Anyone Want To Give Me Some Advice?

[LadyHawke]

I have been poking around here for a while, reading everything I can and I have some questions for all of you if you don’t mind helping me.

I presently have a 70 gallon setup that has been up and running as a saltwater FO tank for several years. I wanted to begin turning it into a reef tank so 6 months ago I added my first live rock.

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The tank is 16 years old and was purchased for a freshwater set up. I have the original wet/dry system still running on the tank and I use a Magnum 350 as well. On occasion I will run the Magnum 350 with the diatom filter and powder to clear the water up but I usually run it only with charcoal. I have an Excalibur skimmer in the wet/dry box that does not always work as I would like. It is so tight in the box since I put the skimmer in there that I can no longer pull out the tray to the wet/dry to put filter medium in it.

I presently have two shop lights with two T8 bulbs in each for lighting. Two actinic blue that stay on 24 hours a day and two 10,000K that are on for 12 hours a day. The lights sit directly on the tank top.

I have two false perculas, a lawnmower blenny, a bicolor tang and a green gonipora (yes, I now know this was a BAD purchase but it seems to be doing well so far). I have 2 turbo snails, about 20 astrea snails and three red tipped hermit crabs. I see what I think are copepods and other very small critters running around on the rocks and glass.

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I have some inert pieces of coral and some fake coral in the tank. The substrate is about 2� to 3� of crushed coral and there is about 50 lbs. of live rock (some purchased from a LFS and some that was given to me), none of which is very interesting. There is some coralline algae on the rocks that is spreading and a few small clams that are embedded in the rocks but that is about it.

The amazing thing about the clams is that the rocks they are on were taken out of my friends’ tank and left in a dry bucket for about a week before she told me that she had rock to give me. I figured that they would have died (and the coralline algae too) but everything is still alive and doing well.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/randelsclan/DSCF1068.jpg

I have some cyano bacteria in the tank but it is much better than it used to be since I purchased an RO unit for under my kitchen sink. I only use water from this unit to do water changes or to top off the tank. I collect RO water and store it in a clean, aquarium dedicated, garbage can. My RO unit only produces 10 gal. per day so I just collect the water until I have enough to do my water changes. I have read that some of you put air stones in your holding water containers. Why do you do this? Is it necessary?

If I purchase “The Package� from TBS, would I need the live sand they include in the package since I already have quite a bit of crushed coral? Or, should I get rid of my existing crushed coral and scrub my rocks clean since there is cyano bacteria on it and go with new live sand and rocks? Would it make sense to put the rocks out in the sun to bake to get rid of the cyano?

The glass tank is badly scratched due to its age. How feasible is it to try to repair the scratches? I’m thinking I should just buy a new and bigger tank, which leads to the next question… Which is better…glass or acrylic?

I have read that diatom power can be bad for the tank inhabitants. Is this true?

Do I absolutely need a refugium and sump? I was thinking that if I got a bigger tank (125 gal. or larger) I could use the old one as a sump/refugium or, would a 70 gal be too big for something like that?

I saw Melev’s post on his 280 and it gave me lots to think about. I have been trying to get the hubby here hooked on doing something similar but alas, I’m getting nowhere fast. All he sees is the work involved, the resale value of the home going down (due to loss of garage space) and the $$$$$ signs in his head… <sigh>!

I was thinking that if I purchased a new tank then I could start completely new and not have the cyano to deal with (maybe). That is, if I go with all new sand and rock. Hopefully, the cyano will never come back. But cost-wise it would make more sense to use much of what I already have, right? Then I wondered if I should just toss the old rock and crushed coral instead of putting them into a new system since I know they have some cyano on them. Such a dilemma!

If I don’t put a tank into a wall (with a room behind it to access it) then how do I get all the necessary plumbing needed under the tank stand? It wouldn’t be easily accessed or even large enough down there for everything that I would need to run a reef tank, would it?

I have read some of you talking about Tunze jets and I have seen the photos of tanks with PVC plumbing inside their tanks to aid in water movement. Do all reef tanks need this plumbing? How does one know how to do such a thing?

I guess what I really want to know is, if you all had my set up and wanted to turn it into a reef tank, how would you go about it?

Okay, I will end with the questions for now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope I managed to post the pics I wanted to show you all.

Thanks,
Dawn

[LadyHawke]

Can anyone tell me what the white stuff on this rock is? It seems to be some sort of plant. There is also something bright green with black spots to the left of the white stuff. All very technical terms here, ya know.

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Dawn

[LadyHawke]

There is some red stuff that seems to be growing on this rock. I think it may be a coral of some sort. I have more red stuff on other rocks as well but it doesn't look quite like this. Also, the coralline algae on this rock has developed some white spots. Is this bad?

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y88/randelsclan/DSCF1072.jpg

Dawn

[Fuegofish777]

ok....alot of questions...but heres my opinion...

