| Well we put the live rock and live sand in last night and man there is life all over the place now. As far as the bio balls are concerned the plane was to leave them until I got a complete cycle, then to start removing them. I was thinking of replacing them with small pieces of base rock (less than 3 inches in diameter) but I'm not sure yet. There is currently 120 lbs of base rock and about 50 lbs of live rock and about 50 lbs of live sand.
The micro bubble issue is resolved, what I did was two things both of which I beleive contributed to the problem. First the tube from the bio ball filter to the sump was covered with a nylon sock (one of my wifes, don't tell her I took it) and I cut the left stand pipe off 1 inch and replaced it. That took care of my flushing problem and the micro bubbles are virtually gone. I'll have to look at it more today when I get home but they where gone last night.
I turned on the protien skimmer last night as well to help clear the water. Should I leve it on or turn it off until the tank cycles for the first time?
Dave |