Live Rock

[Sdonnelly]

I have a 35 gallon tank currently lightly stocked with one yellow tang, two dansel fish and one hermit crab.

Filtration is through a trickle filter and a canister filter with bio-media and activated carbon.

The tank has been established for six months.

I would like to add more inverts, but am considering whether to change over to live rock now. I guess I have to make the decision now.

I understand that I will need to remove my trickle filter, but should I keep the cannister filter. Should I remove the bio-media, or the carbon ?

I do not have a sand bed. Do I need to add one before moving over to live rock ? What are the pros and cons ?

[Guy]

Hi :)

IMO you should definately add the sand bed. Do not get rid of the trickle filter...yet. Your tank may go through a small cycle with the new rock and the trickle filter will help a lot.

I would stop using the canister filter as soon as the rock is added.

After the mini-cycle is complete start taking the media out of the trickle filter..a handful a day should do it until it's all gone.

Your tank is too small for a tang. Maybe you could trade it for a less active fish.

[Sdonnelly]

Thanks. I have only just discovered reef central, and think I have been a victim of some bad advice from shops and out of date books. Your right about the Tang, it is a caged tiger.

The canister filter is in the sump tank and also acts as the return pump. There is a Red Sea skimmer in there too that I forgot to mention. Can I make any use of this arrangement with live rock, or is it detrimental ?

Visited your web site, which was helpful, and encouraging. My tank was a 40th birthday present from my wife as well.:)

[Guy]

Using the canister filter as a sump pump is not detrimental if you take out the filter sleeve. Canister filters are woefully underpowered though. They are built for circulating water, not for pumping it up 4 or 5 feet. Consider a mag drive pump, they make some excellent internal sump pumps.

The skimmer sounds fine if it is productive. It will be working overtime when you put the rock in. Since you have an established tank either but fully cured live rock or cure it well before adding it to your tank.

[lark]

Once you add live rock, you won't really need the media in the cannister filter. If you want to continue to use the cannister as your pump, you could just remove all media, except maybe a foam filter, and use it as your return pump. The problem is that once you start adding corals, the pump on the cannister filter is probably not going to be sufficient to get the turnover you want. If it were me, I'd retire the cannister and buy a good return pump. Remember to save some $$ for a better protein skimmer.

No reason not to keep the trickle filter and use it as your sump. I agree with the previous post, once you add the live rock, start taking out the biomedia a little at a time.

The main reason for a deep sand bed is that it gives you a nice base for lots of environment and biological stabalizing criters. Your sand turns "live" and then takes care of your bio filtration in a stable and natural way. The only con I can think of is that it's pretty difficult to add a dsb to an existing tank, but if you do some searches here on rc, you'll get good pointers from folks who have done exactly that.

[naesco]

Yes the advice is good get rid of the cannister and find the tang a new home before you make the change. Maybe get a credit for it and place a better suited fish when your new system is up and running.

[Sdonnelly]

I have hit a problem with the plans suggested. I cannot get hold of LIVE sand in the UK. The cost of shiiping it over, in such a way that it stays live, seems to be too high for most shops.

Anyone know of a source in the UK, or Holland, or a supplier in the USA willing to try to ship it over ?

[Guy]

If your rock has a lot of life on it then just add "dead" sand and it will get populated from the live rock. Careful with the sand though. You want the finest and whitest sand you can find. Avoid any sand that contains feldspar. Ideally sand composed of calcium carbonate should be used but a pure silica sand is fine.

If you use silica sand use a mask when working with it, the fine particles are hazardous to lungs.