Should I swap?

[callmedrlove]

Right now I have a 65 gallon w/ about 80lbs of "live" rock that I got from liveaquaria.com. It's got a few fish, nothing big, and some snails. It's been up and running now for about six months, and I'm really not happy with the way it looks. Despite steady water changes, I have constantly suffered through hair algae and cyano. I've got a top notch skimmer, and I don't have the tank overfed or overstocked. Anyways, on to the bulk of the question. I'm contemplating moving the fish to a 55 gallon tank (I have a yellow tang, six line wrasse, firefish, and a small gold striped maroon clown and a small coral beauty). Then I would move the rock that's worth saving to a couple of 10 gallon tanks (there's two pieces that have a few fan worms. other than that, no life besides small amounts of coralline and plenty of microalgae). Finally I want to replace the rock and aragonite sand with a TBS package. I know right now there's none to be had, but it would take me a lot of preperation to do this anyway. I just was wondering if other people thought it would be a worthwhile venture. I really wouldn't even be worried about losing the investment in my old live rock, as I was technically paid $100 to take it.

 

[bucman727]

I think you need to ascertain what is causing the algae blooms first. If you just change out the rock with new rock, you will get new rock with the same algae problems. Check Nitrate and phosphate levels. Also your lights are they old and need to be changed. Are you using ro water for topoff or tap? there are alot of things that could be causing your algae troubles. I would get everything in shape first before changing out to new rock. You will want to be able to keep alive what you are going to get with TBS rock.

 

[callmedrlove]

Nitrate is at 0, and Phosphate is at 0.1. I assume this is because the algae is using the nitrate and phosphate up as soon as it's being produced. But, I do think I know the cause of the algae. This is just me making several leaps of logic, but here goes nothing:

From what I've read, one of the major ways to prevent pesky microalgaes is by the proliferation of useful macroalgaes, like coralline. My rock kinda got messed up in transit, and the coralline was all bleached by the time I got it, and all other life was pretty well gone. So my coralline got off to a rocky start. I then made the mistake of letting calcium levels drop (I'm new at this, give me a break ), preventing the coralline from taking hold. So, with nothing else to use up the organics, the microalgae came back (I got a lot of it under control once).

My idea was not to just replace the rock with new rock, but rather to remove the old rock and sand. Drain out all the old water, and replace it with fresh saltwater. Then I order "the package" and follow directions just like I'm setting up a new tank. In effect, I'm wondering if the difference between my regular barren rock and packaged CaribSea Aragonite sand and the TBS aquacultured live rock and Live sand would be worth the trouble. Or is TBS overrated?

 

[bobt2]

is it over rated, thats probably a matter of opion. however i bought a 30 package for a 33 long. that hooked me on tbs. i now have a 33 tbs reef a 75 tbsreef and a 55 fowlr thats tbs and a yr later on the 33 most life is still going strong!

 

[Jocko]

As far as the algae problem, have you tried a fuge? I don't currently have one, but when I got my 2nd shipment of TBS rock it was COVERED in this red macro algae. I had my first part of the rocks for many months at that point and my tank had a green hair algae problem. Well when all that macro algae from part 2 got in there, the hair algae didn't have a chance. It all disappeared quite quickly. Since then the red algae has receeded, but it took care of my hair algae problem. So you might wanna try a refugium stocked full of some good macro. That should hopefully "starve" your bad algae.

As far as going with TBS or not, its mostly about deciding if you like the look of it. You tank will not look like other people's tanks. I personally love the way my tank looks. The rocks are a very different shape than what most people have and the crushed coral substrate won't have that bleached white look that some tanks have with the clean sand. Its a matter of taste really. I gotta say though, its hard to beat the biodiversity you get from TBS.

 

[HowardW]

<<< I gotta say though, its hard to beat the biodiversity you get from TBS. >>>

Agree completely. I am a past customer of TBS and just placed another order yesterday.

In my opinion, when you're paying $5.00 - $6.00 a lb. for rock plus shipping it should have some life to it, not just a sparse covering of coralline, and TBS rock is loaded with life, including those darned mantis shrimp hitchhikers sometimes, LOLOL.

I see this so called premium Fiji and Tonga 'cured live rock' in the LFS's and it's basically nothing but just porous dead rock with a bit of coralline for color if you're lucky, and that is not my idea of live rock.....LOLOL. But then again, considering what this Fiji and Tonga rock goes through and how long it's out of the water by the time it ends up at the wholesaler or LFS, it's no wonder it's basically dead rock.