trueblackpercula
New member
Sounds like you have everything under control. I would change a thing except adding new life to the sand bed once a year.
6 year old DSB in an SPS tank you wont believe your eyes
- Thread starter trueblackpercula
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Sounds like you have everything under control. I would change a thing except adding new life to the sand bed once a year.
martinphillip03
New member
trueblackpercula
New member
Well there are a few companies that sell live sand recharge kits, but to be honest getting sand from established reef tanks is probably the best money can buy. Also there are a few companies that sell live sand around here on reef central sponsors forms. But buying sand that come in a bag wet a the local store is live Bactria and what you need is live pods worms etc. I would give you some but I have some type of bugs on one of my acros so I am not sharing anything from my tank right now.
Try IPS in Hawaii as they sell some good recharge kits, just make sure you don't have sand filtering gobies or hermit crabs as you will only be wasting your money.
http://www.ipsf.com/reefworms.html
Michael
trueblackpercula
New member
On so here is a little update for those that are still in need of information. I have been for the past 6 to 8 weeks removing small amounts of my sandbed in the front of the tank only with hopes of replacing it with new. It has been going very well until I came across an area that was like cement. I had to claw it out with a hammer and when you see the video you will understand. Now this area is in a very hi flow area, so I know that the reason it got like this is because at one time I was over dosing home made Randy's two part Nd when I finally tested my calcium level it was well over 800. So lesson learned on my part, so since I have cleaned up the sand bed and removed the cement my sandbed looks amazing. I would highly recommend to anyone with a very old sand bed that is not being maintained properly to take corrective action like i did.
Enjoy the video
http://youtu.be/M7DgGIvLYuU
Enjoy the video
http://youtu.be/M7DgGIvLYuU
fishguy597
Member
Looks like you have a nice piece of shelf rock lol.
porsche908
New member
Damn, that's nasty just think if you have a protein skimmer. Well it's good that you siphoned out which you could.
chrismhaase
Active member
Wow, I just read all 6 pages and I really truggling with what to do on my next tank... I had a 90 DT/200G total SPS with a shallow sand bed, remote fuge and remote DSB. Obviously I want to do a SPS again but what would you guys recommend after all this data?
Michael - would you do a shallow with a RDSB?
Michael - would you do a shallow with a RDSB?
trueblackpercula
New member
Absolutely just make sure you add goby to ran sand if it's shallow.
brad65ford
New member
updates?
trueblackpercula
New member
Well all I can say after everything was said and done the amount of effort was worth it. I clean and removed a little at a time and everything went well. I have also started to add more to the tank to get back to the four inch mark. It was the bat thing i did and would do it again. I will post some pictures of the sand bed soon as it has started to repopulate again. I don't have any red algae and the algea I do have has been consumed by a yellow tang that just doesn't sleep. Lol
Now I did see a spike of po4 and no3 while cleaning the sand bed and when I was still in the process of removing it. Then I replaced most of it with new sand a little at a time and my po4 is now at 0.01 to 0.03 and no3 is zero. I can't say that it's all because of the sandbed working as I do dose prodibio.
But I will say my tank is in a much better place after the cleaning and would highly recommend it to anyone that has a deep sandbed that is old.
Please just go slow as it took me almost four months of cleaning and removing and then replacing. By the way I s need to add about 10 more pounds to get to where it needs to be. The reason you jus can't go over it is you will suffocate the sand bed below if you add to much to fast. I also removed it a little at a time until I could see the bottom of the tank. Once that was done I replace with new in only half the tank note the back as I used that to reseed the new.
Hope this helps
Michael
Now I did see a spike of po4 and no3 while cleaning the sand bed and when I was still in the process of removing it. Then I replaced most of it with new sand a little at a time and my po4 is now at 0.01 to 0.03 and no3 is zero. I can't say that it's all because of the sandbed working as I do dose prodibio.
But I will say my tank is in a much better place after the cleaning and would highly recommend it to anyone that has a deep sandbed that is old.
Please just go slow as it took me almost four months of cleaning and removing and then replacing. By the way I s need to add about 10 more pounds to get to where it needs to be. The reason you jus can't go over it is you will suffocate the sand bed below if you add to much to fast. I also removed it a little at a time until I could see the bottom of the tank. Once that was done I replace with new in only half the tank note the back as I used that to reseed the new.
Hope this helps
Michael
reefraider
Premium Member
Thxs Mike
Just about to start the process of cleaning the refugie to make it a only, a RDSB. It is full of life and just removed the Cap to be legal
I will go maybe one third or one sixth? monthly but PO4 and NO3 R bad
LaCl should be here this week to get the inorganic gone to start the battle w the organic PO4. More water changes to get it back, damn old tank (6+)
The frag tank became the refugie, for now as the 180 sink hole gets over hauled to the 400g but all the softie love it?
Just about to start the process of cleaning the refugie to make it a only, a RDSB. It is full of life and just removed the Cap to be legal
I will go maybe one third or one sixth? monthly but PO4 and NO3 R bad
LaCl should be here this week to get the inorganic gone to start the battle w the organic PO4. More water changes to get it back, damn old tank (6+)
The frag tank became the refugie, for now as the 180 sink hole gets over hauled to the 400g but all the softie love it?
