Overhaul Time

[seaweed88]

I have a 90 display which I have had up for over 15 years. When I set this tank up I bought 2 established tanks from locals and combined the rock and the sand. So the rock is at least 18 years old. Last summer we had a storm and the power was out for 4 days. I lost everything in this tank at that time. Montipora the size of plates were the biggest loss.
I am about ready to give this a good over haul. Different skimmer,ights and I am thinking of replacing most of the rock.
Any suggestions form someone who has already been down this path will be appreciated!
Thanks
Mark

 

[seaweed88]

Would I be better off just replacing all the rock?

 

[Squishie89]

Does the rock have any coraline left? If not, I would say yes, get new rock and maybe try and sell the old rock cheaply.

 

[always reefin]

What life is in tank?

 

[Singlefin]

Rock should still be good. Is anything alive? Unless you want a different looking scape.

 

[mcarroll]

Ya...dunno if I feel strongly, but I think I agree with Singlefin. I would certainly take out some rock if you think you could use more space for corals to grow out. I'd prolly lose the sand bed as well....or at minimum I'd thoroughly replace it.

-Matt

P.S. Bummer for your loss.

 

[sailoracu2]

I would clean the LR, the LR is fine. new LR is 5.00 a pound, save your money and spend it on sand, I cleaned sand once, never again!

 

[seaweed88]

What about 18 years of stuff trapped in the old live rock?
I have over 100 lbs of rock in this system. If I were to pull it out and aqua scape it with only 50 lbs of rock how bad would that mess up my bio filter?

 

[sailoracu2]

Pressure wash the LR, put it in a brut trash can with bleachrinse and cure.

 

[fragmatic]

No I have not been down this trail.
My opinion:
No, I would not replace the rock, it is live rock and it was in a reef many, many years before it was harvested and sold to you. Rinse it off, don't kill it. Its age is what makes it valuable as live rock. I would give each piece a good shaking in a bucket of tank ready water then stack it in a tub or something in tank ready water.

As for the sand, this is simply a good chance to give it a really good cleaning. Gold panning style, in buckets of fresh water until it runs near clear water, then put it back or in a bucket of tank ready water.

 

[fragmatic]

Sorry, I missed the second part of your question. In my opinion you need 1 to 2 pounds of live rock to each gallon of water in your entire system. So with your 90 (is what I have too) you need that 100 lbs. But, wow, you lucky dog, you get to do your stacking and scaping with all that new knowledge and experince. I'd scape to make the highest number of coral placements and levels with stability in mind.

 

[fragmatic]

I would clean the LR, the LR is fine. new LR is 5.00 a pound, save your money and spend it on sand, I cleaned sand once, never again!

+1 but here it is $6.99 pr lb

 

[seaweed88]

Here is a picture of it today. I am embarrassed about the shape it is in. I think there is to much rock to do a good job of aqua scraping but I do need to do something.

 

[fragmatic]

I think you have a good plan, just clean shake out the rocks, replace the sand (I agree it is too cheap to do all that nasty wash out stuff), enjoy a rescape. Nothing like a nice project to spruce up live.

 

[seaweed88]

I do believe that the Aptasia is going to be the hardest thing to get rid of if I were to decide to keep the old rock. It is kicking butt in there. I have treated it a couple time in the last month with a Kalk mix and only seem to **** it off and make it spread.
Thanks for all the reply's!
mark

 

[fragmatic]

If it gets to be too rough to remove enough of it you could do the some new dry rock and some of your established rock thing, as a back up idea.

 

[seaweed88]

I have already taken most of the sand out so I might just take the rest out and go bare bottom. If I were to replace the old rock with new I could stick some of the old rock into the sump to help out with the bio filter.
This tank was set up a long time ago when the norm was 2 lbs of rock per gallon with all the flow you could muster. I had a deep sand bed ( 8 inches) in the sump and very few hard corals. Some of this rock is so old it was collected off Fla when it was still legal to do so.

 

[sailoracu2]

Peppermint shrimp love to eat aptasia

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[seaweed88]

They would not go hungry......

 

[fragmatic]

Peppermint shrimp love to eat aptasia

sailor, do the words mach II '68-69, mean anything to you?