robertnb64
Member
Hey Anthony,
1st I have to say I loved your book and can't wait for the new book.
Here's my situation, I hope you can help. My tank now is a year old. It's a 110 gal, sump with no mech filter, a skimmer top fathom 100 ( I read were you wouldn't take one for free and I can see why). I consistantly get 4-6 oz of skimmate daily that is weak tea colored. I rotate 2 carbon bags every week. I have 125# of lr that was super purple with coralline algae. My sand bed set up by the lfs is 4" of coarse grade cc and 1.5" of medium grade sand. My sump return is a Rio 3500 at 4' and my closed loop is with a Little Giant 3MDQ at 4'. At about the 8 month mark I developed cyno. I cut my feeding from a single prime reef daily to a 1/2 cube every other day and increased my water changes from 10-15 gal every other week to 15 gal twice a week. I use ro/di with filters changed every 6 months and reef crystals salt. After about 3 weeks the cyno was gone and dino's took there place. Now my entire tank is covered with this goo. I have tried siphoning it off, using a tooth brush with my twice weekly water changes and I can't stay on top of it. I now the problem is my nutrients are out of balance. My Am, Ni, Na, Si, Phos are 0, my ph is 8.15 as a low and 8.4 as a high. 1.025, 79 deg. ORP 375. In my mind I have narrowed my weakness to a weak skimmer (though I am getting a fair amount daily) or a poorly designed sand bed. I have chosen to replace my sand bed with 5-6" of sugar fine sand. Do you feel this is my best course of action? Here is my plan, 1st I have put about 15# of the new dead sand in my small 20 gal tank in plastic containers to seed them with bacteria. I also placed some of the lr from the display tank on the sand hoping to seed live creatures in this sand. I will wait about 3-4 weeks here then drain the display and remove the old sand and clean both the tank and the lr. I will clean the lr in tank water that is heated to preserve life. I will put the new dead sand in to depth and place the seeded sand on top. I will then replace some of the lr the further seed the tank and leave it for 4 weeks the cycle the new sand. Is this wise? Will the remaing lr be enough filtration in my 20 gal rubbermaid cont that will house my fish for the 4 weeks(with a heater and powerhear)? Should I use any of my old sand with the new sand? If so should I mix it in with the fine sand or place on top? Anthoney, thank you for your thoughts and sorry for the lengthy post.
1st I have to say I loved your book and can't wait for the new book.
Here's my situation, I hope you can help. My tank now is a year old. It's a 110 gal, sump with no mech filter, a skimmer top fathom 100 ( I read were you wouldn't take one for free and I can see why). I consistantly get 4-6 oz of skimmate daily that is weak tea colored. I rotate 2 carbon bags every week. I have 125# of lr that was super purple with coralline algae. My sand bed set up by the lfs is 4" of coarse grade cc and 1.5" of medium grade sand. My sump return is a Rio 3500 at 4' and my closed loop is with a Little Giant 3MDQ at 4'. At about the 8 month mark I developed cyno. I cut my feeding from a single prime reef daily to a 1/2 cube every other day and increased my water changes from 10-15 gal every other week to 15 gal twice a week. I use ro/di with filters changed every 6 months and reef crystals salt. After about 3 weeks the cyno was gone and dino's took there place. Now my entire tank is covered with this goo. I have tried siphoning it off, using a tooth brush with my twice weekly water changes and I can't stay on top of it. I now the problem is my nutrients are out of balance. My Am, Ni, Na, Si, Phos are 0, my ph is 8.15 as a low and 8.4 as a high. 1.025, 79 deg. ORP 375. In my mind I have narrowed my weakness to a weak skimmer (though I am getting a fair amount daily) or a poorly designed sand bed. I have chosen to replace my sand bed with 5-6" of sugar fine sand. Do you feel this is my best course of action? Here is my plan, 1st I have put about 15# of the new dead sand in my small 20 gal tank in plastic containers to seed them with bacteria. I also placed some of the lr from the display tank on the sand hoping to seed live creatures in this sand. I will wait about 3-4 weeks here then drain the display and remove the old sand and clean both the tank and the lr. I will clean the lr in tank water that is heated to preserve life. I will put the new dead sand in to depth and place the seeded sand on top. I will then replace some of the lr the further seed the tank and leave it for 4 weeks the cycle the new sand. Is this wise? Will the remaing lr be enough filtration in my 20 gal rubbermaid cont that will house my fish for the 4 weeks(with a heater and powerhear)? Should I use any of my old sand with the new sand? If so should I mix it in with the fine sand or place on top? Anthoney, thank you for your thoughts and sorry for the lengthy post.
