Any thing to help keeping tank clean with cc?

[catera]

what can i get can i get some snails or something to feed at the bottom and glass?

 

[volitan]

I've had a 1 inch cc bed for over a year now. I've never vacuumed the cc and I've never had a single problem with nitrates. I added 20 lbs of ls to the cc, and threw in a couple of sand sifting starfish. So far everything has been great.

 

[fishfood]

I also have cc in my 55 and have no problems with trits, trates or anything else (working on phosphate) but do get bad algae on the cc. It is a brown hair algae. my snials and crabs don't touch it. I'm working on getting a conch to see if that helps. will a sand sifting star do ok on cc??

 

[scott270]

i thought you were not supposed to mix cc and ls,but can you do this? I have cc and crushed arogonite and I wanted to add some ls

 

[zipperfish]

i mixed mine and have had no problems. as far as the algae problem i used horseshoe crabs and the worked pretty good. also put more water flow closer to the cc bed.

 

[scott270]

so do you vaccum it when you do a water change,how much cc and how much ls do you have,does anyone else have an opinion on mixing cc with ls

 

[piscesblue]

fishfood, You say you don't have a nitrate problem, but you can't control the algae? The algae will feed on the nitrate and make your test kits show low quantities. If you really had low nitrates, the algae would not have anything to feed on and would disappear. Just a heads-up for ya.

 

[scott270]

thats what i thought cc and ls is pointless,having a cc defeats the no vaccum beauty of ls

 

[k.lee]

Good sandsifting fish are Rainsford Gobies (sp?), if you can find them. Great reef fish afaik. I just picked up two for my 45-hex mini-reef.
Lee

 

[k.lee]

Rainsford's (sp.?) eat algae, too I think.

 

[fishfood]

I do not have any trates or trites. They have been at 0 since about the end of the first month or so on 3 different test kits. And i also added live sand to the cc bed in the begining to seed the cc. I used to vacuum it but now just drain water without vacuuming when i do water changes. When i did vacuum it it didn't really stur anything up enought to cloud the tank. I really don't know why i have the hair algae but know that i had a cheap ps until 3 weeks ago and did have a high imput of phosphate from contaminated ro water. I have had the algae on the rocks and coral for 3 or so months now I didn't put any food in the tank in the past month because my fish was undergoing hypo in the qt. I just don't Know???

 

[k.lee]

Originally posted by Fishfood:
<strong>I do not have any trates or trites. They have been at 0 since about the end of the first month or so on 3 different test kits. And i also added live sand to the cc bed in the begining to seed the cc. I used to vacuum it but now just drain water without vacuuming when i do water changes. When i did vacuum it it didn't really stur anything up enought to cloud the tank. I really don't know why i have the hair algae but know that i had a cheap ps until 3 weeks ago and did have a high imput of phosphate from contaminated ro water. I have had the algae on the rocks and coral for 3 or so months now I didn't put any food in the tank in the past month because my fish was undergoing hypo in the qt. I just don't Know???</strong><hr></blockquote>
A protein skimmer should do you wonders, but might make it hard to keep some inverts; mostly filter feeders will be harmed (if so) by a protein skimmer.
Lee

 

[k.lee]

You'll see a lot less "spontaneous generation" what biologists used to think hapened; you'll have leass microfauna, mini tube worms, clams, et cetera, with a ps.

 

[fishfood]

I have a new one as of 3 weeks ago. Still no change. I've posted on this page about 3 times on this subject and get every answer in the book. I still haven't figured it out yet, but i haven't added any grazing fish and want more (different) snails. Plus i'm soon going to change the bulbs. It has been about 8 months now i guess