Old Tank Syndrome

[Brian Prestwood]

I've got a thread on this topic going in Dr. Ron's forum. However, I'd like to talk to any MARS members who have reef tanks that are more than five years old.

[thereefgeek]

Well, you know my situation. 6 years old and looking for a change. Maybe the "plenum drain" thing could help.

[headshrink]

What exactly is the story with your sand bed?

[Brian Prestwood]

What exactly is the story with your sand bed?

I'm not sure anything is wrong with my DSB. My tank just doesn't look good anymore. In February of 2000 it was two years old and looked like this...

http://www.marineaquarist.org/Portals/9e47b9dd-73aa-4c61-8ad9-7eadcacbad35/Gallery/BrianPrestwood/120Gal/00-02-27/PanLowerMiddle.JPG

It looked like that from mid 1999 to mid 2002 then it started going down hill.

Now it looks more like a new (less than 1 year old) tank. The thick coralline algae has been gone almost a year. I get hair and slime algae outbreaks. I get aptasia outbreaks.

These all seem like symptoms of excess nutrients to me. My feeding and maintenance routine hasn't changed much the whole six years the tank has been up. Yes, I've gotten lax at times. I'd even say I've been more lax than usual the last six months. But that doesn't explain the downhill slide the whole year before that.

I'm going to carefully follow my regular maintenance routines for a few months and see what happens.

One thing I've noticed is that there is detritus everywhere in my tank. My old maintenance routines where not keeping up with it. I'm going to siphon it all out and revise my maintenance routines.

[Photon]

Are you using a refugium with macroalgae? That might help with the tank algae.
James

[thedude]

Alot of people are beginning to remove their dsb's after a few years. Mainly because of the problem that you are having. The dsb's definitely do their job in the beginning, but something does seem to happen after a few years.

When I setup my 75, I put all the sand in the front half of the tank, that way I can vacuum it out without removing the rock.

The tricky part to determine is how to remove the sand - All at once or slowly over several weeks??

[Brian Prestwood]

Photon

Yes, I've had a reverse light cycle calerpa filter (refugium) on the tank the whole time. The strange thing is the calerpa doesn't grow nearly as well as it used to even though I've got pest algae in the diasplay tank.

[Brian Prestwood]

Dude

I like your idea of putting sand in the front half.

[Photon]

If you leave the lights on the refugium 24/7 that might solve the problem. That also prevents the caulerpa from reproducing sexually.

[thedude]

Putting it in the front has worked out pretty well, some sand migrates to the back, but it is pretty thin and shouldn't be a nutrient concern anyhow.

I also liked the idea of the remote dsb in the fuge. If things start to go south I can disconnect it from the system and remove the sand without a problem.

[Brian Prestwood]

Chris

I like the idea of the remote DSB too. If I had the space that is what I'd do.