Tank Rebuild

[likwid]

Hey guys,

I plenty newbies mistakes with my first SW tank, and am thinking of taking it all apart and rebuilding it again. I would like to keep the current live rock, but give it a good scrubbing, replace all of the live sand with something more coarse (possibly crushed coral), use RO water, and keeping all of the current inverts I have in there right now. What is the best way to go about doing this? Will I have to cycle the tank again?

Thanks

[marcingo]

Why would you want to scrub your live rock- I hope your not planning on using any chemicals. If you do you will make it dead rock. If you leave the live rock as it is, change your substrate or whatever you are planning on doing and then put the rock back in it wont cycle too much (If you can empty your tank water into a rubbermaid and submerge all the rock in it while running a small powerhead the live rock wont cycle at all once you put it back in). Also you can put your inverts in the rubbermaid as well. If you do this dont keep the stuff in the container for more than a day. If you want you can put a heater in but if your only changing the substrate then you wont really need one since it wont take too long and the water wont have a chance to get very cold.

[Scavenger]

A little information on what went wrong with the first attempt, might yield more ideas and opinions.

[likwid]

It was my first attempt at a SW tank, so here is a list of mistakes I made with it.

First of all, the guy at the local fish store convinced me to buy some old substrate that had been sitting in a bucket for over a year, which was not the best looking, but he said it would help the cycle. I didnt bother rinsing this substrate, and it has quite a bit of growth on it, and is a fairly ugly mix of different kinds of substrate, which I do not like the look of. Secondly, I used tap water the entire time, and had a massive algae outbreak. I'm guessing this is mostly due to running my full 85 watt CF lights during the entire course of the cycle. My inverts have done great for the entire time, and haven't had anything die in the course of this tank's life (approx 3 months). I guess the biggest issue is the substrate, which I would like to replace with brand new crushed coral, or black sand. I hope thats enough background info.

[marcingo]

Hey just one little thing I thought I would mention- I dont think tap water causes big algae outbreaks, I know many people use it and so have I since I started about a year ago. Was the algae you saw brown- then it might be diatoms which are a sign the cycle is happening. My tank sand was clean for 2 weeks when I started then it started turning brown- then I had a layer of brown all over my sand and rocks. Turning my lights off for a couple of days helped get rid of a lot of it. But it will go away with time.

If your stuff was algae then I dont know why but I would guess its more of a cycling issue( it takes a while for a tank to cycle).

[Scavenger]

Algae outbreaks in a new tank are quite common. Think of it as growing pains.
I'm sure the old substrate and tap water enhanced the algaes ability to thrive.

You might find that by replacing your substrate with clean stuff and just let the tank age for awhile, your algae will slowly disapear as it consumes the nitrates and phosphates from your system.

Keep flow, skimming and water changes up as high as you can manage and keep the bio load low for awhile and slowly raise it to a comfortable level once the algae is in control.

In my opinion, you will be algae free faster doing this than rebuilding your tank and doing the whole aging process over.

Just my 2 cents. Hope you get more ideas from others.

[likwid]

Scavenger.. What would be the best way to replace all of my substrate without rebuilding the tank?

[findingnemo1]

In my opinion i wouldn't use crushed coral. That is how we started our tank and within 2 months out that came and in with the sugar sized. The crushed coral traps all the waste and excess food which then turns into nitrates which then puts you in a new host of problems. We took all our crushed coral out and in with the new in about 3 hours in our 130. We just took all the inverts and fish out and put them in a rubbermaid. Rinsed the sand really well and in it went. Waited for the sandstorm to die down put the rocks back where we wanted then and we were good.

Although just my 0.02cents worth

Craig

[Scavenger]

Originally Posted by likwid

Scavenger.. What would be the best way to replace all of my substrate without rebuilding the tank?

Siphon it out, similar to if you were vacumning a freshwater gravel bed during a water change. You may not get it all in one go, but it doesn't take long. I cleared out my 48 gallon (when it was running) in 2 10% water changes.

Barring that, you could take alot of your tank water and your rocks into a rubbermaid, while you manually do it, but I find moving a lot of rocks around causes some die off which will take time to regrow and add to your algae bloom or possible partial cycling.

When you replace your sand bed, my favorite method is to shut off all flow, and pour your new sand down a pcv pipe so it doesn't overly cloud the water. Just take your time doing it.

I find pouring the sand around the already placed rocks, makes for a solider foundation and less weighed down sand that can't be sifted.


Edit for: I forgot to mention, I fully agree with findingnemos opinion on crushed coral. I pulled that out after only 2 months as well.

Again, just my 2 cents other opinions will vary. There are far more experienced reefers kickin around these parts. (Hey wait that's a disclaimer!! Wow my first one!!LOL!)

[likwid]

Anyone else successfully completely change the sand in their tank?