anything. You could let it go fallow for a few months and add a phosphate reactor and do some regular water changes for a while to help get the algae under control. This will help remove the unwanted nitrates and phosphates that is feeding your algae. Then maybe some snails and crabs to help wipe out what's left of the algae.
Chucks Addiction website has a some great articles on setting up a reef tank. Here is one i found pretty helpful:
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/cleanupcrew.html

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Yeah you won't want to be adding any livestock until the nitrites are totally gone or you will have a mass snail death chain reaction. 1 snail could polute your entire system so you can see how bad that could be. If you mix snails and hermits make sure the hermits have some empty shells lying around, they LOVE cerith snail shells and will kill the snail to get it.

 

[lighthammer]

OK, you say you have are detecting nitrites? Your tank is cycling and not ready for any live stock.
What kind of live stock is in the tank if any?
If none, you might consider getting everything in good shape before adding anything. You could let it go fallow for a few months and add a phosphate reactor and do some regular water changes for a while to help get the algae under control. This will help remove the unwanted nitrates and phosphates that is feeding your algae. Then maybe some snails and crabs to help wipe out what's left of the algae.
Chucks Addiction website has a some great articles on setting up a reef tank. Here is one i found pretty helpful:
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/cleanupcrew.html

You asked what was in my tank:
2 x Clown Fish (1 black, 1 orange)
1 x Coral Beauty
2 x Hermit
1 x Green Emerald
1 x Turbo Snail

I also have a very cool Star Polyp colony some mushroom corals that a feather duster has taken to and a leather coral....although the leather coral will not open up like the Star Polyps do.

I am no sure what you mean by "cycling"....could you please explain this a little bit.

I do have nitrites while the test kit says its acceptable its not totally gone, still working on that one. I will get the phosphate reactor this week.

 

[alki]

Your tank has already cycled. Thats only on a new tank with all new stuff.

You already have animals just get more snails and continue on your water changes.Yes hermits will eat snails. Cycle of life. Get astrea snails anyway.

 

[lighthammer]

Yeah you won't want to be adding any livestock until the nitrites are totally gone or you will have a mass snail death chain reaction. 1 snail could polute your entire system so you can see how bad that could be. If you mix snails and hermits make sure the hermits have some empty shells lying around, they LOVE cerith snail shells and will kill the snail to get it.

Not sure I understand how one snail could polute and entire tank....I am holding off on adding any livestock, I am really just trying to nurse this thing back to health.

I wish I had taken some images of the aquarium when I took it over....the water was green!!!.....yuk I have always kept freshwater in the past...so this is my crash course in marine keeping.

 

[lighthammer]

Thanks alki......will do. Have you had any luck ordering livestock online or is your LFS the way to go? The reason I ask, is sometimes the LFS does not have what I need, I have gone to Drs Foster & Smith for supplies now.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

One snail dying in a 30 gallon can have significant impact on your nitrates. A snail will fully decay in 10 hours or less and if you are detecting nitrites that means you will end up spiking there since your bacteria isn't even fully established. We are saying cycle as youre nitrites should not be detectable at all. You are still experiencing a cycle as your bacteria has not had a chance to adjust to your current bioload, adding more life to your tank will only increase your problem and make it worse and take longer. Keep up on the water changes and ride it out, keep testing nitrites and nitrates, soon as nitrates start going up and nitrites go down you are almost done... Unless you have mixed up nitrates and nitrites?

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Where are you located in spokane? I suggest you make a trip to Aquatic Dreams in the valley and speak to Kevin, he is very knowledgable and a super nice guy! He is open wed-sat 10-7 i believe-until september then he is open wed-sun.

Shawn

 

[lighthammer]

Its funny you mention Aquatic Dreams....this tank was originally purchased from there and I frequent his store. Water flow is a huge issue right now in this tank...when i got home from work today I decided enough is enough I needed to find out where the source of the excess nutrients were coming from. I removed most of the LR with algae on it so I can re-cure it and found tons of detritus sitting on top of the LR underneath what I removed. It is my hope that the Sure Flow 1600 will cure this in the future plus a little re-arange of the rocks themselves to prevent dead spots.

 

[lighthammer]

....Unless you have mixed up nitrates and nitrites?

You ever have one of those moments when your sure you were right......ya that happened to me tonight. Nitrite is 0, Nitrate is 20ppm....so that combined with the high amount of detritus I found explains the algae bloom.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread I think I have it pinned down

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

You ever have one of those moments when your sure you were right......ya that happened to me tonight. Nitrite is 0, Nitrate is 20ppm....so that combined with the high amount of detritus I found explains the algae bloom.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread I think I have it pinned down

Awesome! in that case 20ppm isn't so bad and yes those two can be easy to get mixed up at times.