RSM 130 My little drop of the ocean

[Shazbah]

Thanks Tammy. I am going to remove the sand in 3 stages, left of tank, middle then right. I will do this whilst doing my water changes on a Friday so it should take me 3 weeks in total to remove it. As for adding the new sand?? This is the bit that makes me nervous. How long should i leave it bare??. The guy at my lfs thinks i'm wasting my time and money by changing sand as he say's he has a crushed coral base system for years and he has never heard anyone have a problem with it. I told him that even if there is only a very slim chance it could be my sand, then i must replace it as a process of elimination.
Tammy you are so right. I will be so gutted if things go wrong and i run into more problems.It's a comfort to know that you guys are here with your excellent advice

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

imo - crushed coral is very coarse and when you have food settle down in the tank you don't want areas in your tank that snails can not easily get to, on top of the sand they can...

sand for substrates here !

 

[Dweezil]

Sharon ~ Your LFS might not be having a problem but like I said..if you do a google search on crushed coral vs sand in a reef....it's pretty overwhelming.

Make sure you rinse the new sand in RO before adding it to the tank.
I don't think there is any particular time frame for leaving it bare bottom..personally, I would probably add the sand as I took the old out so there would be no bare bottom in my tank but that's just how I would do it.

 

[clka]

Just wanted to say good luck I personally much prefer the look of sand to coral, and I do think it may help with the algae issue. Not sure if this is a valid comparison, but we have much more of a problem with algae growth on the gravel in the FW tank than on the sand in the RSM.

Cheryl

 

[Shazbah]

Thanks.
Tammy i did do a search after you said about the crushed coral substrate and i read a lot of negative things about it. When the guy at lfs said to me "who told you that crushed coral can cause problems" I told him to google it for himself and he would see. Decided i don't want a bare bottom tank so gonna change a bit and add a bit at a time. I not gonna be able to remove every last bit of sand as some of it has got in tight spaces. I presume that it's not gonna hurt if a little stays in?? I really don't want to remove all the rock.
On a brighter note i have nearly finished removing all the coraline on the back wall and there is loads on the sustate so i will be able to syphon it all out.

 

[Dweezil]

It won't hurt anything to leave some behind Sharon. I bet it's almost impossible to get to it all. Good luck! I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress.

 

[lethal]

Good luck with the substrate swap Sharon. I hope it all goes to plan and you can have a ha free tank. I know how frustrating it can get seeing it in your tank, just don't mention the "b" word. Looking forward to a fts after you have swapped it over.

 

[Shazbah]

Thanks for the support guys. Will keep you posted

 

[imaccat]

Sharon,

If you do want to get out those last bits of sand you can syphon it out with a small hose. Thats what I did when I removed the sand from my old tank. So if you can get a hose to the awkward places it should come out easily.

Good luck

 

[dankent]

Sounds like fun ... me personally would tear the whole tank down ... hehe only cause i love the extra work. And i can yet again remodel the rock scape.

That asside .. i have a mixture of both in my tank ... I also have a goby , about 6 snails i never seee patrolling under my sandbed ... they pop out every once and a while ... and they are fast . With that i have bristleworms and other various things that take care of left over food that drops.


Now with removing all that established CC you will be subjecting your tank to mini cycles so keep your eye on amm nitrite and nitrate. Also watch your ph ... CC also helps to buffer the water ..

Good luck.

 

[Shazbah]

Dan you must be crazy.Tear down the tank for something to do???That would stress me right out.It's a pity you live the other side of the world because you could to do it for me Reading your post has just made me realise something. This last week or so i have noticed that my sand dwelling snails have all exited the sand and are living in and on the live rock. Are they trying to tell me something??

 

[Shazbah]

Hi all. I know it's been a while since i last posted but it has taken from then till now for me to remove the old sand slowly whilst adding new.Well thats that job done but unfortunately it seems it hasn't done alot for my algae problems. I am also getting some nasty brown stuff which i believe is diatoms. It also doesn't help that i changed salt from seachem to D&D H2Ocean as the seachem pushed my calcium up to 500. I did start getting the diatoms before i changed the salt so i am sure it is down to changing the sand.

The algae doesn't seem as bad and maybe there has been a slight improvement but over aperiod of weeks it will just get back to how it was

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Hi sharon - thanks for the update, lovely acans !

On algae, tell me again... where do you get your water? Could it be suspect?

 

[Reefmack]

Hi Sharon. Sorry to hear you're still fighting the algae battle. That is nasty looking stuff. Some of it almost looks like dinoflagellates, but maybe it's just dead hair algae.

 

[Shazbah]

Thanks guys. Definitely not dead hair algae as the dinowhatever just sticks to it.
Glen my water comes from my own ro 4 stage with di resin and a tds meter unit. I am now at an end as there is nothing left for me to do to get rid of the algae. I have just bought something called API Algae fix. Whilst i am not in the habit of using chemicals i see no other option but to give up this a try before i give up. Again i know many of you are reading this and thinking that it is not possible for this algae growth to happen without me doing something wrong. Well after reading this thread if you can come up with something i've missed then please please point me in the right direction before i go insane.

 

[Reefmack]

After all the things you've done I can't say that you're doing anything to cause the algae. If there's a reason for it we haven't found it yet. Frustrating and puzzling!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

+1 ^ !!!

 

[Shazbah]

I have sat and pulled my hair out over this so many times. I have also changed the stock pumps with a maxijet and a Eheim plus 2 hydor evo nanos and it doesn't seem to have helped one little bit. The only thing i have always used and NEVER changed since having the tank is a very large bag of JBL Symec filter floss that i change every once/twice a week but i'd hardly think that this will be causing problems. Apart from that i'm all out of ideas. Oh well perhaps i'll change my hobby and take up flower arranging or something

 

[Reefmack]

I can't imagine the filter floss being the cause either, but if it's the only thing you haven't changed why not try something else. I always liked the bonded filter pads - easier & less messy to change than the floss fiber & you can get it in sheets and cut to fit in the rack. Ebay usually has it at a good price:

Something like this (on Ebay UK):

Pond/Aquarium Filter

Probably the same thing your using, in a pad form, so I doubt it would make any difference.

 

[redsea reefer]

Try running a media reactor..