FarmerTy's 215-gallon SPS Tank

dragon99

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WWC Nightrider
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What's this now, a new precious?
 
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FarmerTy

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What's this now, a new precious?
Had that sucker for a long time now. It’s unique. Won’t win any rainbow colored contests but one of the only few “dark” acros I’ve ever seen. Has a nice baby blue sheen to the inner branches.
 
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FarmerTy

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Uh Oh!!! What now????????????
Display was looking a little old. Wanted to give it a Hollywood face lift. Also wanted to replace the sand as well. I’m not as big of a fan of the tropic eden reeflakes anymore, particles are too large and hardly moves allowing coralline and algae to grow on it. Want to go back to caribsea special reef grade sand.
 

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Display was looking a little old. Wanted to give it a Hollywood face lift. Also wanted to replace the sand as well. I’m not as big of a fan of the tropic eden reeflakes anymore, particles are too large and hardly moves allowing coralline and algae to grow on it. Want to go back to caribsea special reef grade sand.
I've been S L O W L Y going about the same thing, trying not to disturb the biome too much. One rock pile at a time.

I almost think I should've just ripped and reloaded in one big go, as this process has kept the system slightly off balance since the process started late last Summer. I didn't lose sticks or fish, just a constantly evolving set of uglies. And the really strange thing? While I have to scrape coralline off the front/side glass like always, a lot of my old growth coralline died. The back glass was hot pink for years, but since this began it has lost color and fallen off in chunks. Strange.
 
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FarmerTy

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I've been S L O W L Y going about the same thing, trying not to disturb the biome too much. One rock pile at a time.

I almost think I should've just ripped and reloaded in one big go, as this process has kept the system slightly off balance since the process started late last Summer. I didn't lose sticks or fish, just a constantly evolving set of uglies. And the really strange thing? While I have to scrape coralline off the front/side glass like always, a lot of my old growth coralline died. The back glass was hot pink for years, but since this began it has lost color and fallen off in chunks. Strange.
I’ve got to do a bit more research on the subject. The goal is to cure with some rock from my current system and the live indo rock I picked up a couple months ago. Once I see sponges, it’s go time. Thought was to do one quick rock swap and endure whatever happens after that.

I was concerned about constantly changing it and keeping it off balance like you mentioned you experienced. Did you leave your sand in place or swap that out too?

Part of this process is to revive my system and keep from old tank syndrome as well.
 

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I’ve got to do a bit more research on the subject. The goal is to cure with some rock from my current system and the live indo rock I picked up a couple months ago. Once I see sponges, it’s go time. Thought was to do one quick rock swap and endure whatever happens after that.

I was concerned about constantly changing it and keeping it off balance like you mentioned you experienced. Did you leave your sand in place or swap that out too?

Part of this process is to revive my system and keep from old tank syndrome as well.
IMO going with live rock is infinitely better. I was trying to get aquascape fancy with stuff like pictured below. Very dead stuff. Just thought that incrementally I could make it through. While nobody died, it is continually ugly. I had a PO4 deficit issue each time I replaced loaded rock with Marco. Marco does not have PO4 I don't care what anybody says. I soaked and measured. Nothing. I drop it in the tank and PO4 falls like a rock.

I like your process better. If you can get the measure of cure water PO4 equivalent to the tank even better.

My sand is well managed. Rock is suspended on pylons and the sand gets well blasted every 2 weeks or so. That was my plan for addressing old tank syndrome. Clamp a pump on the glass with a silicone hose and blast away until you can't see inside, then water change. Then look for all the accidental frags I broke off.

I will track your process with interest.
IMG-4344.jpg
 

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IMO going with live rock is infinitely better. I was trying to get aquascape fancy with stuff like pictured below. Very dead stuff. Just thought that incrementally I could make it through. While nobody died, it is continually ugly. I had a PO4 deficit issue each time I replaced loaded rock with Marco. Marco does not have PO4 I don't care what anybody says. I soaked and measured. Nothing. I drop it in the tank and PO4 falls like a rock.

