Display to qt tank conversion

[Rickybobby]

I have a Fluval 13.5. One year old. Full of coraline. Have fish and live rock and aragonite. So. New tank coming soon. Waterbox 65.4. These fish and rock coming over. The evo will become a frag slash coral invert qt tank with a ai prime. Should I leave the substrate in this frag tank or go bare bottom? The back chamber is full of bio media

 

[kartrsu]

You can leave the substrate in the tank. In fact it might be better. Problem with coral /invert only QT tanks is the lack of nutrients. Without fish, they bottom out, and you get all sorts of problems including dinos. Substrate might have more organics to keep up the nutrients meanwhile host a variety of beneficial organisms. Sounds like you’ll take all the rock, another reason to have substrate for biological filtration.

 

[Greg P]

Once you need to add meds the substrate will need to be removed.
It will;
Absorb meds - mess with med levels
Contain possible parasites - release them back to the tank

Best to run bare bottom and rely on filter media for bacterial filtration
My QT uses a HOB with a sponge for bacteria, and I keep spare sponges in my DT sump to help with seeding the QT
The used sponges are bleached before returning to the sump, or tossed

 

[Rickybobby]

Sorry forgot to mention. I already have a 10g frag qt setup already bare bottom. I have one damsel who fertilizes the water lol and will move with the coral. My question was because. Iam going to put egg crate across the tank for the corals. So it will be impossible to vacuum substrate like that