Thinking About Going BB

[esoteradactyl]

Well after recently setting up a new 40g sps tank i've come to the conclusion that i should of gone BB. The tank has been running for about 3 months and has SSB. I was thinking i would just start siphoning out the sand little by little when doing my weekly water changes. Im not really sure if i should bother with cooking the rock since the tank is still in it's infancy. Im wondering if i will be cool without cooking the rock since the tank is so new??

[Casey]

Welcome to TRT,If you want to do it right cook the rock and get all of the sand out and make sure you have strong flow in the tank.

[Little Luey]

Welcome to TRT!
I did not cook my rock, it still sheeds stuff but it does not botter me to vacum it out.

[esoteradactyl]

Well i went ahead and removed all the sand this morning. I chose not to cook the rock. I took a 10 gallon tub of fresh SW and put all the rock in it. Pulled out a seio 820 and procceded to blast off all the crap. After that i threw the rock in another tub and swished it around real good. Long story short, now everything is back in the tank normal minus the sand.

Bought myself a new tunze with a controller ..
62X turnover here i come...

[Casey]

Tunzes are awesome you will love the flow.

[VWD]

Welcome to TRT!!!

[REEF-DADDY]

Welcome. You'll be fine without cooking just be ready to do some siphoning for the first few months

[esoteradactyl]

tell me about it.. ive been siphoning 2 times a day since the switch. man im so glad i went this route. my water is crystal clear and my corals seem to be loving it

[Reefyone]

Originally Posted by esoteradactyl

tell me about it.. ive been siphoning 2 times a day since the switch.

How did you do that - each time replacing removed water by new water? Sorry, I'm still unclear about maintenance.

[esoteradactyl]

Originally Posted by Reefyone

How did you do that - each time replacing removed water by new water? Sorry, I'm still unclear about maintenance.

well im not siphoning out much water. everything floats into one corner and then i just suck it out. only takes a few seconds to remove everything. after im finished the auto top off puts back whatever i took out. in all i maybe take out a couple cups of water. no biggie if you want to add freshwater in its place.

[Mike O'Brien]

I used to siphon into a bucket, then I would just let it set for a few minutes and then siphon the water out of the bucket and back into the tank while leaving the detritus behind.

[Reefyone]

Thanks!

[ShirleyM]

I siphoned into a sock into the sump, the clear water going right back into the tank as I siphoned. That works, doesn't it? A lot of gunk was left in the sock. Rinse the sock really well first... you don't want laundry cleaning residual going into the tank...

[King-Kong]

Originally Posted by ShirleyM

I siphoned into a sock into the sump, the clear water going right back into the tank as I siphoned. That works, doesn't it? A lot of gunk was left in the sock. Rinse the sock really well first... you don't want laundry cleaning residual going into the tank...

I do something similiar.

I bought a 100-150micron bag.. tiny little thing. Attach to the end of a 1/3 ID hose and begin siphon w/ bag sitting in sump. Then take my time siphoning the display. Whatever gets through the bag goes to the skimmer, and subsequently to the settling area in my sump for future 5gal W/C and detritus removal.

[Geoff]

does putting the water back in somewhat defeats the purpose of siphoning out the detritus.

i was under the impression that when detritus is put into a high flow area it will break down and release its bound phosphates. would this not be what is going when you reuse the siphoned water?

G~