Stages once the sand is out

crvz · 02-24-2006, 11:50 PM

I posted some of this on another forum, but i'm sure it didnt get a lot of press and would like some comments. Basically, i've been struggling with hair algae for too long (about 2 years). The tank is 6 years old, and it was started before i had any smarts. Poor ciculation, bad skimming, under-lit. Pretty much entry level everything. So i did a lot of research, upgraded some equipment, etc, but nothing really helped. My nitrates never seemed real high, but the my po4 was over 2ppm. After some changes in husbandry, i got that down to 0.2 ppm, but it was still simply too much. I tried cooking rock for 2 months, and while it did get rid of all the algae that was on the rocks, it started to grow right back. So finally, i decided to pull out the sand bed. Here's what i've got today.

The tank is a 58 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. Most of the rock (~80 lbs) is cooking right now (decided to re-do it for a few more months), so what you see in the picture is just some small frags and a couple pieces of rock. The algae smothered some of my corals, and i tried hard not to buy anything else until i had it beat. 2 specific questions i have are what nitrate pattern should i see and how often do most of you folks siphon the bottom of the tank? Other than that, what generic recommendations are there and what should i think about before putting my rock back in the tank?

Geoff · 02-25-2006, 06:37 AM

sounds like you are doing on track and have done your research. as long as there is nothing else in the tank and you are not feeding the tank any, you want the detritus falling out of the LR to stop. you should siphon out the detritus once a week when you do the water changes. you do not have to do anymore than that if you do not want to.

G~

REEF-DADDY · 02-25-2006, 11:41 AM

I would consider a piece of starboard for looks and safety in case you have an rock slide.

Wiskey · 02-25-2006, 02:40 PM

I would think about more flow, my 50G has 1 seio 1500, 1 seio 820, and one seio 620 plus a mag 7 return. Once you get the rock back in you will need a good amount of flow to keep deatris suspended and into the skimmer where it will be taken out. Rock tends to block a lot of the flow, so it is also a good idea not to use too much rock, and to stack it openly to alow flow in and around it.

You may have a bit of nitrate in the begining tapering off as the rock finishes sheading and establishes itself, you may see the same thing with algae. Astrea's and Certh's are great cleaners to help with the algae, and chewing your deatris enough to alow it to be suspended where once again the skimmer will get it out. Remember to get in there regularly with a powerhead and blast the stuff of the rock, then let the bigger stuff settle on the bottom and syphon it out.

The most important aspect of a BB tank IMHO, is Flow to suspend deatris aimed to push it over the overflow, an overflow that runns at a proper speed to pull the deatris down to the skimmer, and a skimmer setup to process as much of that water as possible, and skimming properly to get the deatris out.

HTH,
Whiskey

Mike O'Brien · 02-27-2006, 05:09 PM

I've got the same tank. What I do is use a seio 2600 sitting right against the overflow against the back wall blowing to the right. That keep's the bottom of the tank swept clean. I have a 6080 stream in the back right corner pointing toward's the front left corner. That with a 1000 gph return pump with two return's keep's me from having to siphon out the tank on a regular basis.

crvz · 03-02-2006, 08:31 PM

Thanks for your replies. I've looked around for starboard, followed a few links, but never really found anything. Is starboard a brand name, or something else? Does anyone have a link to a specific board to give me an example?

Also, as i'm not totally convinced of using starboard, what options do i have commerically to stabalize rock? I was really thinking of buying some 1/4 acrylic rods/dowels an then drilling holes into my rock to get it off the glass (and provide a little more stability), but are there other options?

It's been about a week and the tank looks great. Very little algae growth (just a little on the silicone seams that i was unable to scrape off with a razor, any suggestions there?), which i am greatly pleased with. I've been watching my parameters, and they have been extremely stable so far (nitrate and po4). I think i may be on the right path! I might have to dance a jig if this process rids me of algae once and for all.

NoSchwag · 03-02-2006, 08:33 PM

http://www.cuttingboardcompany.com/ is a place to get cutting board material.

crvz · 03-03-2006, 05:58 PM

Any brand cutting board works? I was thinking of ordering well in advance of its need to soak it in some water for a couple of weeks. Is this at all necessary? My understanding is that the board will have a tendency to leech some chemicals into the water.