Need advice from the experts

RSG1211 · Mar 20, 2021

Hi all, I hope you are well. I'm in need of some expert advice...

I used to be big in the hobby 20 years ago and am now getting bank into it. I currently have a nano cube 24 (established for 2 years) and I unfortunately had a BTA mishap. It never did well from the day I put him into my tank and long story short, he declined fast and I didn't remove it quick enough. Then, all 5 of my fish died shortly after.

Here is why I need advice...after the fish died, I decided I'm building something bigger and better. I got a 30 gallon shallow tank with an IceCap sump and Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer. I do still have all of my inverts in the nano cube but want to build out the new tank into a reef tank. My question...should I start from scratch with the reef tank and put new sand and rocks in and do a new cycle? Or could I use the sand and live rock (and inverts) from the Nano Cube (plus some more live rock) to start the 30 gallon reef tank? Of course, I'd let it run for awhile before adding more fish and corals, but would love to hear some advice from you all.

Thank you in advance!

TexanCanuck · Mar 20, 2021

Absolutely!

Keep all of your sand, live rock, and any healthy inhabitant left and use them to jump-start your new tank. The sand and live rock will GREATLY accelerate the cycle for the new tank and you will be able to add new livestock faster.

I'm sorry for the loss of your BTA, but as long as you rinse the live rock well in freshly mixed salt water made from RODI you won't have a problem.

RSG1211 · Mar 20, 2021

TexanCanuck said:
Absolutely!

Keep all of your sand, live rock, and any healthy inhabitant left and use them to jump-start your new tank. The sand and live rock will GREATLY accelerate the cycle for the new tank and you will be able to add new livestock faster.

I'm sorry for the loss of your BTA, but as long as you rinse the live rock well in freshly mixed salt water made from RODI you won't have a problem.

Thank you very much. I'll make sure to rise live rock well before adding everything to the new tank. I will need more rock for the new tank...should I add more live rock? Or dry rock?

I will also have a refugium in the sump eventually. Is Chaeto the recommended algae?

Thanks for the help!

TexanCanuck · Mar 20, 2021

If your existing LR has been culturing for more than 2 years in your existing tank, I would definitely use the cheaper "dry rock" to reach the requires mass for your bigger tank. Real live rock is tough to find and very expensive.

Chaeto is awesome at exporting nutrients ... but it can actually work TOO good. When I first starting using it I found it keep dying off after a few weeks ... turns out it needs high levels of both nitrate and phosphate to survive, so after it does its job of reducing both these values, it begins to starve and die off. In theory, you should be able to adjust for this by reducing the photoperiod of your refugium light ... but try as I might I never had great success keeping Chaeto alive for more than a couple of months. But I always had great water quality!

In the end, I switched to using Pom Pom (Gracilaria Hayi). being a red macro, it needs much less light and grows much slower than Chaeto, but still processes excess nutrients in the water column ... just turned out to be a better match for my sump, bio load, and refugium lighting.

But every tank is different ... if you have enough bio load or feed your fish enough, maybe Chaeto will work great for you ... I know many people who swear by it

RSG1211 · Mar 21, 2021

TexanCanuck said:
If your existing LR has been culturing for more than 2 years in your existing tank, I would definitely use the cheaper "dry rock" to reach the requires mass for your bigger tank. Real live rock is tough to find and very expensive.

Chaeto is awesome at exporting nutrients ... but it can actually work TOO good. When I first starting using it I found it keep dying off after a few weeks ... turns out it needs high levels of both nitrate and phosphate to survive, so after it does its job of reducing both these values, it begins to starve and die off. In theory, you should be able to adjust for this by reducing the photoperiod of your refugium light ... but try as I might I never had great success keeping Chaeto alive for more than a couple of months. But I always had great water quality!

In the end, I switched to using Pom Pom (Gracilaria Hayi). being a red macro, it needs much less light and grows much slower than Chaeto, but still processes excess nutrients in the water column ... just turned out to be a better match for my sump, bio load, and refugium lighting.

But every tank is different ... if you have enough bio load or feed your fish enough, maybe Chaeto will work great for you ... I know many people who swear by it

Thank you! Can I ask you one more question?

So this is a 30 gal shallow tank...would 3/4" drain plumbing with 1/2" return pipe work okay? The pump will be a maxijet 1200.

Thanks!