[bguile]

Hi all,

To update, my hair algae problem seems to be under control now. Using suggestions from different people I removed some of the bigger patches, got a turbo snail, switched the lights on time from 14hrs to 8hrs a day and began dosing B-Ionic to help the calcium balance.

Now my next question. I noticed in another post that Ninong doesn't particularly care for CC and I've begun to see why and have been considering for a while to change my substrate to sand. Seeing that I already have fish and other life in my tank, is it too late to change? If not, can someone lend some suggestions on how to go about doing this without having to end up cycling the tank all over again? Thanks.

[Samper]

bguile
I'm at work now and can't really answer your question at the moment but I have recently removed my cc also and I'll tell you what I did and how I did it later this evening.

[bguile]

Cool, thanks. I'll await your response.

[Samper]

Ok, am off work now and have some time so here we go. I think it is a very good idea to get rid of the crushed coral. I don't have a 90 gallon but after what I went through with the 20 your in for quite a chore. I would get one 50 gallon rubbermaid and one 20 if I were you and some yellow kitchen cleaning gloves. Hook a powerhead or two up to the edge of the 50 gallon rubbermaid and siphon your tank water into it removing your LR as you go WEAR GLOVES.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=414029
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.htm
When the water level reaches where it should be for the powerheads to work go ahead and kick em on. When the live rock is out you should have no problem catching your fish. Put the fish into the 20, full of water of course. I don't know what you have as far as fish but if they are too big for the 20 gallon I'm sure your smart enough to figure out something to do. Then if possible have someone help you take your tank out and dump it or whatever you wanna do with the crushed coral. I didn't have so much to deal with so I just scooped it out into a bucket and put it on my back deck. If you have to do any hand scooping make sure you're wearing your gloves. Crushed coral has a way of making your hand feel like you rubbed it all over fiberglass insulation all day. Not to mention the nasty infections that you can get. You're gonna stir up a ton of nasty much when removing the coral so make sure you get all that out and the tank rinsed before you start putting water back in. You're gonna be adding about 20 gallons of new salt water to your old water by my estimates. Before doing that you have to decide what you wanna do, a dsb or barebottom. I personally think the barebottom is better now that I see how easy it is to clean the tank. You can have as much water flow as you want and there is virtually no buildup this way.
Bare Bottom REef? If you choose to use the dsb you can have a more diverse tank but you will be limited to the amount of water flow you can have. Anyway figure out what you want, do it research as much as you can before you decide. Add your water, Lr and fish. It's best to do this in a day if at all possible. There are plenty of threads on this forum to learn from just do a search for what your interested in. I'm sure I left something out and that some others are gonna chime in so just post your questions, I should be on here for the rest of the night.

[bguile]

WOW!!! Thanks for the advice. I had never heard of mycobacterium marinum. I'll be sure to get some gloves before I stick my hand in my tank again. Speaking of which, I don't know how it got mixed up but for some reason you're the second person that thinks I have a 90 gallon. I wish I did, but I dont have the space for one right now. I have a 12g Nano with 2 clowns, and a "cleanup" crew of crabs, and a turbo snail. I have several buckets that I use for water changes. I can use them to keep the LR and life forms in seperate containers.

So once I've transferred them out and removed the CC substrate and cleaned the tank am I using all new water to put back in the tank or siphoning back the old? Also, should I lay the bed of sand before pouring the water to keep down on the cloudiness it will cause doing it the other way? or does it matter?

[bguile]

Ok. Now that I've read your post while I'm coherent I'm understanding the concept. I will probably end up doing it this weekend. Thanks again for the suggestions...

[Samper]

haha ok man, good luck.