Starting over :/

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westy101

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Feb 17, 2011
Messages
167
Hi there people decided to start over was thinking of emptying my aquarium's water completely and using all R/O saltwater from the shop the ones in the big tank which you buy per litre just wondered if I would need to leave the tank to cycle still because if so I have no where to keep my fish I have at the moment any one can help be great thanks
 
Can you remind us of your setup and everything in it.
 
Em 4 clowns 1 regal tang 2 emporer cardinals 1 flame angel 1 cream angel
200ltr tank
Canister filter
Ocean rock
 
Ok, so you have a 200L (50ish gallon) tank using a canister filter and ocean rock for your filtration? What is in the canister filter. How many pounds of LR do you have. What is your substrate (sand or crushed coral)? How long is your tank? I thought regal tangs need a 6' tank. I prefer a sump over using a canister filter. Any macro algae? What are your current readings, temp salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate

I guess I should have asked, why are you wanting to start over?
 
Well first off my canister has a bunch of different media e.g crushed rock bio balls sponges nitrate remover sponges cotton wool. I have sand and there is no live rock only ocean rock the sand bed keeps getting covered in red slim algae and the nitrite is 0 however the nitrate is around 60ppm (reason for starting over mainly) any way could you please let me know if it would be possible to remove all sand and water and all new sand and all new water from the store and just take the fish out for like 3 hours while I change all this over then just place the fish back into the tank and leave the lights off to let the calm ???
 
Canister, remove the bioballs and add more live rock rubble. Bioballs end up being a nitrate factory. By ocean rock, do you mean rock you picked up from the ocean? Can you send pictures?

Your main question can you take everything out and put new sand and water? I really need to know more about this ocean rock. If you had enough LR you could do something similar to what you're talking about because the good bacteria is in the LR. I think with what you propose you're still going to have a cycle and you don't want to put the fish through that. Still concerned with that regal, how big is the fish?
 
That's the rock we have about 25kg
 

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I can't tell from the picture. Is that porus rock? I think your problem may be the rock itself. I'd wait for others to chime in, but... The wrong kind can leach heavy metals, change PH....could be your main problem.
If my math is right, thats around 55lbs. Where did you get the rock from? Cichlid..I just worry it was from a FW tank. How long did your tank cycle for when you set it up?
 
2 months 1 month with nothing in it and one month with a butterfly fish
 
What did you use to cycle, ammonia or raw shrimp?

So your ammonia and nitrites are at 0? I guess it is cycled then and handling your bioload, just need to get rid of the nitrates. First thing I'd do myself is remove the bioballs and add LR rubble into the canister filter. Is there any chance you can fit even a 10G under the tank for a sump? I have an eshoppe overflow on my 38G with the 10G sump. LR rubble and macro-algae in it.
 
sorry, I know nothing about them. I try to keep mine simple. LR, MacroAlgae, lots of flow :)
 
I also have an internal protein skimmer would this help to reduce red algae and nitrates if I start to use this because I have recently stopped using it ?
 
yeah, the protein skimmer will take out excess nutrients that the algae is living off of. Was it working well when you were running it? What color was the junk, and was it more wet or solid?
 
There was no waste from it I thought it was not working proper
Y :S
 
The one I have as dial I can regulate. If I went one way it was too wet, the other it wouldn't bubble enough to make it up the cone into the cup. Do you know the brand name of the skimmer?
 
No just a [moderator edit] of eBay from south Korea or something lol
 
Mine is just a cheapo too
AquaticLife Internal Mini Protein Skimmer 115
But it does the job.
 
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