Neglected 65FOWLR - needs change - what would u do?

[Maximo]

Hello. It has been a while since I have been to AA or any aquarium forum for that matter. In fact I have not properly cared for my tank in about 6 months. In Jul '04 I purchased the tank and equipment and followed the advice found here on AA. I put in 100 lbs of CaribSea oolitic sand, 47lbs base rock and one fresh shrimp from the supermarket. Cycle went as expected and a month later I added 65lbs of live rock from liverocks.com. A few weeks later I started to add a cleanup crew. At that point I realized I had a mantis shrimp as he started taken out snails and crabs. The live rock came with so much life it is amazing. 2 urchins have seemed to thrive in the tank even though I have not been caring for it very well. I top off for evaporation with ro/di as needed and check the temp but that has been about it. With the original setup of the tank I purchased a 36" Current Dual satellite PC 192watt fixture. About 6 months ago one of the ballasts went out. That is also when my cyano outbreak was at its peak. Not caring for the tank also included not turning the light on daily. Of course this caused the cyano to go away.

So to summarize; for about 6months the tank has sat without light and only been topped off as needed. I have not put any food in the tank during this time either. The urchins were doing ok for some time but now I can tell they are getting smaller and one of them is dropping spines. Since I have noticed him dropping spines I have started to put a small amount of Formula1 and Formula2 in every other day. It is amazing there is still little crabs and the mantis that come out to feed as well. Before I stopped caring for it regularly I was trying to figure out what to do about the cyano problem. I determined a fuge and or sump would be a start. I also have a Remora pro skimmer which I have not been running due to noise and not being impressed by performance. I have not been able to get much more than cloudy water in the collection cup. I also hate the mag 3 hanging in the display along with 3 other power heads. The tank is in my room which is above the garage. Noise is a factor I thought i could live with but now realise I can not. The Remora is noisy as is the fan on the light. I assume a return pump in my room for sump under the tank would only add to the racket. I also have to consider the drain noise. One thought was to put a sump in the garage which would give me a head measurement of about 8-10 ft. The tank is not reef ready so it would have to be drilled. I do not want to try a weir.

I know this is a bunch to chew on but I need/want to do something. I am open to suggestions. Sump.. no sump whatever. What if I bought a piece of black acyrilic large enough to create a false back in the back side of the tank? I could put some of the equipment such as heater/skimmer and make it a fuge as well.

Sorry for such a long post and thanks for any input.

-Eric

 

[flamingonhot]

For fish I would do a yellow headed jawfish, and some other fish lol.

100 pounds of sand in a 65? thats a lot. Bt good if you decide on getting a jawfish.

Personally I would do seahorses lol. I would get rid of urchins and mantis if I were to do that. But of course you probably dont even want to think of seahorses now lol. Or maybe you might want some....

 

[Maximo]

Actually I think it is 80lbs. 4 - 20lbs bags.

-E

 

[flamingonhot]

oh..I was going to say i've never heard of someone putting 100 pounds in a 65 gallon. That would probably give more than 4-5 inches of sand bed lol.

Sorry about the suggestion...im not really good at suggesting things like that lol.

 

[DragonForce]

Are you sure saltwater is the hobby for you? It sounds like you really don't care.

 

[Maximo]

Well I did come here looking for help.

-E

 

[flamingonhot]

That's true. If he didn't care he wouldn't of came back and asked what could improve it.

You could just make a refugium or buy one that's big enough for your skimmer or something like that.

Try figuring out the cyano and everything before you attempt adding other fish and stuff.

 

[greenmaji]

I would be conserned about your DSB and rock absorbing too much PO4... what has your tank peramiters been over this period of time? NO3 and PO4?

 

[Maximo]

Ok I don't have a PO4 test kit. I will pick one up tonight or tomorrow.

As for Nitrate I am showing 0ppm.
I tested for NH3/NH4 which came out to .25ppm.
PH is 8.0 or 8.2 prolly closer to 8.0 on the scale.
These were all done with a Red Sea Marine Lab.

Temp according to my BigTemp digital is 80.1

Thanks,
-E

 

[dorian965]

:|

 

[Maximo]

Bought an Aquarium Pharmacuticals phosphate test kit.

Indicates 0ppm

-E

 

[Maximo]

:|

??

 

[dorian965]

sorry, my post did not go through for some reason.

i was wondering if you had done water changes during this period and about your phos reading.i bought a 55 from this guy and ive been fighting high nitrate and phos for 3 months.25% water changes once a week and phos gaurd changed regularly.6 months is crazy to have no nitrate and phos. are your test old?

 

[Maximo]

well the Red Sea Master kit is about 1 year old.. I just bought the phos kit today but I guess it could have been in the store for a while...

I'll see if I can take a sample or two up to the LFS and see what they come up with..

-E

 

[Maximo]

Got my skimmer going tonight also. Soaked it in a bit of vinegar and water and brushed all the gunk out. Had to take the impellar out from the Mag3 and clean it up too. It was causing a bad vibration at first.

I have not had good luck with this skimmer. I have yet to see any skimate like I have seen in pictures. It mostly produces cloudy water and if I adjust the collection cup up a bit it stops skimming all together. Then I push it back down and the cup is full of water the next day. I only move it a bit. I've cleaned the spray injector also. Not sure what to do. We will see what happens on this new go round.

I've also got some saltwater mixing and bringing it up to temp.. I'll be doing several water changes over the next week or two.

-E

 

[azn_fishy55]

Maybe the skimmer is broken???Maybe you should get a new one, also about the mantis shrimp, you should take it out and keep it somewhere else if you intend to keep other marine life.

 

[Maximo]

Yeah I'm plannin on makin some big changes which most likely includes adding a sump/fuge and when I do that I am going to get a skimmer that will work in the sump.

Dang mantis. Its funny cause when I got the live rock he was in the bottem of the box and I had no idea he was a bad critter so I picked him up and threw him into the tank. If I had only known!

-E

 

[azn_fishy55]

Yeah, they are very hard to take out of the tank, you might have to take down ur whole aquascape!!Well, there is a fuge called the Aquafuge CP that has a built in Bak-Pak Protein Skimmer and can hold macroalgae,mangroves,and other stuff you put in a fuge.HTH!!Good Luck

 

[DragonForce]

I would have **** my pants if I picked up a mantis. BTW if you find him, I will gladly take him if he is any spearer type or if he is a peacock smasher.

 

[seaham358]

I would start with taking the mantis out and doing water changes. Run the lights 8-10 hours to get some algae growing for the urchins to eat. Put timers on the lights so you don't have to turn them on and off.
Skimmer you want a dry skimmate so leave it up where your not getting much foam, over time it will collect in the cup it does not happen right away. And if your tank has not been fed, no fish no light then there probably is not much to skim out.
No food, no fish so having no PO4 is great, nothing wrong with the kit, you said you are using ro/di for top off so that is great. Just check the top off water for nitrates and PO4 to see if the filters went bad.
If your not going to take the hobby sersiously then I suggest you save yourself some money and take the tank down before you get fish. I hope your willing to put in 20 min a day for feeding, top offs and glass cleaning and a few hours a month for water changes.