[Leddy]

tomorrow is my maintenance day, and i was thinking of removing some of my crushed coral and sand mix, and replacing it with just southdown and maybe a small amount of LS from my LFS. should i take all of the CC out, or replace it slowly for the bacteria to reproduce? will i see a spike in my levels? is this a good plan? am i asking stupid questions? is there such thing as a stupid question? i dont know what i'm talking about....ha....right now i have about 45lbs CC and 30lbs sand, but eventually i'd like the majority to be sand. mixing sand and CC is NOT the thing to do, as i figured that out when i went to vacuum the CC, and ended up with sand....pointless..... please let me know what you think and comment or suggest on what would be the best way to go about this. thank you


leddy

(I added the NOT in "mixing sand and CC is NOT the thing to do"... its a typo)

[Ninong]

I think you should remove ALL of the sand/crushed coral in your tank. Start over with new sand but try to salvage some of the old sand to seed the new sand bed. Try to not put the old crushed coral back in the tank. You don't need a whole lot of the old stuff, just a couple of pints or so would work.

Also, when removing the old substrate, try to salvage any wormy critters that are large enough to actually see. Use a pie pan or something to separate them from the sand/crushed coral and then save them to put back into the tank. Make out like you're panning for gold.

You should not have any problems doing that provided you remove your live rock and fish to a holding container while you remove ALL of your present sand bed. It really isn't possible to do this with the live rock and animals in the tank.

[Leddy]

thats the plan. I have some rubbermaid 30gal. buckets that i use only for my tank, so i'll put all the rock with water and a powerhead in them. i posted a typo earlier saying mixing CC with sand is the thing to do, but no way. i found out the hard way, by doing it and joining reefland after....so thats the plan at hand, remove all the cc/sand, strain and sift the sand for critters, save a little sand to seed the new sand, spread it on top.....

should i put the LR in the tank before the sand for better/safer structure? i have some base rock in there right now underneath the fiji, so maybe a few pieces as a building support would be ok.

ok, its late and i've been thinking of this too long. time to sleep and do it in the morning. hey, thanks for the advice Ninong.

leddy

[Ninong]

I think it helps to have a solid foundation for your rock structure so that you don't have to worry about it shifting later on and causing trouble. That means that you would either place the bottom rocks directly on the bottom of the tank or you would use some sort of foundation, perhaps PVC pipe sections or something, to support the bottom rocks.

The problem with mixing crushed coral with fine particle sand is that all of the crushed coral ends up on top and all of the sand ends up on the bottom over time.

Good luck!

[Leddy]

i removed all the base and live rock from the tank, got all the fish out, and removed all of the cc/sand mix. i saved about 10 lbs of sand, and added it to the top layer of new sand. I couldn't find southdown or oldcastle or yardright anywhere today, so i spent the extra money and got argamax from work, it wasn't too much after my discount. there is a tiny bit of the old substrate, very little, i'd say 98% is new sand. it is about an inch and a half to two inches, and i put some of the base rock in before to get a better support structure for the live rock. its pretty cloudy right now, so i'm gonna wait to put the live rock in until i can see what i'm doing. all the rock is in two rubbermaid containers with powerheads in each and tank water. the fish are in a 10 gal tank i had lying around with a mini penguin biowheel and 50 watt visitherm heater. i have my 330 running with carbon, and my H.O.T. magnum running with filter floss. hopefully it'll clear up later tonight so i can scape the live rock. the fish are going to the lfs up the road tomorrow, they close early on tuesday. i'll post some pics when its all finished. thanks for the replies Ninong.


leddy

[Reefer769]

awsome, i cant wait to see some pics

[Leddy]

i'll probably post some pics tomorrow night, its way to cloudy to even set up the rocks. thanks for the replies, i'm excited i dont have to vacuum the bottom, just some of the detritis on the rock now and then. cant wait to see the critters running around on the front pane of glass. i'll keep posting. thanks


leddy

[Poseidon]

Hey Leddy now that you have the Experience do you want to come over and do mine???

