Help me help my LFS buddy.

[austinsdad]

He's stuck on using Bio spira to get his tanks started and then stocked with fish. Does it in his shop and for installs. But that's another sotry in another thread someday.

What I'm trying to help him with now is to get better bacterail growth in his reef and invert tanks. Everything just looks so darned clean.

Here's the deal:

2 x 120g, 2 x 30g, & 6 x 40g for a total of 540g for reef, inverts and some hardier fish. Got those tied together and using a bare 75g sump.

Also got 6 x 40s tied together w/another 75g bare sump. In both, just a wall built where the return lines feed into it.

He also likes to use tonga branch (very little) in the display tanks. Boring and low on bacteria and nutrients IMO. He likes the clean look. I think he may be robbing his inverts and coral of good stuff. His coral display tanks are bare bottom also.

Trying to get him to consider nice porous fiji pieces in the sumps and maybe some nice funky looking garf grunge.

Considering that maybe only 40 - 50 lbs of rock would fit into each of the sumps described above (with the total gallons mentioned also), is it worth the effort and expense to add the rock and grunge? Of course the beds would never be disturbed, I guess thereby avoiding creating a nitrate factory/bed.

Is this something I should continue to pursue? If so, would LR.com rock w/low die off be OK to add? I guess it'd be the keys rock (or whichever might not get the mantis). Also, there is currently no light in the sumps.

Any ideas for the reef and invert tanks?

I'll post another day on the tied together fish only tanks since copper is an issue with those. Stuff just looks too clean to me.

[lando]

I understand the reasoning behind wanting his tanks looking clean and using little LR. It just makes the fish easer to catch for sale. However, I think he could benifit from starting a "creddability" tank. A showcase reef packed with LR, corals and fish. Not really to sell, but to show people what a real reef looks like and that he knows what he is doing.
As far as bacterial growth in the tanks, LR in the sumps is the best way. It keeps it out of the tanks so he can catch the fish but will still provide good biological filtration. Might even suggest a DSB in the sumps as well.

[austinsdad]

Might even suggest a DSB in the sumps as well.

Like garf grunge or sand, or both? How deep sand and/or grunge in the sumps with the stuff I described?

[RMPD109]

Use the grunge as an activator to current LS or dry dead sand. It will bring in great diversity. A 6 inch DSB will do everything needed.

[austinsdad]

There is no bed right now in the sumps I'm speaking of. They're bare right now. If I'm building the sumps from scratch, do I use grunge, sand and rocks?

[RMPD109]

Lay down the sand then some grunge or other LS from established tank. Put LR or rubble on top to help filtering.

[austinsdad]

3-4" sand? How much grunge? I'm gonna try to fill with rock as much as possible.

[RMPD109]

The following was taken from garfs website--

0NE POUND FOR EACH THREE GALLONS WILL ACTIVATE TWO INCHES OF ARAGONITE SAND ADD ONE POUND PER 10 GALLONS TO IMPROVE WILD LIVE SAND!

For nitrate reduction you need a minimum of 4inches for a DSB. Add that much sand then but the LS or grunge over the top of it.

[austinsdad]

Forgot about going there - as much as I've been mentioning it.

Thanks for being nice about my laziness.

Kudos!