Switching over my filters for reef keeping - oops Help pleas

[ogden10]

Gees, I feel like a newbie all over again!

Ok, well for those of you that have not seen my other posts I am in the process of switching on of my 55 gal tanks from FOWLR to full reef tank. So far I have changed my lighting so that I now how 260 watts PC, I have added live rock to total about 60-70 lbs, and raised my salinity to 1.22/23. Now I need to switch over my filters. What I have now on this tank is an eheim canister filter with ceramic noodles and filters in it, and a Penguin biowheel 350 on there. More then enough for FOWLR. Now, the guy at my LFS says that I need to take the biological elements out of there (i.e biowheel, and noodles) in order to keep rates down for a successful reef tank. He suggested taking the biowheels off one at a time (there are 2) then wait a few days and take the other off. Then after a week or so take the noodles out of the canister filter, leaving the pads to trap big stuff. Does this sound right? If I take all those out will things be ok? Also what do I do with the pads in the Penguin as I know they have carbon in them, and he said carbon is bad for a reef tank.

Also if everyone agrees this is the right course of action can I reverse the order. I need to do maintenance on my canister anyway so what if when I do I just don't put the noodles back in there? Also should I put the Ehfistrate (basically little rocks) back in? I guess once all this is out of the filter the only reason to keep it running is to trap big stuff in the pads and for circulation right? Same with the Penguin as I was told to remove all the biowheels and the pads anyway.

Sorry for all the questions but all of this is a little backwards of my other tanks.

Oh yeah also how important do most think a skimmer is a reef tank. I have one on each of my other tanks, but this tank did not have one and I am debating if I need one.

Basically I am just concerned that if I remove all biological filtration, and all carbon, and just leave an empty penguin and canister will the rock filter enough for things to be healthy.....It seems so backwards to me versus my other tanks with wetdrys, bioballs, skimmers, and everything else to just have nothing.

Man sorry to go on and on, just alot to sort out with this setup

 

[lando]

I would add another 30lbs of LR, get a nice skimmer an call it good. With nough biological filtration and aggressive skimming your filtering needs should be met. You can run the canister if you want for some extra movement and a place to run chemical filtration and for water polishing but it is really not needed.

 

[ogden10]

Ok, but in the mean time, as I have already pushed the budget quite a bit with the new lighting and 30 lbs of rock I bought in the last 2 weeks what would you suggest. Should I start takig the bio filtration out of there...remove the wheels and noodles? SHould I just remove the Penguin all together? I have a Aqua C that I can move to this tank which should take care of skimming. If I remove all the bio stuff at once won't there be a huge rise in my levels?

 

[lando]

Should I start takig the bio filtration out of there

If used in your FW set up, yes. If it is new media you can leave it for now to help out until your LR is built up.

SHould I just remove the Penguin all together?

I would

 

[buvaren]

Don't remove everything at once if you have any fish or coral in the tank. I believe you stated that your LFS said to take one piece of bio-filtration out at a time, and this is what I have read and been told as well. The more LR the better, but I believe it's a matter of style past about 1 1/2 lbs per gallon. By only taking out one piece of bio at a time, you allow the bio in the LR to build up to replace it so that you don't have huge spikes in your parameters. If you've just turned the tank over, and are going through a cycle, than I don't think it matters if you pull it all at one time.

 

[ogden10]

to clarify it was never FW it has always been SW, just not a reef tank. It used to be a SW FOWLR, but much less live rock. There is currently a Maroon Clown, a large BT Anemone, and a Leather Coral in there. I just added about 30 pounds of LR to what was already in there. The live rock was already cycled when I added it.

Sorry if there was confusion, I am just converting it to a full blown reef tank, rather then a FOWLR...See what I mean?

 

[lando]

That is a bit clearer. What are your current NO3 levels? What were they when you had you FOWLR set up?

 

[hcuellart]

I would go slowly on taking the media out, and would do that last effort to buy a nice skimmer...

 

[ogden10]

Ok so I had to do a partial water change today, and decided to take out about 3/4 of the ceramic noodles and leave both the bio wheels running. Now about 3 hours later I check and my amonia has gone up from 0 to about .25 and my anemone seems to be stressing out. What should I do? I am doing another 5 gal change now and hope that helps, and the noodles have been out of water all morning so putting them back in will not do any good now. I really do not want to kill the coral and anemone that is in the tank now. Any suggestions

Natrate levels were a little high which is why I decided to do a change this morning. There were about 10 ppm this morning and are now up to about 20 ppm. I dont get it, this tank has been stable for over a year, just taking out some of the bio filtration could cause all this??? Well I hope that things work out cause I have no more water to do changes with.

Thanks
Kevin

 

[buvaren]

I would hold off on any more changes in the tank right now. You just took out about 1/3 of your established biological filtration. Let the live rock and and live sand play catch up now, so they can replace the noodles.

Not sure how long you should wait before taking out other parts, but I imagine you don't want to do it to soon, in order to give your tanks inhabitants time to recover.

Hopefully the anemone will hang on!

 

[hcuellart]

Water changes!!! Do small water changes twice or three times a week, you did say your LR was already cycled, right? Do you know how much time was it cycled? If the LR is somewhat new/not cycled 100%, then you will have to do more water changes untill everything stabilizes.

 

[ogden10]

Live rock was completely cycled, for over a month at least. It seems that after I did the second water change things calmed down a little bit. The lights are on now and my anemone seems to be doing better, not quite as full as she normally is, but better then this afternoon. I am going to give it the rest of the day and check tomorrow and see what is going on. If things get much worse I will just move the anemone to another tank and stabilize this one with no life in it, but I would really not like to stress everything out by moving it.

Any suggestions on when or if to remove the other biological elements (rest of the noodles and the 2 bio wheels)? This is something that I need to do for a successful reef tank correct?

Thanks for all the help

 

[ogden10]

Update....tank seems to be doing ok, but the weird thing is that some of my live rock appears to be dieing off...well at least the purple coraline is turning white and coming off. Is this a result of removing bio material from the filters. Any suggestions on slowing or stopping this. I was thinking about adding some of the Reef DNA or Purple up stuff. I know that eventually it will come back, I am just concerned about the rock dieoff adding to my ammonia levels (not sure if it will or not)

 

[hcuellart]

What are your CA and ALK levels? Coralline algae is quite sensitive to sudden changes in these parameters. If you have access to Seachems Reef Calcium which is an organic form of Calcium try using it, it does wonders in growing coralline.
Regards,

 

[ogden10]

I think that I maybe figured out the problem with the rock. When I had to do the emergency water changes to control the ammonia levels I did not have time to age the salt water, I just had to mix it and go. Someone suggested to me that the PH was probably off, and that this would be cause for the rock to loose the coraline and turn white. Strange thing is my corals have not had any negative effects, just the LR. The only supplement that I am adding to the tank is iodine. According to the LFS all my other levels are fine with my water changes.

Also I am thinking of using Purple up instead (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12799&N=2004+113028)
As I understand it, this product would be used instead of the Reef Vital and adding seperate Iodine. I am really interested to know if anyone has used this or suggests it.
Also I am thinking of using Reef vital DNA for my anemones and live rock and reather dusters. Anyone have any experience with this product. Would this be overkill combined with the purple up???

 

[greenmaji]

do you have your own water testkit?

 

[ogden10]

yep I have my own. It is the master SW kit. It has all the standard tests.