I've decided on something drastic
- Thread starter Len
- Start date
Good luck with your new build. It probably won't be as labor intensive as you think. Most of your equipment is all setup and ready.
I went 100% marcorocks and I'm enjoying how maintenance free it has been. I had a good chunk of hair algae during and shortly after cycling, but my tangs devoured it and there's absolutely no visible nuisance algae. The only maintenance I ever do (algae wise) is scraping the glass with a magnet. I also ran phosban since day 1 when cycling the tank. Hopefully, the lack of biodiversity won't bite me in the ass later.
Oh yeah and don't go barebottom!
I went 100% marcorocks and I'm enjoying how maintenance free it has been. I had a good chunk of hair algae during and shortly after cycling, but my tangs devoured it and there's absolutely no visible nuisance algae. The only maintenance I ever do (algae wise) is scraping the glass with a magnet. I also ran phosban since day 1 when cycling the tank. Hopefully, the lack of biodiversity won't bite me in the ass later.
Oh yeah and don't go barebottom!
Len, a few pointers/tricks that will help you get up and running faster:
I agree with Tracy. Bleach everything you want to use again. Pumps/plumbing, nets, skimmers, turkey basters, ect. Fill the tank up with water, dump in a gallon or so of bleach, then let it run for a day. Bleach pretty much kills everything. After it does it's work, the chlorine will evaporate out of the water if you let it sit long enough. If you don't feel like waiting, dump the bleach water, rinse everything down a couple of times, and then refill the tank and dump in some dechlor. If you don't want to buy over the counter stuff, get some sodium thiosulphite. Throw a big handful into the tank and fire it up. Dump and rinse the water, then rinse with RO. After that, your tank should be ready to go.
FWE: Dose it heavily. Anything you want to keep should be dosed heavy the first day. Do a big water change. Then every other day for 3 weeks, dose 5-6 drops per 20 gallon bucket. Yes, it takes a lot of FWE, but it's the only way I've found to kill ALL THE F'ERS. You can also use Prazi-pro, it's cheaper for a big bottle than a bunch of smaller bottles of FWE. Since you want to hit your new rocks, it might be the way to go.
Curing the rock. Once you get your new rocks cleaned up and into clean water, crank up the heat! Put as many spare heaters as you have in the tubs and open them up. If you have a spare skimmer, put it on the bin as well. After the first couple of days, dump in some household ammonia. The clear stuff, not the colored/scented stuff. Put enough ammonia in to hit 5ppm. Yeah, you'll have to get out the test kits, but by upping the ammonia at the start, you'll shorten your curing time by half.
Posting pictures. Join flickr. (http://www.flickr.com) then post the links to the pictures here. If you put [img ] and [/img ] (take out the extra space in each tag) tags around your links, they'll actually show up here as pictures!
B
:edit: SM is correct.
I agree with Tracy. Bleach everything you want to use again. Pumps/plumbing, nets, skimmers, turkey basters, ect. Fill the tank up with water, dump in a gallon or so of bleach, then let it run for a day. Bleach pretty much kills everything. After it does it's work, the chlorine will evaporate out of the water if you let it sit long enough. If you don't feel like waiting, dump the bleach water, rinse everything down a couple of times, and then refill the tank and dump in some dechlor. If you don't want to buy over the counter stuff, get some sodium thiosulphite. Throw a big handful into the tank and fire it up. Dump and rinse the water, then rinse with RO. After that, your tank should be ready to go.
FWE: Dose it heavily. Anything you want to keep should be dosed heavy the first day. Do a big water change. Then every other day for 3 weeks, dose 5-6 drops per 20 gallon bucket. Yes, it takes a lot of FWE, but it's the only way I've found to kill ALL THE F'ERS. You can also use Prazi-pro, it's cheaper for a big bottle than a bunch of smaller bottles of FWE. Since you want to hit your new rocks, it might be the way to go.
Curing the rock. Once you get your new rocks cleaned up and into clean water, crank up the heat! Put as many spare heaters as you have in the tubs and open them up. If you have a spare skimmer, put it on the bin as well. After the first couple of days, dump in some household ammonia. The clear stuff, not the colored/scented stuff. Put enough ammonia in to hit 5ppm. Yeah, you'll have to get out the test kits, but by upping the ammonia at the start, you'll shorten your curing time by half.
Posting pictures. Join flickr. (http://www.flickr.com) then post the links to the pictures here. If you put [img ] and [/img ] (take out the extra space in each tag) tags around your links, they'll actually show up here as pictures!
B
:edit: SM is correct.
Thanks for the advice. I might just fill the whole thing up with tap water, add some bleach, and run it for a day or two, then drain it. There's simply no way I can rinse things out though .... the tank is about 300 lbs and the sump isn't removable, so it has to stay in place. How would you recommend I deal with the getting the tank ready if I can't take anything out to rinse?
I was actually thinking of emptying the tank and letting it sit dry for a few days, thinking this would kill all the FW. Flatworms are really the only pest that I have. The other stuff is some kind of chemical issue with the water after I boiled the tank.
I don't understand the idea of cranking up heaters for the LR curing. How high are you suggesting I run the curing tub? I had planned on doing regular curing for 4-6 weeks. My last problems started when my water in my display tank reached close to 100 degrees, so I'm not keen on doing that with my new LR
I was actually thinking of emptying the tank and letting it sit dry for a few days, thinking this would kill all the FW. Flatworms are really the only pest that I have. The other stuff is some kind of chemical issue with the water after I boiled the tank.
I don't understand the idea of cranking up heaters for the LR curing. How high are you suggesting I run the curing tub? I had planned on doing regular curing for 4-6 weeks. My last problems started when my water in my display tank reached close to 100 degrees, so I'm not keen on doing that with my new LR
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