Starting Over Questions

Hamsnacks · Feb 11, 2020

Decided I'm going to try a Reef Tank again but this time really take it slow, just had a few questions.

1) Is a 2-3" sand bed a safe amount or is that the danger zone? I previously had a 6" bed and I think it looked a bit too much for my liking.

2) Seeding Dry Rock, I'm going to have about 300lbs of dry rock, with about 250lbs of live sand. Should I also purchase some live rock to seed the dry rock or is the sand enough?

3) I still have a good amount of clean up crew left, can they carry diseases? I had a couple fish in the past get worms and I think Ich. Keep or get rid of?

4) Similar to 3, I have a lot of Matrix in my sump, should I wash and kill it all off or it should be safe to keep alive and use.

5) Anything you'd recommend dosing initially to develop good microorganisms or help with coralline development.

Thank you and sorry for the long post!

lapin · Feb 11, 2020

My Ipinion

Hamsnacks said:
........
1) Is a 2-3" sand bed a safe amount or is that the danger zone? I previously had a 6" bed and I think it looked a bit too much for my liking.

2 to 3 is fine. It will move a bit, makes hills and valleys.

Hamsnacks said:
2) Seeding Dry Rock, I'm going to have about 300lbs of dry rock, with about 250lbs of live sand. Should I also purchase some live rock to seed the dry rock or is the sand enough?

The sand will be enough. It will take time. A bottle of bacteria will help speed things along

Hamsnacks said:
3) I still have a good amount of clean up crew left, can they carry diseases? I had a couple fish in the past get worms and I think Ich. Keep or get rid of?

If they have been in a tank thats fish free for 76 days they should be ich free.

Hamsnacks said:
4) Similar to 3, I have a lot of Matrix in my sump, should I wash and kill it all off or it should be safe to keep alive and use.

See above ^

Hamsnacks said:
5) Anything you'd recommend dosing initially to develop good microorganisms or help with coralline development.

Turbo Start 900 is the go to brand of bacteria. No need to get coralline in a bottle. It will come on its own with corals.

Oropher · Feb 11, 2020

Welcome to R2R and back to reefing.

1. I prefer 1" sand bed. No need for DSB in main tank.
2 & 5. To help with seeding dry rock, do you want to try bacteria in a bottle, like Microbacter Start XLM. Yeah live sand helps.
For coralline, just keep the water parameter in check for reef tank, preferably pH 8.3. And you could scrap coralline from live rock (make sure not contain pest) and blender it in saltwater and dose it to Main Tank.
3 & 4. CUC, fish and dirty bio media, all can carry disease. I suggest you have a Fish QT, and treat existing fish with copper for ich and prazi pro for parasite/fluke/worm. Be careful with copper because not all fish can be treated with ionic copper. Some need cheated copper.
And all the CUC + bio media should be in different QT. You can use FW black molly as a canary fish in that QT, if black molly gets ich then take it out and let all CUC in the CUC-QT stay in that QT for 75days without fish to starve ich.

Happy reefing.