Advice On Setting Up A Bigger Tank

[jellyfishjosh]

Good Day To All!
I managed to get a 100 gallon Sea Clear System II 60" long tank for free. The tank is pretty scratched up, but I am on a budget. I plan on buffing out as many scratches as I can. In addition I have a lot of dry "live rock". Most of which I got for free also. Although the rock had lots of undesirable things going on it at one time. I would like to hear you advice on the following:
1- what is the best way to treat the "live rock" I was not able to determine what the pests were then and do not want to see them again. So let's assume I want to use the rock for a FOWLR first and slowly integrate corals into the mix later.
2.- What is the best way to set up this tank? I have lots of parts available (an adequate heater, a 30g sump with dividers, pumps for circulation, and a Aquaripure nitrate reductor). I will need a protein skimmer and lighting. I love LED's, but that is champagne on a beer budget. I have the parts for T5 lighting, but I do not have a hood for the tank.
3.- What is the best way to get rid of aptasia? I have determined that my 35G Nano has brown glass aptasia. At first I did not know what they were and they have slowly taken over. It would be nice to use the contents of my Nano to seed the new tank.
Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[cbrennan4]

For the aptasia you can see if anyone has berghai nudibranch's or you can try your luck with a copperband butterfly or peppermint shrimp. The last 2 can be hit or miss though

 

[zeroinverse]

Your dry live rock should be fine. Likely all the organisms are dead unless there is some weird "dry ready eggs" (like brine shrimp), but I doubt it.

The main thing you are worried about is "dead/decaying" organic matter decomposing into ammonia, nitrites, and then nitrates... and the associated phosphates. Since you are slowly setting up a tank, you'll have to let it "cycle". Which simply means, having circulation in a vat full of salt water and some nutrients. The dead matter trapped inside the "dead rock" will help with part of the nutrients. Then you can just add some fish food, or a piece of frozen shrimp...

All of this is simply to get the nitrifying bacteria to grow in/around/inside the live rock.
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Some people will go so far as to SOAK their rock in bleach to strip/clean it a bit further. Typically they do that for LIVE ROCK that they want to kill the organisms. In that case, they'll dip it in bleach, and then drain it, rinse it, and then leave it out to dry in the sun for a day. Chlorine is acidic, so don't leave your calcium carbonate rock in the chlorine. A few minutes dip, 15 min max, and then a rinse, and then SUN-DRY. The sun/UV helps the chrlorine OUT-GAS. You don't want to add chlorine to your tank, after all.

 

[zeroinverse]

As for skimmer and lighting,... you will need a skimmer if you plan to go reef. You could probably get by in the short term with just FOWLR (like 3 fish) with regular water changes, but it would be hard to support corals long term without a skimmer (or you'd have to BARELY feed your fish).

Go with T5HOs if you have them available. If so many people going to LEDs, maybe you can find a good deal.

Also look at HYDROPONICS stores for used TekLight T5HO fixtures (or just go buy one at Home Depot). They have a 4 bulb T5HO fixture (without bulbs) for maybe $100 (I think).

Also, WCR members last time went out to a PICK AND PULL salvage yard where they found some hydroponics equipment, (including several chillers).... So that is another option.

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As for your existing rock, maybe you either
1) swap for live rock from a fellow reefer who has a copperband butterfly to eat the aiptasia

2) buy a copperband butterfly/peppermint shrimp

3) "kill" the live rock in chroline

4) spot kill with kalkwasser (hard to get all of them)....

 

[Dragonvale]

Just bleach them. Power wash them and re-soak them. Week to week and a hlaf process. Then just get smaller rubble that don't have any pests to seed them. It takes time but spending more money on a copperband, peppermint etc... and not working or taking too much time is a waste to me. Your technically starting off new so why not do it right? Ask Grant for more info since he just went through the process.

 

[Grant W]

I thought about using bleach or even muriatic acid on my rock and ended up just using regular chlorinated tap water in my killing vat followed by power washing, drying and then into heated and circulated salt water for a week or so. The rock came out as white as snow. Dont leave the rock in the fresh water for more than say a week as it will suck the calcium out of the rock. There were also several good scrubbings in this process. Grant