[Fuegofish777]

sorry i accidentaly sent that separately...anyways. the scratches on the tank are totally up to you. if its made of glass theres no way to repair it. if its acrylic then there are scratch removal kits. depending on how bad the scratches are it might be easier to get another tank, but the size is totaly up to you, bigger is not necesary. the cyano is easily taken care of with little redslime remover. its a powder that takes it all away. i've used it myself with great results. as for the TBS package...you really dont need it, but it is nice rock. i have heard alot of complaints about it having too many hitchhiker pests though. i would throw out your crushed coral and go with live sand, buying theirs isnt necesary, any live sand will due...some from another reefers tank would be best.

now if you did get that 125, a 70 gal would work as the sump, theres not really such thing as too big a sump. but sumps and refugiums are not absolutely required, but are very helpful.
for water flow, return pumps from the sump can be connected to SCWD's (something about Switching Current Director..or sumthin like that) those will alternate the direction of water returning to the tank and corals seem to love alternating currents. tunze streams are just a type of pump used to circulate water and are very strong.
thats about all i can remmeber to answer...but o ya..have you thought about out lighting???

o i forgot to say that i would upgrade to a better skimmer. but im sorry to say that i dont know of any good ones for bigger sized tanks since i;ve never delt with them. HTH

[Fuegofish777]

o, the purple things are just coraline algae and the white dots are it regrowing.

[dymaxiun]

You mentioned that you have seen a reduction in Cyano since you installed a RO unit. what water were you using prior to getting your RO unit?

[LadyHawke]

I was using water straight out of the tap.

I have had this tank set up as a fish only saltwater tank before when we lived in Tampa but we never had a cyano problem there. I think I got the cyano from the LFS store here. I purchased some new fish a few years ago - one of which was a sweetlips that I later found out has very special diet requirements. Right after I introduced the new fish to the tank a HUGH explosion of red stuff began to take over the tank - it literally covered everything within two days. I lost all my fish. I assumed it was due to either low oxygen levels or an ammonia spike. The only survivor was a peppermint shrimp. Needless to say, I was not very happy. I cleaned up the tank the best I could and left it with just the shrimp for many months. About six months ago, I found out the red stuff was cyano when a co-warker of mine, who is far more knowledgeable in saltwater tanks, came over to see my tank. She promptly told me what it was and gave me some suggestions on how to get rid of it. This stuff is a pain in the rear!

Dawn

[dymaxiun]

Wow sorry to hear that!

Well now next time you see it start you can stop it before it gets out of hand!

[reefkeeper59]

purchase a phosphate test kit. Cyano bacteria is generaly caused by phosphate. Some tap water has alot of phosphate in it. Your previous residents tap water may have had lower levels of phosphate. Your RO unit will remove some or all of tap water phosphates. The other source of phosphates is the food for the fish. Cut back on feeding and make sure to do 10-20% water change weekly and red slime should go away. No need to purchase new rock or substrate.

Test for amonia, nitrite,nitrate,calcium,alkilinity weekly. Test PH every 2-3 days. Salinity twice weekly. Before and after water change. Minimize extreme Salinty and PH change's. PH can go down when the lights are out do to the reduction in photothensesis (spelling bad). Do PH test after lights have been on for few hours.

The bioballs in your sump can produce nitrates. Add more rock (hand selected porous, 5-10 lbs), and remove 10% of the bio balls one week after addition of live rock. If base rock added, remove 10% bioballs after 4-6 weeks. This will give the base rock time to build bacteria on it, prior to bioball removal. Long term goal is to remove 50% or the bioballs from your filter. You must have a sufficient amount of rock to maintain bacteria. Probably 25%-50% more than what you have now.

If you prefer to switch to sand bed:
without the help of another fellow reefer sand or bag live sand. Purchase several (minimum 6, 8 is better) white filter bags 4x12 inch. They are pretty inexpensive. Fill them with the substrate that is currently in your tank. Remove the rest of your substrate (add to refugium, make new refugium or trash it). Load sand into tank. Spread the filter bags with old substrate evenly around aquarium (leave old stuff in bag, dont mix with new)and cover with thin coat sand. Exposed bags are ok. Put one in the sump also. Don't add fish for 6 weeks. Check nitrigon cycle (amonia,nitrite,nitrate) every few days for progress. Once the water quality is stable (few weeks), remove one bag every day until all are out. Remove the one in the filter last if space needed. This process of bacteria exchange can be excelerated with the addition of established LR. The bags of old substrate can be used for a refugium. Don't remove any bioballs until the substrate change is complete. Then follow instruction above for bioball removal.

Empty filter bags can be used as charcoal bags. However, with RO water it probably not needed.

If you opt for the larger tank. Wait and do all this at once. Use the benificial bio balls and substrate to establish new tank filter and refugium. Use the 70 as the sump/refugium. Once establised, remove bio balls.

Small green spot on rock is ok. It's spounge,tunicate or coraline algea. Same with the red.

The white spot are tiny little snails/tube worm (if look like a small circular shape) that are fine for the tank. They stay put and seem to duplicate in one area. They grow thick on overflows in tanks.

White edges on coraline algea is new growth. Or, if you bought the rock with coraline algea and your system lacks calcium, it is decaying around the edges. Check calcium level and add calcium if needed. minimum should be 420ppm.

You can put your heater in the bottom of the sump if room. Looks a little better.

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