My tank has a mix in it too. Did it before I knew better, and Ninong is right on the money (as usual) over time my sand has sunk... and now I have a 50/50 mix of sand and CC on top. (My damsel has really helped the process)

[Leddy]

no way mike!, aw man, its such a pain in my back side dude! i'm gonna have to listen to water splashing tonight, and have 2 30gal. buckets next to my bed filled with rock and running water. i'm affraid i might pee myself at night... , i better stop with beers! ha, i just figured out how to use the smily things! no but seriously, its not to bad to do, more time consuming than anything else. i called a store that i usually go to today to dee if they knew where to get southdown sand, but he said that its not always the best thing to use, as sometimes its not totally argonite. he said there is always a chance of it poisoning your tank. either way, i couldn't find it anywhere in town, i went everywhere, even toys r us. everywhere just sold regular playsand, really dark, made by quikcrete. i didn't trust it since it comes from a company that makes concrete. ha. hopefully it'll be clear in the morning, i plan on putting a micron cartridge in the HOT magnum over night, maybe it'll polish the water a little better. its not a DSB, only about 2 inches. i may add more slowly, but i could only afford 60lbs today. thanks for the replies, but sorry i cant help you out, i went through 3 soaking saltwater shirts....dang it!, now i have to do my laundry. maybe some sheets and pajamas just fooling.


leddy

[Leddy]

its probably too late tonight to be posting, but i was wondering if the LR would be affected by the temp change at night. i dont have a heater in there right now, and was thinking some of the bacteria might die off from room temperature(70 F). i think it should be fine since i'm gonna just cycle the tank anyway. any comments or suggestions would be cool, but its late so i'll just see what happens in the morning. thanks

leddy

[Ninong]

The bacteria will be fine.

[Poseidon]

Boy no kidding it was late... Way to go on the change, I was thinking of doing that myself for a while now, but I don't really want to take on a project that HUGE!!! But the good news is my Brother works for HD so I can get some Southdown or Old Casatle or whatever it is, shipped to me, and if it is not right he can send it away!!!

[Leddy]

ok, its still super cloudy, but i just put the bak-pak on and took the seaclone out. it's defenitly a bit clearer, but too cloudy to start scaping the rocks. i'll post a pic when its all finished, maybe a before and after picture. cool

leddy

[Leddy]

ok fellas, i'm gonna rescape the rocks. i just got home from work, and its looking clear, at least enough to see what i'm doing. time to get to work again! i'll post some pics in the morning to show the new rockwork. i'm gonna search through some pics to get a good idea for rock placement.


leddy

just got done with the rock scape, it got too cloudy again so i only put the base rock in. i'll put the fiji in in the morning, so i can see what i'm doing.

[Leddy]

alright, done and done. its scaped the way i like it now, i tried three different styles, and came up with this one. it doesnt look it, but its very stable with tons of nooks and crannies. my bak-pak isn't really pulling scum, but i'll keep messing with that till it does, it still may be breaking in. i keep adjusting the height of the collection cup, but i'm sure it will start working well. heres a few pics, it's still a bit cloudy, but at least you can see inside.


leddy


i'm still debating to stack the rock up against the glass, i've never had it set like that, but i think i'll be able to stack it higher in case i want to do mushrooms, polyps, maybe xeina. i'm not sure, i'll probly leave it the way it is for a few weeks just to get used to it, i'll change it if decide to, or else i'll get some more rock.

[Leddy]

here's one that might be a bit clearer. leddy

[Leddy]

i added an extra 5.5 inches to my existing pine canopy. i did this because i couldnt open the glass lid with the canopy on it and the cpr bak-pak was a bit tall, now its good with extra room. i've been thinking retro fitting a 2 or 4 bulb VHO kit, definitly not for sure though due to money situations. anyway, heres a few pics of the thing. i still have to add some sort of molding across the middle, but its tight with no light shining through.


leddy

[Reefland]

That looks real nice Leddy!

[Leddy]

thanks scott, i appreciate it. it looks pretty shabby, but i just did it, and i'll make it a little cleaner in a few days. right now, i'm saving money for new lights, either VHO or PC, looking towards VHO. but i'll be fishless for the next month and a half. i should be getting another used bak-pak, and my cpr refugium in the mail soon, so i'll be able to grow/control some macro in there, hopefully take care of the cyano(brown algae?) in the tank. just gotta be patient about it i guess.


leddy

[Leddy]

1 month old. Setting up the CPR refugium in the morning. The heater in the Bak-Pak's doing great also.


Leddy