Water flow - doing it right the second time

[Sanlynn]

Hi all.
As I posted recently, I lost most of my fish during a 48-hour power outage. (We now have a whole-house stand-by generator on order.) I was never happy with the waterflow in this tank and as I will be building it up again I'd appreciate your advice.

The only waterflow I have in this tank are the returns from the overflows (2) and a small powerhead that I insisted the LFS add. I know there is lots of detritus collecting on the rock (the tank is about 3/4 full of LR), as well as in corners of the tank.

Which would be better - a wavemaker with how many powerheads or, as someone has suggested to me, a closed loop system with a splitter? In either case - can you suggest size of pumps/specific equipment, placement, etc.? I've read numerous articles now, but I still haven't seen which would have the advantage in my system.

This same person is suggesting we deconstruct the tank - placing the remaining three fish and live corals in a bin with sw and a pump, while we remove all the LR and basically empty the nitrate/phosphate-rich water and start new. If however, we place the LR on a tarp - out of water - won't the numerous sponges die and then become problematic when we add them back to the water? His thinking is that we can attack the aiptasia problem (I have hundreds of all sizes and neither Joe's Juice or Stop Aisptasia made a dent) on the rock as they are drying off on the tarp...but wouldn't the beneficial life on the rocks also suffer - all the pods and worms, etc?

Thanks for any advice you can throw my way.
Sandy Lynn

 

[jeffbrig]

Personally, I like the Tunze Streams with controller over a closed loop. More variability in flow and a "feeding" button you can press to reduce flow at dinner time.

Probably not a bad idea to remove your rock and siphon out any detritus before you start over. I just did this last weekend as part of a re-aquascaping project. Pick up a couple of extra rubbermaid bins for the rock (separate from your fish and coral bins), and keep everything in water to avoid further die-off. As for the aiptasia, I don't even think you can treat them out of water, they will deflate into the rocks almost immediately. Before the rocks go back in, swish them around in water to get rid of any sediment/detritus that you can.

Also, make sure you have lots of premixed water on hand (more rubbermaid bins). I took the opportunity to change out about 1/3 of my rock while I was doing all of this.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

I can't see your tank size, but jeffbrig is right -- no substitute for Tunzes as long as you can tolerate their size in the tank. The ones on the controller are awesome, an on/off switch on the non-controllable ones works okay as well. You won't be disappointed with the flow.

You might consider cooking your rock (several articles on that) if it is truly soaked with nutrients, or at minimum rinsing it (to include powerhead blasting) in 5-10 buckets of same temperature salt water just to get as much goo out of it as you can. The cooking would help reduce the aiptasia but probably not eradicate them unless you went 6 months or so. Just thoroughly cleaning the rocks will help too, and if you do it in bucket stations you will have hardly any die off and can see what you're doing (the first few buckets will get nasty quick). Joes Juice worked great for me when I had them, it took patience and a few weeks to get them all, but I never had one grow back after the Juice. You could also try lemon juice (guaranteed to work -- they dissolve in acid) or a fleet of peppermint shrimps. I would definitely avoid using any current water or sand if it's truly saturated.

 

[Sanlynn]

Thanks for your quick replies - I meant to include that I have a 150 gallon tank, with sump (no refugium at present), power compact lights and ETTS reef devil deluxe skimmer.