Best way to redo my tank?

[oppajer]

hi guys, first time poster here, but i've been reading the forums for awhile. well after a year of neglect (senior thesis comes first) i have decided to redo my tank. it's really not that impressive comparing it to most of your tanks, but heck we all gotta start somewhere. i have a 55 gallon tank with 4x55w power compacts. had sump under the tank with a turboflotor 1000 in it, but due to bad plumbing on my part (flooded the living room more than 3 times during power outages.....) i decided to use the dinky hang on cyclone as my skimmer instead and forego the sump. i would really like to keep some corals in the tank.

right now there's nothing much in the tank but about 100lbs of live rock that's infested with bubble algae and aptesia (sad i know, i should be shot!) so what do you guys think i should do? i have a few options.

1. upgrade my lighting to metal halides. since the replacement bulbs are gonna cost me a few bucks, i figure it might be a good idea to upgrade the lighting so light won't be my limiting factor.

2. upgrade my skimmer. i don't know if this is really necessary or not. i have about 2 inches of crushed coral sand bed, 100lbs of live rock, and then the cyclone skimmer.

either one of those will probably be the big purchases for the tank right now until things get settled down.

i would also like to ask how should i go about cleaning my live rock? there's so much bubble algae on them and other junk. thanks for reading this long post and your comments

 

[Len]

WELCOME TO REEFS.ORG!

1. I'd upgrade to halides since you're replacing the bulbs anyhow. I'd personally use 2x175W German 10KKs and 2 55W Actinic PCs. The PCs are sufficient for most LPS and soft corals, but the halides will give you a far broader range of livestock selection.

2. If you want to use a hang-on, I'd consider the AquaC Remora, Remora Pro, or Precision Marine's HOT-1. They are all a lot better then the Cyclone and will help a great deal. You ask whether if it was needed or not? Honestly, I don't think it's a necessarily upgrade, but it is a very worthwhile one IMO. With the Cyclone, I suggest you perform water changes more frequently.

Since you're revamping the whole tank, I'd consider swapping out the crushed coral for aragonite. CC is too big a particulate size for effective denitrification and doesn't support a good diversity of life; finer grain aragonite is a far better substrate.

Bubble algae (Valonia) might require manual removal. You can try Mithrax crabs (emerald crabs) but they didn't work for me. A 55g is too small for large Sailfin tangs that might eat bubble algae. Add several peppermint shrimps to get rid of the aiptasia.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[ReefRian]

If you have no livestock or just a few things, see if you can set up a temporary tank and take your rock out and scrub them down. Then you could add the sand, which is a wonderful thing for a tank, and even get a few pieces of good seeded cured live rock to help seed your sand. Then put your rocks back in the tank and the rest of your critters.

Just a side note, if you do get sand (most of us use Southdown brand, but depending on were you live it's hard or easy to get) you might want to try to cure it outside of the tank first. If you added the dry stuff directly to your tank you will be looking at a week or two of cloudy water until the bacteria attaches to the sand particles. It you try to cure it before you put it in the tank you may only have a few days of cloudy water.

Rian