Hello R2R!
I am from New England and have been in the aquarium hobby most of my life. I was a frequenter of a different reef site but it doesn't have the membership or expertise that this site does. My exposure to the hobby was all freshwater fish and plants until about 8 years ago when a friend of mine got me into the reef tanks. Since then I've dragged my wife and 3 kids into the hobby as well. At my peak a few years ago we had a nice 125 in our living room that was a mixed reef. Life changes (and a 3rd kid into the mix) made it difficult to maintain so after some lackluster husbandry on my part, We decided to take a step back and keep a 75 until time permits. Over the past 2 years I've been fighting a GHA/Bryopsis algae probably pretty consistently, with it coming and going. I finally lost all patience about 3 weeks ago and took most (90%) of my live rock out and left whatever had some coral on it or didn't have an algae problem. Ended up with about 3 large pieces left. I was very close to giving up on the hobby, but after lurking on here for a little while and my kids showing a resurgence into the tank, I've decided to stick with it and start a build up again.
Here is where my current dilemma starts: as it stands now, I have probably 20# of live rock, a 1" sand bed full of clean up critters, and 3 fish (1 black clown, 1 royal gramma, and a blue chromis) the live rock and sand bed has some green hair algae still from the outbreak I've been fighting for years (which is another story all by itself) I want to put more rock in the tank, but am deathly afraid of the GHA taking hold putting me right back to where I was a year ago. I have about 100# of rock that I've been storing in my basement for about 2 years. I removed it from the 125, waited for all the die off, rinsed in fresh RO, and it's been sitting since.
How should I go about getting my tank back to its pristine condition while minimizing die off? I guess I have come up with 2 options.
1.) Buy 15-20# of LR and clean live sand, add the sand to my current sand bed, remove all existing LR and put new in, then slowly add my dead rock from the basement to seed it? This way I figure I can leave the livestock in the tank and minimize chances of a cycle. I would probably siphon some water out before I start and keep it heated with a powerhead and the old LR so I could throw the fish in there in the event I start to see ammonia.
2.) Take the fish out, take the rock and sand out, buy a few pieces of live rock, aquascape with the dead rock now, refill, and cycle. Basically pushing the reset button.
Sorry for the essay, but looking for everyone's thoughts. I'm excited to be a part of the community and learn some new tricks!
I am from New England and have been in the aquarium hobby most of my life. I was a frequenter of a different reef site but it doesn't have the membership or expertise that this site does. My exposure to the hobby was all freshwater fish and plants until about 8 years ago when a friend of mine got me into the reef tanks. Since then I've dragged my wife and 3 kids into the hobby as well. At my peak a few years ago we had a nice 125 in our living room that was a mixed reef. Life changes (and a 3rd kid into the mix) made it difficult to maintain so after some lackluster husbandry on my part, We decided to take a step back and keep a 75 until time permits. Over the past 2 years I've been fighting a GHA/Bryopsis algae probably pretty consistently, with it coming and going. I finally lost all patience about 3 weeks ago and took most (90%) of my live rock out and left whatever had some coral on it or didn't have an algae problem. Ended up with about 3 large pieces left. I was very close to giving up on the hobby, but after lurking on here for a little while and my kids showing a resurgence into the tank, I've decided to stick with it and start a build up again.
Here is where my current dilemma starts: as it stands now, I have probably 20# of live rock, a 1" sand bed full of clean up critters, and 3 fish (1 black clown, 1 royal gramma, and a blue chromis) the live rock and sand bed has some green hair algae still from the outbreak I've been fighting for years (which is another story all by itself) I want to put more rock in the tank, but am deathly afraid of the GHA taking hold putting me right back to where I was a year ago. I have about 100# of rock that I've been storing in my basement for about 2 years. I removed it from the 125, waited for all the die off, rinsed in fresh RO, and it's been sitting since.
How should I go about getting my tank back to its pristine condition while minimizing die off? I guess I have come up with 2 options.
1.) Buy 15-20# of LR and clean live sand, add the sand to my current sand bed, remove all existing LR and put new in, then slowly add my dead rock from the basement to seed it? This way I figure I can leave the livestock in the tank and minimize chances of a cycle. I would probably siphon some water out before I start and keep it heated with a powerhead and the old LR so I could throw the fish in there in the event I start to see ammonia.
2.) Take the fish out, take the rock and sand out, buy a few pieces of live rock, aquascape with the dead rock now, refill, and cycle. Basically pushing the reset button.
Sorry for the essay, but looking for everyone's thoughts. I'm excited to be a part of the community and learn some new tricks!
