starting over

[haus]

Well I tore my tank down last week. I had hair algae, cyno, and aptasia running rampid. I decided that the best thing would be to sell the fish back to the lfs and start over right. I just cleaned out the tank and I am going to begin curing the base rock that I have. The owner of the lfs (who I am friends with) said he could hook me up with a skimmer, and possibly even a sump. I will use only RO water, and I want to use sand instead of cc. I also plan on investing in a refractometer, when I tested my water, my hydrometer read 1.024. When the lfs owner checked it with a refractometer, it was 1.029. I am very surprised that anything was alive in there, but all the fish survived and were sold already from the store. Besides using raw shrimp to cycle, does anybody have any suggestions on what else I could do to make the process easier? I am really heartbroken looking at an empty tank after what it once was.

 

[Florida8]

I'm in the same boat as you, anxious to have a tank up and running again... waiting is the hard part I know. I had a eclipse system my hubby got me for the bedroom, decided against it because the lighting would not have been enough for much other than lr and fish and I don't want to have to upgrade or retrofit myself... I went to get a 24g cube and they have all been recalled they said so here I sit with no SW only FS.

I just wanted to tell you that I hope when you get it up and running that it is much smoother this time

 

[haus]

I know how the waiting goes. I think now that I have acquired much more knowledge on the hobby than what I knew when I first started, things will be much better. I was also thinking of putting a background on the tank too to keep out some of the sunlight that may come in. Should I use a blue one or a decorative one with pictures of corals, keeping in mind that this will again be a FOWLR tank.

 

[Hara]

There really is no "making the process easier". The shrimp needs to decompose and then cycling process begins. As you are well aware, patience goes a long way to achieving success in this hobby and looking for shortcuts will just lead to heartache. I would recommend that you make the decision regarding the sump now. Get that set up and in the "loop" if that is what you are going to do. It is much easier to do this now rather than later.

 

[haus]

I'm not trying to speed up the process, I just want it to go as smooth as possible. The last time I set up the tank I cycled with damsels, but now I know better. As I said the tank is completely empty right now, and It will probably be like that for about another week or two before I start going at it again. I have to get things together first, such as the skimmer and sump, the refractometer, I have to get more salt, sand, and I am sure that I will think of more things along the way. Thanks for the replies so far folks.

 

[Florida8]

I hear that... I will be doing my 1st shrimp cycle this time as well... I have always used fish in the past but I'm ready to watch it all evolve. I agree, waiting until you can have the best equipment, like me for better lighting, ugh... LOL.... to avoid problems of the past is best.

I say use the blue, but I use a black backing... but I like the blue a lot too... I think most are reversible, blue on one side, corals on the other... giving you the option to use both to decide which you like best