I like your process better. If you can get the measure of cure water PO4 equivalent to the tank even better.

My sand is well managed. Rock is suspended on pylons and the sand gets well blasted every 2 weeks or so. That was my plan for addressing old tank syndrome. Clamp a pump on the glass with a silicone hose and blast away until you can't see inside, then water change. Then look for all the accidental frags I broke off.

I will track your process with interest.
IMG-4344.jpg
Just bag those accidental frags up and send them my way. No since In wasting your precious time remounting all those!

I’m gonna just throw a thought out here and maybe you guys can tell me where my thinking may be flawed. Instead of swapping existing rock with new, would it not be best to put your new rock into the system and let the micro fauna populate it for a month or two and then start pulling the existing rock slowly?

I am also contemplating just adding about 15-25 lbs of live rock structure to my 200g system. So this topic interests me. Some of the proposed rock is prestine dry rock and some is previous live rock that I have dried out, but not cleaned yet.
 

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Just bag those accidental frags up and send them my way. No since In wasting your precious time remounting all those!

I’m gonna just throw a thought out here and maybe you guys can tell me where my thinking may be flawed. Instead of swapping existing rock with new, would it not be best to put your new rock into the system and let the micro fauna populate it for a month or two and then start pulling the existing rock slowly?

I am also contemplating just adding about 15-25 lbs of live rock structure to my 200g system. So this topic interests me. Some of the proposed rock is prestine dry rock and some is previous live rock that I have dried out, but not cleaned yet.
Sounds like that is about what @FarmerTy is cooking up. I didn't have the spare room in my display or sump, but a few pieces I did cook in my frag sump for a while. Seemed to help a little with the uglies.
 
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FarmerTy

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IMO going with live rock is infinitely better. I was trying to get aquascape fancy with stuff like pictured below. Very dead stuff. Just thought that incrementally I could make it through. While nobody died, it is continually ugly. I had a PO4 deficit issue each time I replaced loaded rock with Marco. Marco does not have PO4 I don't care what anybody says. I soaked and measured. Nothing. I drop it in the tank and PO4 falls like a rock.

I like your process better. If you can get the measure of cure water PO4 equivalent to the tank even better.

My sand is well managed. Rock is suspended on pylons and the sand gets well blasted every 2 weeks or so. That was my plan for addressing old tank syndrome. Clamp a pump on the glass with a silicone hose and blast away until you can't see inside, then water change. Then look for all the accidental frags I broke off.

I will track your process with interest.
IMG-4344.jpg
That’s a great looking rock structure! Were you putting them in dry with each swap?

I wish I managed my sand better. I went old school and left it be. Treated me well over the years but realized I always upgraded systems every 3 years and for the first time, I have a 4 year old system and I’m not liking where it’s headed. I’ve been reefing long enough I can see the tell-take signs of an impending crash if I leave it this way for another year or so.
 
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FarmerTy

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Just bag those accidental frags up and send them my way. No since In wasting your precious time remounting all those!

I’m gonna just throw a thought out here and maybe you guys can tell me where my thinking may be flawed. Instead of swapping existing rock with new, would it not be best to put your new rock into the system and let the micro fauna populate it for a month or two and then start pulling the existing rock slowly?

I am also contemplating just adding about 15-25 lbs of live rock structure to my 200g system. So this topic interests me. Some of the proposed rock is prestine dry rock and some is previous live rock that I have dried out, but not cleaned yet.
I didn’t want new rock to cycle in the tank. Only reason I’ll be curing them in a tub for a bit first to minimize the cycle. Basically run with a true live rock swap with rock seeded from my own bacterial cultures of my system and direct indo rock cultures. I’m fine adding one dry rock to my system to let it cure in the sump but adding too much dry rock can set off a mini cycle in the tank and I definitely am avoiding that if I can.
 
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FarmerTy

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I just gotta figure out what I’m going to do with the sand. I’m leaning towards siphoning out 1/3rd of it each time I do a water change and replacing with the new sand that has been sitting in a bucket curing with bacteria in a bottle. Who knows.
 
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