Dieter Kedrowitsch
April 23rd 04, 04:12 PM
Subject says it all. Just 3 weeks ago I moved into a new apartment
and setup an existing 75 gal freshwater heavily planted tank as a SW
system.
The FW stuff was moved to another tank I up upstairs and the 75 gal
was completely washed out and started over. Here are the details of
the 'new' tank:
75 gal All-Glass tank (not drilled)
10 gal sump under tank (will be upgraded in a few weeks to a much
larger DIY sump once I get a sheet of acrylite)
CPR CS100 800gph overflow box
Mag 9.5 return pump - return plumbing is 3/4" PCV enters tank via home
brew spray bar made from 3/4" PVC with roughly 15 holes drilled to
make smooth even current across tank.
Berlin triple pass Turbo skimmer in sump
802 Powerhead in tank used to keep syphin primed (sill on the fence
with this overflow requiring a constant prime)
Home made canopy housing 2x 175w MH lamps 5500K Venture bulbs (will
replace with 6500K or 10000K soon) AND 2x 40w GE Ultra Daylight 6500K
T12s. Dual fan cooled.
Cooltouch MH ballast unit (crap, had to rework ballast mounting inside
large heatsink box to keep ballasts from overheating. From the
factory the ballasts (Advance core/cap) were not even touching the
aluminum heatsink chassis to dissipate heat. Reworked so cores are
clamped to the case w/hs compound and they stay nice and cool now)
Berlin triple pass Turbo skimmer in sump
Proquatics 160 ghp canister filter filled with filter floss to help
filter the substrate cloud. Filters from the sump.
I plan to grow this setup into a reef tank so I was advised to use
fine crushed coral as my substrate. I didn't know about the southdown
sand from home depot at the time or I would have chosen that so I'm
stuck with the CC. From what I understand, crushed coral is fine as
long as its very fine and not large grains to prevent a buildup of
waste and eventually nitrates. So I should be fine with my finely
crushed coral. I have 80 lbs in the tank creating about a 2" sand
bed. I have another 20lbs I will probably add to make it even deeper.
Anyway, now to the problem at hand!
I chose not to rince it to keep the very fine 'dust' particals in the
substrate as I read that can be helpful to fight nitrates, but it made
a HUGE cloud. The tank ran for a week to let the water clear up and
eventually the cloud cleared and water was stable enough to add fish
(spec grav 1.024, ph 8.2, ammonia/nitrites/nitrates 0, hardness 400)
so I added a pair of yellow tail blue damsels to start the cycle.
What is happening is, it seems no matter what I do even the slightest
current will slowly push large 'holes' in my substrate strait down the
the glass bottom. The spray bar makes a nice even current that
doesn't seem to cause too much substrate movement, even with the
larger Mag 9.5 running wide open into the spraybar, but any
concentrated curent from a powerhead will deflect off of the glass and
right down to the sand, blowing it away.
Would adding southdown sand ontop of the fine CC to hold it down? Or
does all fine sand blow around so easy? After the tank matures, will
'stuff' from the fish, live rock, inverts, bacteria, etc help hold the
sand in place?
Any comments on the fine crushed coral in general? It seems everyones
problem with it has to do with the large grain stuff. Is the small
grain stuff OK for a reef tank?
Thanks!! Sorry for the long post,
Dieter
and setup an existing 75 gal freshwater heavily planted tank as a SW
system.
The FW stuff was moved to another tank I up upstairs and the 75 gal
was completely washed out and started over. Here are the details of
the 'new' tank:
75 gal All-Glass tank (not drilled)
10 gal sump under tank (will be upgraded in a few weeks to a much
larger DIY sump once I get a sheet of acrylite)
CPR CS100 800gph overflow box
Mag 9.5 return pump - return plumbing is 3/4" PCV enters tank via home
brew spray bar made from 3/4" PVC with roughly 15 holes drilled to
make smooth even current across tank.
Berlin triple pass Turbo skimmer in sump
802 Powerhead in tank used to keep syphin primed (sill on the fence
with this overflow requiring a constant prime)
Home made canopy housing 2x 175w MH lamps 5500K Venture bulbs (will
replace with 6500K or 10000K soon) AND 2x 40w GE Ultra Daylight 6500K
T12s. Dual fan cooled.
Cooltouch MH ballast unit (crap, had to rework ballast mounting inside
large heatsink box to keep ballasts from overheating. From the
factory the ballasts (Advance core/cap) were not even touching the
aluminum heatsink chassis to dissipate heat. Reworked so cores are
clamped to the case w/hs compound and they stay nice and cool now)
Berlin triple pass Turbo skimmer in sump
Proquatics 160 ghp canister filter filled with filter floss to help
filter the substrate cloud. Filters from the sump.
I plan to grow this setup into a reef tank so I was advised to use
fine crushed coral as my substrate. I didn't know about the southdown
sand from home depot at the time or I would have chosen that so I'm
stuck with the CC. From what I understand, crushed coral is fine as
long as its very fine and not large grains to prevent a buildup of
waste and eventually nitrates. So I should be fine with my finely
crushed coral. I have 80 lbs in the tank creating about a 2" sand
bed. I have another 20lbs I will probably add to make it even deeper.
Anyway, now to the problem at hand!
I chose not to rince it to keep the very fine 'dust' particals in the
substrate as I read that can be helpful to fight nitrates, but it made
a HUGE cloud. The tank ran for a week to let the water clear up and
eventually the cloud cleared and water was stable enough to add fish
(spec grav 1.024, ph 8.2, ammonia/nitrites/nitrates 0, hardness 400)
so I added a pair of yellow tail blue damsels to start the cycle.
What is happening is, it seems no matter what I do even the slightest
current will slowly push large 'holes' in my substrate strait down the
the glass bottom. The spray bar makes a nice even current that
doesn't seem to cause too much substrate movement, even with the
larger Mag 9.5 running wide open into the spraybar, but any
concentrated curent from a powerhead will deflect off of the glass and
right down to the sand, blowing it away.
Would adding southdown sand ontop of the fine CC to hold it down? Or
does all fine sand blow around so easy? After the tank matures, will
'stuff' from the fish, live rock, inverts, bacteria, etc help hold the
sand in place?
Any comments on the fine crushed coral in general? It seems everyones
problem with it has to do with the large grain stuff. Is the small
grain stuff OK for a reef tank?
Thanks!! Sorry for the long post,
Dieter