Start Over After 10+????

[deegrimes]

I feel like I am starting all over again. I am by no means new to the hobby but do have a few questions. Things have changed so much since we got into this hobby 10+years ago. We have successfully had our salt water tank for as I said above 10+ years. We had no problems in our tank for years and now the past couple of months have been a disaster to say the least. I talked to my lfs about the problems I have been having in my tank then my daughter not me actually was researching things on the web and suggested that I join this forum. First and foremost this is an excellent forum and I have spent many hours reading info on here. My first post is under disease and treatment. (I would be the one that spelled brooklynella wrong

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If you read my prior post you will have an idea what was going on in my tank. I still have my blue damsels and all my inverts. Haven't lost anything since I moved them to the 29 gal. I have changed all my subtrate to carib sea aragonite sand from cc. I decided to do that after reading in this forum actually. I realize that sand is much better then the cc. I was wondering if that could have been part of my problem? Does cc break down after awhile? At the time that we set up our tank the recommendation to us was cc. We have a friend that runs salt water as well and he has cc in his tank. He told me just to put the sand over the coral and it would be fine but I never did that. I cleaned out all my coral and syphoned the tank. I LOVE the look of the sand!!!!!!!!!! WOW what a difference. The sand bed is about 3" thick it looks so much more natural then the cc.
I have placed almost all of my live rock back in the tank, bristle worms and all. I was told one time that they were horrid little creatures and I should remove them but I never did they don't seem to be bothering anything. I left a few pieces in my qt with my fish and inverts. I never did anything to the media in the pump. Other then clean the foam. The entire water change was approx 80%.
I should I get to the question I guess. I am waiting 3 weeks because I am not sure what was going on in my tank when I was losing my fish but I am pretty sure it was brooklynella. Will my main tank cycle again? Is there anything else I should be doing in that tank? Next question, we switched our lighting to the T5s we run 2 sets on our tank we were told that this was awesome lighting and would see all kinds of growth on our live rock has anyone else noticed this with the T5s?
Any imput would really be appreciated. Thanks

 

[saltfan]

I use X-Fine CC in my tank, looks just like sand. And no it never has to be changed, I have heard of people using the wrong stuff, the bigger cc, as this will catch and hold things in it such as nitrate factory. As far as your 80% water change, you should be ok with no cycle, very small if any, because you are using already cured and bio is still in the tank. T-5 are great, nice lighting choice, if not using MH.

 

[usinkit]

There is a small chance you may see another cycle. Feed the tank a pinch of fish food everyother day and just keep testing to to see if your ammonia and nitrites go up. If they dont after the first week then I would say you could add your fish back. If your liverock was kept under water with a powerhead and heater i would sy you have nothing to worry about.
A friend of mine had the T-5 lighting and he loved it. I will definately be upgrading to T-5 when my pc bulbs burn out. HTH

 

[deegrimes]

Thanks for the input. I was unsure how the cycling would work as I have never had to do this to my tank before. Other then when I originally set it up but I thought it would be different when you have an established filter and all. A lot of work but I am sure it will be worth it in the end. My hubby says we should just go back to freshwater. NOT!!!! My daughter has an 86 gallon in her room with 1, yes 1 fish in it when that fish goes I may take that and switch it to salt as well. Can't do that yet cause she has her black ghost in there that is amazingly huge. He has to measure at least 1 1/2 feet long.