Crushed Coral REMOVAL!!!

[cedarreef]

Ok, I'm switching my FO tank into a reef very soon. The only major step is to remove the crushed coral, and put in LS. I've had the crushed coral in for about 3 years, and the nitrates are SKY HIGH

I need to make this switch in a fast but safe way. I have 2 yellowtail damsels, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 vlamingi tang, and 2 turbo snails. I need everything to survive during the transition so tips are much needed.
Plus, I would like to know if it would matter if I put my LR on top of my LS... I plan to have a thin bed...an inch or less. If not, then I need some tips on putting in sand with minimal clouding around my LR...which I don't have yet.
Please. Your advice is much appreciated, and much needed!

 

[snakeblitz33]

hello,
I say to move your live stock to another tank while you make the transitions. Get a fellow hobbyist to help you out.
Personally I would try to take out everything and replace it with one and a half inches of substrate. Then I would personally take and sit some of the rocks on the surface of the sand, but not so many that it covers it. Then I would take and make sure that I have tons of water flow around the rocks and a turkey baster on standby to blow off your rocks occasionally. Also, when you are doing all of this, you should have enough water already pre-mixed for a 50% water change.
Nitrates can be kept in check with a crushed coral substrate, as long as you gravel vacuum it once a week very very well.
Water changes don't hurt either.
Good luck!

 

[yearofthenick]

Do you have live rock in there? If you say FO, then that means fish only. If you say FOWLR, then that's fish only with live rock.
IF you don't have live rock, then you'll need to cycle the live rock before you can put it into your display tank. There are a lot of local fish stores (LFS's) that tell you their rock is "cured", but from my experience, I can easily say that about 70% of my LFS's have a very loose take on what "cured" is. I even have one store that is constantly throwing uncycled live rock into a "cured live rock" tank... so you never know. Also, if you see rock sticking up out of the water when you go to buy it, I don't care what people say, it's not cycled. Everything on the rock that is out of water will die... and will cause a cycle when you put it into your tank.
What is generally accepted as a properly "cured" live rock is if it's been submerged and had water flow on it for 2-3 months.
OK so here's what I would do:
OPTION #1:
I would set up a temporary tank and put all your livestock in there. Then throw out your CC and replace it with live sand and live rock. Then let the whole thing cycle and once your ammonia and nitrite return to zero, return your livestock to the tank. Keep your tank water... it will help the cycle.
OPTION #2:
If you want to go the riskier route, put your livestock in a tub with a heater and powerhead, empty out the tank water but KEEP it. Remove the cc and replace it with live sand. Fill with old tank water and return your livestock to the tank. Once you've done that, get another tub and throw the live rock in there with a powerhead - let it cycle - it will cycle by the way. Once it's cycled, then put it into your tank.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[brijean]

I've Crushed Coral under live sand is that going to be a problem also for adding live coral ?? my LFS told me to put it in under my live sand to save money for more live rock

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by brijean
http:///forum/post/2721543
I've Crushed Coral under live sand is that going to be a problem also for adding live coral ?? my LFS told me to put it in under my live sand to save money for more live rock
if cc loves to collect garbage, and you cover it with sand, you'd just be burying the problem. You'd never be able to move the tank because if you did, two things would happen: 1. You'd have a spike good enough to kill pretty much everything in your tank. Although the cc is under the live sand, it would still release whatever it's collected. 2. Your cc would get mixed in with your live sand. Then you'd probably have to add more sand to keep the same look.
If I were you, I'd scoop up as much live sand as I can, then take out the cc and put the live sand back.
If worse came to worse, you could just save your money in the future for more live sand.
It's not a problem for you right now, and probably won't be for a while, but I would add it to the "spring cleaning to-do" list if I were you. It's buried so it's not going to be a problem... unless you have sand sifters in which case you'll see the crushed coral come up sooner than later.

 

[cedarreef]

ok, thanks guys! do you think it would be ok to run my tank bare bottom for maybe a week or two until I can get all my LR and LS? Then would it be a problem to add the LS to the full tank with the LR?

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by CedarReef
http:///forum/post/2723725
ok, thanks guys! do you think it would be ok to run my tank bare bottom for maybe a week or two until I can get all my LR and LS? Then would it be a problem to add the LS to the full tank with the LR?
I would not run the tank bare bottom. Better to wait/save money and do it all at once. There are a number of reasons why you shouldn't run the tank bare bottom:
1. Bare bottom tanks can freak the fish out - A general rule when you make a Quarantine tank is to paint the bottom of the tank black because the glass causes a mirror effect when it's not covered on one side - this causes the fish to constantly freak out.
2. You have no means of absorbing the detritus (poop, uneaten food). The sand can absorb and process detritus into nitrate. If you don't have anything in the bottom, you'd probably have to do a lot of regular cleaning.
3. With no sand and live rock, your system could crash because of the lack of bacteria needed to keep the tank's parameters level (Ammonia and nitrite at 0).
4. Running bare bottom means you'll have to take the fish out AGAIN when you are ready to add the live sand/live rock. It just seems less time-consuming to do it altogether instead of two stages.
Long story short, I'd keep things status-quo until I could afford to do it all at once. OR you could just add the live sand and then save money for the rock. A 20 pound bag of live sand should cost you $25 in the store. When you can get the rock, make sure it's cured. If it is, then just put it in the tank. if it's not, then put it in a bucket with a powerhead and thermometer and let it cure itself. this usually takes about a month, but totally worth it because if you put it in your tank uncured, it could kill everything.
Good luck dude!

 

[cedarreef]

Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. The only things I need are containers to hold my water, LR, and LS... I'll wait to get everything at once. The LR at me LFS seems pretty cured to me. It seems to have some coralline on it, and they said it was fully cured and ready to go.

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by CedarReef
http:///forum/post/2723825
Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. The only things I need are containers to hold my water, LR, and LS... I'll wait to get everything at once. The LR at me LFS seems pretty cured to me. It seems to have some coralline on it, and they said it was fully cured and ready to go.
That's good... it certainly sounds fully cured. I'd just add the live rock directly then. As for containers, you can use anything. I used to work construction and i have work buckets laying around. I just double line them with 4 mil garbage bags and it works perfectly. I have also used double lined garbage bins. Anything will work... you just need to be sure nothing will get through the bags. I even used a garbage bag lined cardboard box once! water got into it a little but it only held water so i didn't care... it never collapsed. it was a u-haul box

 

[cedarreef]

I'm still thinking of what I could use for containers... I might be able to pick up some big rubbermaid tubs or giant garbage cans for pretty cheap at my local dollar store. Do you think those should be clean enough if I just buy them brand new, and rinse them out with the hose before use?

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by CedarReef
http:///forum/post/2724081
I'm still thinking of what I could use for containers... I might be able to pick up some big rubbermaid tubs or giant garbage cans for pretty cheap at my local dollar store. Do you think those should be clean enough if I just buy them brand new, and rinse them out with the hose before use?
Totally - If you put garbage bags inside of them, then you won't have any problems. If you want to clean the garbage cans and put stuff in directly, then use a little bleach... that's the best and safest way to clean containers for fish because it washes completely off when you rinse it. If you use a hose, make sure you towel dry it because the chlorine and iron in the hose water needs to be out of there otherwise the un-toweled dried water could pollute your tank water.
Or you could just use garbage bags. lol

 

[cedarreef]

Thanks so much for all the advice! I'll put some pics up when I get everything all in, but in the reef section as my tank diary.