going bare bottom - need some help

[lazyreefer]

HI Guys,

I am going to bare bottom. the SSB is really messing up my system (been up about 1 year). I have constant high nitrate and red slime every where. this started to happen about 4 months back. Checked everything but from doing the research and observing the tank I came to the conclusion that SSB is causing all this.

I have enough flow on the tank (180 G with 2 vortex and 6100,6200 tunze, snapper as return pump) as well as enough filtration - Bermuda 8C (good skimmer!).

I have been doing 40 gallon water changes every two weeks without any progress.

what would be the best course of action? all on one day or over couple of weeks? ( siphon out sand everytime I do water changes)

Also what would be the best way to remove the sand? I was thinking of just siphoning it out to the toilet but i think that is going to cause some plumbing issues

I was also thinking of redoing my aquascaping to get better flow distribution. About how many pounds of LR would be enough for 180G? I have about 300lb of LR in the tank now but it seems bit too much.


thanks for your input.

 

[kimoyo]

I would take all the sand out at the same time and put in a remote dsb. That's just a dsb in a container either in the sump or plumbed into the sump. If you can have filtered water running thru it and keep it covered from light thats good. From what I've read its better to have the sand at least 7-8" tall and over 18" doesn't make a difference.

As far as removing the sand I'm not sure what the best procedure would be. If it was me I would probably just siphon it into a bucket and throw the water away that comes out with it thinking of it as a water change.

I've seen really nice tanks with hardly any rock. I've seen a lot of Japanese tanks with barely any rock. Here's a nice thread you could check out.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=10856541

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Since you have no sand bed,I would try to put it all in there.What kind of sand were you using?

 

[aaron23]

Hi tae , how are you, glad to see you posting again
!!!! goshhhhh if u wanted to get rid of some rock should have spoke sooner!!! (45lbs delivered on wednesday this week)

i'd think siphoning the sand out into buckets and then putting the water back in the tank to be recirculated would be the easiest way to get it out and into buckets and then dumping them out in the back porch....

To answer the question about the amount of live rock, some people may disagree or what not but I had followed this thread on reef central where this guy had a very nice sized tank i think over 92gals and he had no rock in his display and about 25 pounds of rock in his sump.

I asked him how this was and how he kept the filtration going etc and how his parameters and everything went. Well he said he takes careful maintenance and close watch to see how EVERYTHING is affected in his aquarium.. He speaks about limiting the amount of food in the aquarium to skimming to sugar dosing to remote sand bed. Again I think there are many ways to do things in this hobby and theres not only 1 way to do them.

My answer would be 'preference' but use your best instinct and don't take out too much of LR/LS too soon/quickly, and to do it slowly through a few weeks a bit at a time if you decide to..

 

[aaron23]

OOOOO kimoyo that was the thread

 

[lazyreefer]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I will do a one day change over. Do you think I have to cook the rocks that I currently have?

 

[aaron23]

siphon over a couple of weeks so u dont change anything too drastically

 

[lazyreefer]

Since you have no sand bed,I would try to put it all in there.What kind of sand were you using?

I was using caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand.

 

[autoponicz]

wow...that tank in the RC thread is awesome...

i would say siphon out sections of the sand when you do water changes also....

 

[Alex]

Bb

lazyreefer, I myself went BB two months ago.the best way to do this is all at once.

1-get a few rubbermaid garbage cans or storage containers.
2-have about 1/4 to a 1/2 of your water volume of water made up,
once you remove the sand you will find that you need more water(displacement)
3-get a dust pan and a small bucket for scooping sand out
4-towels or plastic coverings for water splatter/spillage.

start by removing the livestock and placing them in one of the containers for safekeeping.then place the LR in another container.any snails,hermits..etc that you miss can be collected later.
once all is out remove most of the water to another container.then start scooping out sand.you can put the sand into a 5gal bucket which you can then rinse off and use as a remote sand bed.once you have gotten the sand out you can get the hard to reach sand with a wet vac. I borrowed one from my neighbor and this will remove whats left on the bottom,water and sand. I then used a white cutting board on the bottom but you can do without,just be careful placing the rock back in the tank.Once the sand is out fill the tank half way and start with the rock then the livestock.then turn your system back on and let it run for a bit with a filter sock this will help get rid of the extra detritus that was missed. it took me 4 hrs with the help of my brother in law.but well worth the effort.

if you want to cook your live rock then don't put it back in the tank,however you can to the same by just vacuuming out the detritus that builds up after the rocks start shedding. this is what I did and its fine.