So I am about to tear down my tank so I can remove some Coraline from the sides of the tank and get that nasty CC out of there and replace it with some beautiful sand.
Any advice on anything that has to do with temporarily tearing down a tank? I will be lowering the water level to about 2 inches above the cc (and will store the water in a rubbermaid) then scooping the cc out. LR will be in one tote, corals/softies in another, and fish in another 1 or 2..
Coralline algea is good! It's a sign of a healthy system. You can scrape it off without taking all the wter out. But if you want to get rid of all the cc, then I guess it would be the easiest way. Make sure you save all the water! Do you have a reef tank? That will be hard if you have lr and corals. Can't wait to hear how it turns out
I wouldn't try to save all of the water, I would replace much of it with new water.
You will probably have to do this again in a few days since your are replacing your substrate. Keep a close eye on ammonia an nitrate for the first couple weeks. I would also feed a bit less then usual. I might even skip feedings for the first few days.
After you take out the cc, then put in the rock, then put in the sand, then put in the water. Once it clears out some then put in the corals/fish. It might take a day for the tank to clear.
I scrape coraline often too, sign of a healthy system or not, I like my backround to be unspotted. I scrape it at least once a month. Some spots that require moving more then one or two rocks do get neglected.
Make sure you have extra water for putting things back together and keep stuff heated.
Give yourself a full day as sometimes it hard to get the rock back to what you liked.
Is your sand live or fresh new stuff? As I am sure it will be a nice cloudy mess at first.
Our understanding is that if we replace so much of the bioligical nutrients that are in the cc and replace the water, then will the tank undergo a mini-cycle?
I put 1 tote of corals/anemones, and 1 tote of fish, and 1 of LR and an extra of water..
I am concerned as i cannot locate my watchmen goby but was able to find the pistol shrimp that has the symbiotic relationship with the goby... i'm really hoping he was tucked up inside some lr.
I will leave the coralline on the back of the tank, but i will be scraping the sides off, I want atleast a 3 sided view of my little reef
Our understanding is that if we replace so much of the bioligical nutrients that are in the cc and replace the water, then will the tank undergo a mini-cycle?
I put 1 tote of corals/anemones, and 1 tote of fish, and 1 of LR and an extra of water..
I am concerned as i cannot locate my watchmen goby but was able to find the pistol shrimp that has the symbiotic relationship with the goby... i'm really hoping he was tucked up inside some lr.
I will leave the coralline on the back of the tank, but i will be scraping the sides off, I want atleast a 3 sided view of my little reef
The bacteria is on the rock, it's not in the water. When you move stuff around a lot of things get stirred up and then sucked up in the water, which is why I would change it.
You can do a 100% water change and experience no cycle IME.
Makes sense! Thank you. We did about 40% new water and are now in the waiting process of having it clear so we can add our corals and our fish back. for now we added the corals/anemones and fish together and put in a heater and a small size 1 or 2 koralia for some flow. hopefully it clears up soon..
OH!!! On an exciting side note; we picked up a nice CPR HOB AQUAFUGE 2 refugium/protein skimmer today, and a acupora (sp?), frogspawn and another (i forgot the name of it) frag, the acupora had some pulsing xenia and star polyps on it too, as well as another cleaner shrimp and some more cuc
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