110 g Help

shutterbuggy

New member
post Jul 29 2007, 05:40 AM
Post #1


Nano Reefer


Posts: 79
Joined: 16-April 04
Member No.: 7,847




So while checking out the online classifieds of "Used (insert Canadian city name here)" some weeks ago I came across an ad of a guy wanting to sell his 110 gallon tank. I have seen many SW tanks for sale there many times, but the price that he was asking for it was too good so I decided to take the plunge. I have owned a 12 g and a 24 jbj nano cube (still have it), and like most was looking for bigger and better. Here is what I got:

-Tank and Stand
-HOB SeaClone protein skimmer (I am changing this out to a better make)
-Fluval 405 filter (less than 2 months old)
-Ballast/VHO lighting (not enough for my liking so I added a 400w MH)
-90 lbs sandbed
-100+ fiji LR (seems a little low (?), but I will be combining my 24 nano in about a month (?) with the 35+ lbs of Indonesian LR from there as well.
-2 cucs (tigertailed)
-Blue Regal Tang
-Yellow Tang
-Mandarin Dragonet
-Damsel (so far it seems not to be a bully...)
-some coral; mushrooms (hairy, red and blue) Frogspawn, Candy canes, ect....and of course snails and hermits --can't forget them!

We tried, (and failed miserably) to keep the sand bed intact, but when the weight was just too much to lift, we moved them separately opting to rinse the sand bed with FSW that I had previously prepared.

The guy that I bought it from had told me that he had owned it for about 3 years. When I checked the nitrates, they were off the charts.
I am starting to think that maybe he wasn't as diligent about doing weekly water changes.
Could the high nitrates have been caused by the move? What is an effective way to lower them, while keeping stress on the fish to a minimum?

The tank is currently going through a diatom bloom, so am I right in assuming that it means that it is cycling, despite our efforts?

I really want to get this tank back to a healthy state and could use any suggestions that anyone has.

Thanks.
 
Hey.. Welcome to RC..
Disturbing a 3 year old sand bed will release an amazing amont of toxins and nitrates in the water. The toxins will eventually dissapate due to the cycle. In my experience, it usually 6 weeks to settle out again. Sorry to say that most likely everything will die in that tank until it is cycled. Well everything except the damsel at least.
I think that the best option would be to keep the livestock in a seperate tank until the cycle is complete.
This is my experience with tank moves. Sand beds can be a nasty thing.
 
Thanks for the reply.
Regrettably, I don't have another tank that I can transfer them to. Is there any product I can use to help the tank out? I have added Prime to the water, as well as some Cycle. We have also done several consecutive water changes of about 15-20Gal as well in an attempt to reduce the nitrates. We're considering a much larger change described here:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/nitratecontrol/l/aa091901.htm

The fellow I bought the tank from tells me that he had moved it about a year ago when he changed addressed and didn't lose anything. So in reality, the sand is only about a year settled.
 
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