jcharrsn
Community Member
I decided to abandon the industrial look of my bare bottom system for a one inch sand bed recently.
I have a 75 gallon tank that has some zoas, palys, lps, and small predator fish(Niger Trigger(3.5") and Zebra Dwarf Lion(3")) I was using about 100 pounds of live rock for biological filtration.
To start I removed all the rock. I had some rock that had some remnants of a pretty serious green hair algae outbreak. I figured since they were out of water already i may as well do my due diligence to erradicate the possibility of it happening again. These rocks got a good solid brushing to remove as much of the visible algae as possible and then a fresh water dip. If biology serves me right, the fresh water dip would cause the cells in any tiny saltwater organisms(algae spores included) to swell, burst, and render the microscopic critters lifeless. I realize that this would murder my bacteria housed in the rock that I treated in this manner, but I thought that by maintaining a significant percentage of my live rock I would retain the benefits of my biological filtration. I added 40lbs of regular coarse aragonite that I thoroughly rinsed and aquascaped the rock. I am pleased with the new look of my tank and all of the inhabitants seem to be happy and healthy.
Sorry for the iPhone pic but it gives you a solid idea of the tank after overhauling.
I had a sneaking suspicion that I might have gotten carried away with the scrubbing, dipping, mass bactericide so I took a water sample to the LFS to test water parameters.
Nitrates 0 nitrites 0 ammonia 0.25ppm
I bought an ammonia test kit and have been holding steady at 0.25ppm for a few days now.
I added some Prime to "detoxify" the ammonia. I am not sure what to expect or what to do if anything at this point. My plan is to keep normally feeding fish and corals every other day and to monitor ammonia in the event of a spike in which case I will perform a large water change (20%).
Anybody have experience with this issue? What happened good, bad, and ugly?
Does anyone out there know a good way to kickstart my biological filtration? Microbacter7 or bio pellets in a reactor perhaps?
Waiting it out is the only option that has been pitched to me at this point but my LFS guys are minimalist and have never really encouraged aggressive treatment or dosing of anything. Their answer is water changes or wait it out. Which are good answers I just want more options to research.
I realize that the ammonia is not that impressive at this point, but I would like to at least keep the multicellular animals in good health and it's my understanding that long term exposure can be potentially problematic.
I have a 75 gallon tank that has some zoas, palys, lps, and small predator fish(Niger Trigger(3.5") and Zebra Dwarf Lion(3")) I was using about 100 pounds of live rock for biological filtration.
To start I removed all the rock. I had some rock that had some remnants of a pretty serious green hair algae outbreak. I figured since they were out of water already i may as well do my due diligence to erradicate the possibility of it happening again. These rocks got a good solid brushing to remove as much of the visible algae as possible and then a fresh water dip. If biology serves me right, the fresh water dip would cause the cells in any tiny saltwater organisms(algae spores included) to swell, burst, and render the microscopic critters lifeless. I realize that this would murder my bacteria housed in the rock that I treated in this manner, but I thought that by maintaining a significant percentage of my live rock I would retain the benefits of my biological filtration. I added 40lbs of regular coarse aragonite that I thoroughly rinsed and aquascaped the rock. I am pleased with the new look of my tank and all of the inhabitants seem to be happy and healthy.
Sorry for the iPhone pic but it gives you a solid idea of the tank after overhauling.
I had a sneaking suspicion that I might have gotten carried away with the scrubbing, dipping, mass bactericide so I took a water sample to the LFS to test water parameters.
Nitrates 0 nitrites 0 ammonia 0.25ppm
I bought an ammonia test kit and have been holding steady at 0.25ppm for a few days now.
I added some Prime to "detoxify" the ammonia. I am not sure what to expect or what to do if anything at this point. My plan is to keep normally feeding fish and corals every other day and to monitor ammonia in the event of a spike in which case I will perform a large water change (20%).
Anybody have experience with this issue? What happened good, bad, and ugly?
Does anyone out there know a good way to kickstart my biological filtration? Microbacter7 or bio pellets in a reactor perhaps?
Waiting it out is the only option that has been pitched to me at this point but my LFS guys are minimalist and have never really encouraged aggressive treatment or dosing of anything. Their answer is water changes or wait it out. Which are good answers I just want more options to research.
I realize that the ammonia is not that impressive at this point, but I would like to at least keep the multicellular animals in good health and it's my understanding that long term exposure can be potentially problematic.
