Hi! recently I divorced a man who, bless his soul, tried to get into reef tanks as I enjoy freshwater so much, and never did much research. Now it sits abandoned looking gross, and his other stuff is all gone so I guess he is not interested in this tank because he left it here!
I am starting fresh! lol pun intended, but the tank I want to use is my own 55Gal that did not have a sump but I used as a FOWLR with a HOB skimmer for a year successfully. The old tank I am tearing down was a 29 with a 15 gallon sump, and built in overflow.
If I can fit the sump into my stand I would like to buy an overflow thingy and use the extra water capacity.
Here are my questions: How do I "clean" the 30 lbs of sand from the old tank? it looks full of green and red gross stuff, so if I must I will use some new black sand I have laying around, but it is not made for saltwater, I believe the old sand was caribsea, about a year old and only got one or two vac cleanings while in the tank.
Inhabitants:
1 blue chromis
1 cleaner shrimp
1 serpent star
1 tube worm
possible surviving snails of various types and a missing lawnmower blenny, who was always shy..
The old tank was set up with too much direct sun, and the lighting has been disrupted for a month now, so I see some very weak "pulsing zenia" light grey looking skinny... also some zoanthids? they looked great before the timer was unplugged. A very sick anemone who suffered and moved all over the tank the last 3 months since he was brought home.
I will not be using the LED's anymore, they are saltcrusted and attached well to the old hood, but I do have two fixtures each holding 4x 30" T5HO bulbs that fit fairly well on the 55. they include ballasts, have been sitting unused..
The Live Rock in the old tank has lots of hairy green algae and even see some bubble algae, neither of which I have encountered before...
I am willing to use about 50lbs of base rock I had in my previous FOWLR that I have scrubbed, rinsed and let sun dry after soaking in salt water for a month when I tore down my last saltwater tank.
Do I need to rescue the LR, it is teaming with coraline and hosts the zoanthid colony.. I may have that name wrong but will post some photos asap..
How do I remove hair algae and sterilize the LR that is sitting in the sump? the evap is so bad that no water has been through the sump in several weeks, so that 15-25 lbs of rock has been sitting.
I am starting fresh! lol pun intended, but the tank I want to use is my own 55Gal that did not have a sump but I used as a FOWLR with a HOB skimmer for a year successfully. The old tank I am tearing down was a 29 with a 15 gallon sump, and built in overflow.
If I can fit the sump into my stand I would like to buy an overflow thingy and use the extra water capacity.
Here are my questions: How do I "clean" the 30 lbs of sand from the old tank? it looks full of green and red gross stuff, so if I must I will use some new black sand I have laying around, but it is not made for saltwater, I believe the old sand was caribsea, about a year old and only got one or two vac cleanings while in the tank.
Inhabitants:
1 blue chromis
1 cleaner shrimp
1 serpent star
1 tube worm
possible surviving snails of various types and a missing lawnmower blenny, who was always shy..
The old tank was set up with too much direct sun, and the lighting has been disrupted for a month now, so I see some very weak "pulsing zenia" light grey looking skinny... also some zoanthids? they looked great before the timer was unplugged. A very sick anemone who suffered and moved all over the tank the last 3 months since he was brought home.
I will not be using the LED's anymore, they are saltcrusted and attached well to the old hood, but I do have two fixtures each holding 4x 30" T5HO bulbs that fit fairly well on the 55. they include ballasts, have been sitting unused..
The Live Rock in the old tank has lots of hairy green algae and even see some bubble algae, neither of which I have encountered before...
I am willing to use about 50lbs of base rock I had in my previous FOWLR that I have scrubbed, rinsed and let sun dry after soaking in salt water for a month when I tore down my last saltwater tank.
Do I need to rescue the LR, it is teaming with coraline and hosts the zoanthid colony.. I may have that name wrong but will post some photos asap..
How do I remove hair algae and sterilize the LR that is sitting in the sump? the evap is so bad that no water has been through the sump in several weeks, so that 15-25 lbs of rock has been sitting.