starting over-build thread

[tangmang23]

As many of you know, i was battling cyano for the longest time.... with lots of discussion and planning, etc. the time has come to start over. Currently all my fish and corals are split between a 20L and a standard 55. the 55 is a bit cramped with 130lbs of rock and 20 fish, so i may need to move things around. im not worried about being overstocked with fish, just the amound of room the rock takes up for the fish lol. my fish are mostly small with the largest fish being my sailfin at around 6".

The 120 now has new dry sand in it. i did the best i could rinsing the sand first but as we all know that was a major PITA, so i didnt do a very good job. The tank is extremely cloudy and with going on 300 gallons worth of water changes, its still just as bad. What kind of sand is this matt, dissolving sand?? needless to say ive stopped using RO water and switched to basic treated tap for the mean time. Shouldnt affect the sand should it. im starting to wonder if this sand will ever become free of dust lol?

If i could get this site to allow me to post pictures, i will start to do that. Otherwise i might just make this my official build thread, seems how thats what im doing.

[OLDETOWNENORTHPETS]

Dissolving Sand.LMAO Sorry. You must have gotten the stuff ment for Cary. KNOW what a pain it is when you dont wash out the dry stuff. Can not express the number of times I had to rinse uncleaned argonite from a 56. Sorry but. Cary bought 5-6 cases and took 7 . Again . Get ahold of me once you hit 15 total changes..
Matthew

[tangmang23]

i did rinse, just not as thorough as i should have. i wanted to try and have the tank up by our next meeting. i have a lot of corals that im getting and most are acropora, that PC will not keep them long.

[Jrmass]

Originally Posted by tangmang23

i did rinse, just not as thorough as i should have. i wanted to try and have the tank up by our next meeting. i have a lot of corals that im getting and most are acropora, that PC will not keep them long.

If needed a lot of us would hold onto the pieces for you until you were set to go keep in mind. So, if you aren't up and ready to rock you would have options at least.

Jas

[tangmang23]

Originally Posted by Jrmass

If needed a lot of us would hold onto the pieces for you until you were set to go keep in mind. So, if you aren't up and ready to rock you would have options at least.

Jas

really lol, sweet. Thats a good deal, because im not sure how long this sand is going to take me to clean. i drained the tank, and refilled and its just as cloudy, im guessing theres a lot of dust in this sand. Maybe another 120 gallons.

is tap water going to cause any issues for this process. I obviously will be doing one more full 160gallon change and refill with RO water.

[OLDETOWNENORTHPETS]

Nick, all joking aside. I didn't clean argonite correctly ONCE and it took over 10 tank fillings to clear it up. You would be better off taking the sand out and rinsing it off with normal water and putting back in tank. Which is what I did AFTER I drained the 56 multiple times. Do it in smaller amounts and totally clean each batch. It will take you less time than filling and draining.

[schneijt]

If it were me, I'd buy several filter socks (preferably no bigger than 100-200 micron, and smaller than that would be ideal) and put them on the return line and change/wash them as needed when they start clogging up. This will help clear up the water, and it's less work than draining/filling the tank over and over or washing the sand in batches.

I think we've all set up a tank with fine sand without washing it first... So we've all learned the lesson, ESPECIALLY with smaller grain sizes that have more dust/silt in the bag. My experience with the sand cloud when I started the 75 for the first time is why I used larger grain sand in the rebuild, because the sugar-size was nothing but a PITA for me last time and clouded the water for weeks...

-Joe

[hansmatt]

yeah, you don't want to introduce acros until things are pretty clear & clean...they small polyps get gummed up pretty easily and they get pretty unhappy pretty fast.

[Jrmass]

I did the having to wash my sand thing in the past... And the best thing I was able to do was to fill the tank about 1/3-1/2 with water and run my hand through the sand trying to loosen as much of the fines up as I could. Allow this fine sand to settle out (DO NOT RUN ANY PUMPS DURING THIS PROCESS... YOU WILL DESTROY THEM!!! *TRUST ME ON THIS ONE LOL*) Then after the fine dust settles take a drain hose and (the python vac works terrific for this step) and run the hose super close to the sand to collect all the fines.

I know it sucks to have to go through this... But, it's part of the process of getting fine grade sand. The process I just listed btw is a MULTI-DAY process as you need to wait for the fines to slowly fallout.

Jason

[sandyk]

We just did the same with my tank. I think I rinsed 1/2 bag for about 10 min stiring it with my hand the whole time. Everything is looking really good and the water is cleared up nicely.

[tangmang23]

well i took all the sand out with a net, placed in buckets, went to the bathtub and ran the cold water. each net full was washed and placed into a new bucket. 80lbs took only half an hour. not bad considering. the tank water is all drained and refilled using tap water. Once i get the sand put back into the tank, i will then drain all the way and refill using RO water, get evertying running, get salt added and let the cycle begin. Around 7 weeks until i get fish into this beast, but 90% of the rock will be added within the next few days. I will do my best to get pics up, ill need some help on resizing them so i can post them.

[tangmang23]

Originally Posted by sandyk

We just did the same with my tank. I think I rinsed 1/2 bag for about 10 min stiring it with my hand the whole time. Everything is looking really good and the water is cleared up nicely.

i wish i would have spent more time on it, a quick rinse and adding obviously did nothing lol.

[pogodzib]

If I were you, I'd stop doing the water changes. Once bacteria starts growing, the sand particles will bind together and fall out of the water column. Doing massive water changes is preventing your tank from getting the large bacteria population that will bind the particles together. The quickest way to make the water clear is to add a bunch of LR or a power filter (w/ floss) on the tank. The floss will catch the small particles and the LR would have a ton of bacteria on it and should clear the tank up within a couple days, if not quicker, depending on how much you'd put in the tank.

[tangmang23]

really?? see i was thinking that this would be bad for the rock, like clogging it up and what not. O well, too late now, the sand is all rinsed and added into the tank, now i just have to get all the water in, im shy about 100 gallons. RO unit is producing like crazy so we'll see, im thinking around 4 days to fill completely. Now i just need to think about how i want my rock, which is going to be the biggest pain of this project. any ideas?

[tangmang23]

so ive cleaned the sand and added it back into the tank, of course its still cloudy, which is expected as its sand, its not nearly as bad as it was before though, so once i get around 100 more gallons of water in, ill let it run for around a week before i pull any of the crud out of the sand, add the rock, let the cycle begin and then its around 4 weeks or whenever my levels are stable, which should be soon with a lot of already fully cured and live rock. This time instead of adding all of my fish right away, ill add a few at a time, every other week until the stock us full. This will be happening about 2 weeks after the corals are added.

what do you guys/gals think, sound like a good plan??