rebuilding saltwater fish only aquarium

[traze]

225 gal tank that replaced wet bar so is 39" deep with lights in glass rack cabinet above and water filtration system cabinet below.
Lost 4 yr Tang, coral angel and others leaving 2 clown and 3 damsels so want to rebuild. After changing most water and emptying/cleaning large under cabinet filter that has multi-surface balls for bacteria growth have let tank circulate with 5 small fish to allow biological filter to re-establish. Want to supplement or change substrate before starting rebuild propcess. Crushed coral substrate is orignal;there is no sand and no live rock (can't get light to penetrate depth.) What is recommended substrate to use in fish only aqaurium? Also having increasing algae problems- going to try Phosphate elminator but assume new substrate will contribute eto improving that issue as well. Is that a good assumption or should I be 'fixing' something else?
Thanks

 

[unleashed]

well if your looking at keep algae growth at bay or gone invest in a silver scat or 2 these fish are sold as brackish fish kinda hard to find but most stores can special order these for you .. i acclimated mine in 8 hrs drip method.these are very hardy fish best clean up crew around.cost is 10-15 bucks .a schooling fish so you can have more than one (venomous) so they do well with aggressive tanks but are peaceful enough for even a reef.. they are not the most attractive species but eat all types of algae and waste ..keeping maintenance at minimal..as for substrate its your choice sand or cc will do depending on what you prefer.as for re establishing your bacteria i suggest keeping half the water replacing rest with new .. wash bio balls do half at a time ... never remove all bacterias from you filter system as this will create a new cycle.. to clean bio balls just place in a bucket of old tank water and swoosh it around to release excess debris .this should be done every couple months for control .as for lighting what type are you using ?although for a fowlr they wont need a lot of lighting

 

[culp]

for a 39" deep tank you would probably need a 400 watt metal halide just to get good algae growth on live rock when you put it in your tank.

 

[small triggers]

do you have a pic of how it was set up before. that would help immensly. Is the top of the bar glass? or wood? Im not understanding that. Do you have any specific tank lighting? or is it jsut what is hung for accent for the bar? And lastly, personally i would have 'live' sand and still have some rock, it will help even if it doesnt have really strong lighting, plus it will give the fish something to hide in/behind.

 

[culp]

like small triggers said. adding some live rock is a good idea. heck if you really don't want to pay for live rock you can buy base rock and after awhile you will have live rock
plus it gives another place for pods to breed.