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Originally Posted by Coralgurl
2 Power heads are pointed at the surface. I've brushed and removed as much as I can of the algae, vacuumed the sand and basted rocks plus a 25 gl water change done.
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That's great! Don't pilfer too much flow for the surface though since you do need to have flow throughout the tank.
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Sponges are cleaned each time I clean the canister and are replaced every 3 months. If they need to be replaced more often I'll do so.
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I would not recommend rinse and reusing sponges. In freshwater tanks, sure. In saltwater tanks, no. Rinsing the sponges doesn't kill the nitrifying bacteria. If you don't kill the nitrifying bacteria the sponges become biological filters which pump out nitrate.
Most of the sponges that you buy at the LFS that are made for each filter are expensive to change out so often which is why I suggested you start sign cut-to-size media.
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The skimmer was dialed in but now have to reset it. I've run tubing into a bucket just in case, the overflow is quite low on this skimmer.
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Which skimmer did you buy anyway?
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I'll test the water in an hour or so and see what's going on.
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Wait about 24 hours so the nutrients have time to leech out of the rock and sand equalizing with the nutrients in the water column.
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Think I'll be picking up an emerald crab as well. Cleaned out all dead corals and snail shells, one absolutely reeked.
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Not all Emerald Crabs will eat bubble algae, I've found only about 1/3 to maybe 1/2 do. You may need to add a few of them. Be aware that the males get quite large and can grab and eat small fish.
The trouble with clean up crews though is they don't tolerate high nutrients, so don't go too crazy on a clean up crew yet as they may not have very good survival in your tank right now.