Can I successfully make the change?

[arizonakid]

I have a 2 year old fish only, 75 gal tank bought at and installed by the LFS. They were dead set on a bottom through the live sand filter set-up with two large filters in the cabinet below the tank. They also maintain my tank and supply fish when I ask for additional occupants. To be honest my mortality rate stinks. I just lost 3 Green Chromis I have had less than a week. I have read many interesting threads on this forum and just recently purchased The New Marine Aquarium book by Paletta. Without a doubt, almost everything that has been done here goes against everything I have read. So, I am thinking very strongly of making some changes. Number one will be setting up a QT. My DT seems to me to be a bigger problem. Must I junk what I have and start all over to incorporate live rock, a protein skimmer and the other things that are recommended for a 21st century tank? I know I am asking a lot but any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Larry

 

[nycbob]

u never mention what equipments u currently r running. but with no rock, its very hard to maintain a healthy reef or fowlr setup. protein skimming is a must if u want to keep nitrate down.

 

[arizonakid]

Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/2494087
u never mention what equipments u currently r running. but with no rock, its very hard to maintain a healthy reef or fowlr setup. protein skimming is a must if u want to keep nitrate down.
Equipment is as follows: 2 Fluval 404 power filters, 300 w heater, 2 T5 flourescent lights and a small suction cup thermometer. The filters are hard plumbed through the bottom of the tank. The water flows through 1-1/2 in live sand and 1 in crushed coral on top of the sand. The glass tank dimensions are 60L X 42H X 11W.

 

[jahsco]

no need to tear everything appart, but it will take longer to accomplish. What i did is slowly turn off the underground unit by making sure they were pulling water from the water column and not just through the substrate. I drilled a bunch of holes in the down tubes attached to the filter plate. left that running for about 3 months, changed my filter system, added live rock let everything sit again and then capped the plate filter off. Then I sucked out the existing substrate an eight at a time and replaced with sand. Long process, but beat tearing the whole thing appart. The weird thing that seemed to help the whole situation is my two engineer gobies. They kept digging through the substrate and slowly releasing stuff that had been trapped.