Eienna
5000 Club Member
After fighting with parameter swings in the 20g, I have decided to press my 50g tank back into service and move my reef to it.
I plan for the 20g to become a refugium, housing copepods, amphipods, macroalgae and possibly feeder shrimp.
I also hope to have macro in the display. I'm going to have to hunt down some varieties that my herbies won't eat.
First, I have to get the broken 125g completely emptied and out of the way. I'm almost finished cleaning the rocks and sand for re-use. When I have the cash I'll purchase another powerhead, an overflow box (unless someone's brave enough to drill the glass 50 for me?), and a return pump. My UV died on me but I doubt I need one any more. I was only using it as a supplemental pump at this point anyway. Let's see...
I'm not planning to use a skimmer. I got the nitrate in the 20 down to 0 without one, and I prefer a healthy population of bacteria and planktonic creatures, which skimmers tend to remove. I'll be employing macroalgae and possibly lanthanum chloride to take care of phosphate, assuming there's no bacteria which removes that. I need to look into it further.
I plan on a deep sand bed, though I realize those are going out of style. The main complaint seems to be a finite "lifespan," but according to my reading it appears that if you replenish the indwelling creatures regularly it isn't an issue.
Gotta clean the 50...set it up...I guess I'll let it run with the washed rock and sand for a couple of weeks and make sure everything's hunky-dory...then add in everything from the 20...should work.
So that's the deal so far.
I plan for the 20g to become a refugium, housing copepods, amphipods, macroalgae and possibly feeder shrimp.
I also hope to have macro in the display. I'm going to have to hunt down some varieties that my herbies won't eat.
First, I have to get the broken 125g completely emptied and out of the way. I'm almost finished cleaning the rocks and sand for re-use. When I have the cash I'll purchase another powerhead, an overflow box (unless someone's brave enough to drill the glass 50 for me?), and a return pump. My UV died on me but I doubt I need one any more. I was only using it as a supplemental pump at this point anyway. Let's see...
I'm not planning to use a skimmer. I got the nitrate in the 20 down to 0 without one, and I prefer a healthy population of bacteria and planktonic creatures, which skimmers tend to remove. I'll be employing macroalgae and possibly lanthanum chloride to take care of phosphate, assuming there's no bacteria which removes that. I need to look into it further.
I plan on a deep sand bed, though I realize those are going out of style. The main complaint seems to be a finite "lifespan," but according to my reading it appears that if you replenish the indwelling creatures regularly it isn't an issue.
Gotta clean the 50...set it up...I guess I'll let it run with the washed rock and sand for a couple of weeks and make sure everything's hunky-dory...then add in everything from the 20...should work.
So that's the deal so far.
