Opinions of a tank re-do

[Josh125]

Hello all,

MACNA was bittersweet for me this year, I loved going however my tank is in the midst of a crash. Long story short, I stirred my sand and moved my rocks resulting in intensifying an already bad HA situation and spiking the ammonia as well. The ammonia spike caused a terrible chain of events, as it almost always does - - - leads to death, which leads to more ammonia, etc.

Ok, so here is where I am. I set up my QT tank (thanks goodness I had one) and have my corals and my remaining fish in it.

I plan to scrub down the rocks (any advice on what to use here),pull the SSB, and drain the tank.

My question is what you all would do after cleaning everything. The corals/fish will be fine for a week or more in the QT tank (not happy, but fine). I can't decide to use a SSB and vaccumm this time, a DSB, or BB. I also plan to start with fresh water.

Thanks

 

[ronj]

Welcome to Reffrontiers Josh!!!! i am in the process as we speak of setting up my newest tank..i am going barebottom this time..i am tired of the high nutrient problems..i think that going BB will solve that..i have a sandbed in my current display..i hate that sand..it makes it look really good, but then there is the risk of a crash if it is stirred up, something that you know all too well!!! hope my opinion helped!

 

[Meche]

hey josh, welcome to RF and sorry to hear about your loss.

Not that my opinion means anything (I'm on month 3 of my first tank), but for what its worth, I have a SSB and I like it. A little vaccumming here and there is easy and, because I used black sand, I stay on top of the vaccume gig. I am going to get some more flow because some spots are a little tricky to vaccume.

My father just moved to Katy. I spent a couple of weeks down there in aug. Nice place but damn! It is HOT!

 

[DonW]

Hello all,

MACNA was bittersweet for me this year, I loved going however my tank is in the midst of a crash. Long story short, I stirred my sand and moved my rocks resulting in intensifying an already bad HA situation and spiking the ammonia as well. The ammonia spike caused a terrible chain of events, as it almost always does - - - leads to death, which leads to more ammonia, etc.

Ok, so here is where I am. I set up my QT tank (thanks goodness I had one) and have my corals and my remaining fish in it.

I plan to scrub down the rocks (any advice on what to use here),pull the SSB, and drain the tank.

My question is what you all would do after cleaning everything. The corals/fish will be fine for a week or more in the QT tank (not happy, but fine). I can't decide to use a SSB and vaccumm this time, a DSB, or BB. I also plan to start with fresh water.

Thanks

I like bb, but as far as the rock does a pressure washer does a great job.

Don

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF! Sorry to hear about your troubles as well. I know how hair algae can be. I run a bare bottom tank and love it. In all honesty, it has been the first setup that I have been able to maintain un-detectable nitrates, but the choice is up to you. SSB's are nice as well...You just have to vaccum them weekly. The only problem I see with ssb's is if you are a high flow junkie like me, the sand would never stay put. As for your rock, you could scrub them with a tooth brush or like Don suggested, but in all honesty, I've never been able to get all the hair algae off of my rocks before in my first setup by doing nothing other than tossing my rocks out in the sun for a few months. I didn't mind loosing all the bacteria and life in my rock and at the time, seemed like the best option. In any event, if you were to scub them nicely and pop them back into a low nutrient tank, it will die off on it's own once there is nothing feeding it. I'd also maybe add a tang or a similar fish in there (if you don't have any already) to keep the algae trimmed as your tank matures again. Just a thought....Hope you get sorted out

 

[Slickdonkey]

Hey, out of curiousity, you say you have a shallow sand bed. How shallow was it? I'm hoping in my tank with all the flow and some sand-stirring critters this won't be a problem in the long run. Mine is about 1", curious to see what you have as well.

 

[Meche]

Hey, out of curiousity, you say you have a shallow sand bed. How shallow was it? I'm hoping in my tank with all the flow and some sand-stirring critters this won't be a problem in the long run. Mine is about 1", curious to see what you have as well.

I'd say less than 2". Hard to say since my fish like to landscape and I didn't pay attention to that when I set it up. But my average might be 1 2/3".

edit:

:lol: you ment him :lol: sorry. Where is the line between SSB and DSB?

 

[Josh125]

Well small Iupdate, OK big I've been working for the better part of 4 hours now and pulled the rock and scrubbed it down with a toothbrush, pulled the SSB, completly drained the tank & sump, wet/dry vacd both to remove any detrius, cleaned every piece of equip I own with vinegar, and just got through wiping down the inside of the tank with a vinegar/water mix. I'm beat, but it's one clean tank!

The rock currently is sitting in a bit of fresh saltwater and the corals and fish in the QT. Odd thing, when I was pulling the sand from the tank I had a LOT more than I thought. I was for sure it was <1" but it was more than 2-3" uniform. That's wasn't good. I'm leaning towards a true SSB, 1" or so maybe less and even less to none around the rock.

I'll grab a pick tomorrow when I'm done.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Yeah from what I've read, < 1" is the way to go. 1-3" is asking for trouble, and > 4" is more DSB territory. Hope you have better luck with a little less sand. Also the coarser the sand, the less you want to have, IMO. Sugar sized seems to work well for me.

 

[Meche]

1-3" is asking for trouble

 

[Josh125]

IMO, yes it can be trouble. It's not deep enough to be a fully functional DSB but too deep to easily vaccuumm effectively, so it will trap all the more detrius. Make sense?

SSB is in, rock is in, and the water is in. Turned started her up I'll let it settle for a day or two, scape the rock, test, then put the critters back in.

 

[Josh125]

Hello all,

Version 2.0 has been up for a week now, and added my first new addition - an orange plating monti.

Post mortem goes like this:
Pseudochromis
6 line wrasse
yellow tang

3" orange monti cap
8" purple with blue rim monti cap
a few assorted zoas


The algae / ammonia bought was brutal, probably the worst thing I have dealt with in years.

As mentioned, I replaced the orange monti today will slowly restock the tank as the months go by. I'm lucky to have an active and very large club that always has frags available


I experienced / am experiencing a very short cycle. The diatom bloom has already come and gone and I'm now in the bright green algae stage. The tank is stable, I plan to resume my weekly water changes once it's lined out.

Now on to my question, I getting ready to restock the clean up critters. I'm leaning towards key critters or reeftopia, however I need some advise on which snails to get. I down to 2 astreas, a conch, and one emerald crab in the 58.

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow.