Starting Over Question

[shawnriv]

Hi Everyone,

Currently I have a 29G tank that has been set up for about three months. It has 30lbs of dry rock that has a gross brown, red, and red (slime) color to it. I just purchased an Innovative Marine 38 Nuvo and I am looking to start over. I was looking to clean off the rock, boil it, or whatever in order to remove all the algae and start from square one. I plan on using new RODI and saltwater with the new tank since I had two clowns die in the current tank and I don't want any diseases coming to the new tank. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by shawnriv http:///t/397839/starting-over-question#post_3547771
Hi Everyone,

Currently I have a 29G tank that has been set up for about three months. It has 30lbs of dry rock that has a gross brown, red, and red (slime) color to it. I just purchased an Innovative Marine 38 Nuvo and I am looking to start over. I was looking to clean off the rock, boil it, or whatever in order to remove all the algae and start from square one. I plan on using new RODI and saltwater with the new tank since I had two clowns die in the current tank and I don't want any diseases coming to the new tank. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

Hi,

You should start the tank with live rock, the rock is loaded with little critters that help keep the tank healthy...using only dry rock and having not so good water quality to start with, is why it failed and your rocks were covered with slime algae and your fish died. You won't be bringing any diseases by keeping the dry rock, but water quality is key to success.

By starting over with RO/DI water is a good choice...now instead of the dead rock, try upgrading to live rock...you can scrub and dry out the old rock, and use it as the base, but you still need to at least seed it with some live rock.

 

[scottc910]

I have a saltwater tank for 3 1/2 years and still consider myself a newbie. The one thing that worked well for me and that I read a lot of advice was I did both live and dead and worked great!