Need help going from reef to F/O

[unclemuskie]

Hi all I have a 125 that I am thinking of changing from reef to fish only to simplify things,but I have a few questions with it and was looking for advice or ideas before I do this.I know that all fish and corals will have to be removed first.
1.The tank has about 180-200 pounds of well established live rock.I would like to keep some of the larger pieces for aquascaping and filteration instead of going all fake coral.Can I do this?? What kind of tank cycle will happen by removing alot of the bio-load?
2.My sump is currently set up as a refugium.Will I have to switch back to the bio-ball tower that I had earlier?
3.If I decide to downgrade my lighting(2 250w metal halides) will the remaining live rock still function?
4. Should I clean or change out my sand bed once everything opens up or will this cause me more problems?
5.Salinity?

 

[SCR]

You don't have to change to much, other than the lights. just remove the corals and rocks that you don't want in there and your good to go.

 

[Misled]

1. Tank should not cycle at all.
2. leave it as is. If you change back to bio balls your tank may go through a mini cycle while bacteria builds up. Do this over time.
3. May begin to lose a little algea growth but will still work as bio filtration.
4.I'd leave it in. Also leave in clean up crew.
5. Most say a little lower salinity for fish only but not much so that's not a worry either.
If the fish in the tank now are gonna stay in, just leave them in.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Good luck, sometimes I think about the same thing. Whenever people come over and see my corals they're like "oh, is that thing alive? Weird."

Fish can be more interesting to the untrained observer!

 

[unclemuskie]

Yeah,plus I am looking to simplify.

 

[Dubbin1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9088896#post9088896 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slickdonkey

Fish can be more interesting to the untrained observer!

But corals can be more fascinating especially when they are told that they are animals and not plants.


unclemuskie there is really no reason for you to change anything other then taking the corals out. The light and filtration you have now will be just fine.

 

[sean48183]

What type of corals do you have? You may not have to remove some of them? You could run some pc's and keep alot of softies that most fish find unedible. I would not remove the fuge however. Algae is the #1 way to remove fish crap from the aquarium. I have 8 fish in a 50g and feed twice a day and my nitrates are less than 10ppm. I attribute this to the algae of all types growing in my fuge.