Im considering removing the live rock from my 75 gallon aquarium. I have 2 Rena xp2's packed with filter pads for the first tray and a ton of ceramic rings for the second tray. I plan on redoing the tank completely. New fish, new decor, gonna keep my deep sand bed and use a very large sunken ship for hiding places. Is the live rock a necessary item or will the ceramic rings and Ddeep sand bedor support the tank. I plan on building a refugium out of an Aquaclear 110 I have. Im just concerned about the impact of removing the rock. My filters are cleaned once a week. Filter pads rinsed and rings rinsed in aquarium water.
live rock or no live rock
- Thread starter mudslinger
- Start date
This is for a salt tank?? If it was me a double up on the live rock (not only does it look cool but it serves as filtration too), get rid of the rena's, add a sump with live rock rubble.. in the long run canistor filters and hob filters became a trap for the nasties and you may have alot of issues with your water perameters. (though i have seen some really nice salt tanks running rena but they are cleaning the meda every two days to keep the water from spikeing!)
You'll be removing a major bed of bacteria when you do it. But if you are redoing the tank, it's a good time to pull it if you want to. Just keep in mind you'll have less carrying ability when it comes to adding fish the next time around, so add slowly and let the colony grow as you go.
Yes this is a marine aquarium. It has 60-80chased lbs of rock in it now. Think what I'm going to do is keep that rock and incorporate a large sunken ship into the mix. Make my extra 110 aquaclear into a refugium, remove one of the Rena filters and work on building a sump. I just don't know where to begin on a sump build. I will admit it makes me nervous. The plumbing and all looks complex.
Sump is only going to add more volume. A lot of people treat them like it's some type of magical filter. Plumbing is easy. Let water gravity feed into it from overflows, and use a pump to move water back up to the tank via a canister filter. Maybe toss some filter pad in the path of the over flow water, so you get some good mechanical filtration going and keep crap out of the sump. If anything, I'd relocate the rock to the sump.
The plumbing isn't all that bad. The overflow box to sump system is extremely easy. I have a wetdry (came with tank) and on paper the setup was confusing and was worried if I lost power I'd have a floor full of water. But the overflow boxes are designed to prevent that from happening. I like the idea of a sump because you can have mechanical, biological and chemical filtration as well as the skimmer all in one unit.
I'd keep the LR as it does house a vast majority of your BB
I'd keep the LR as it does house a vast majority of your BB
When I first started the tank I had 2 bio-wheel 400's and just 1 Rena xp 2 on it and the water was insanely clear and clean. Had the same rock in it as it does now. Took off the bio-wheels and added another Rena and the Nitrates started to go up over time. Started to clean the filter pads on a more regular basis and perform water changes once a week and that helped greatly. I don't have a skimmer on the tank. I believe that is going to be my next purchase.
I'm goinf to keep the rock in the tank and incorporate a large sunken ship into it. I think the rocks laying around he ship would look good. Add some coral here and there, remove one of the rena filters and get a skimmer and more rock. I plan on putting in a purple reef lobster, flame angel, couple of black and white damsels and some coral. More coral than fish prefeably. Thanks for your help guys.
I'm goinf to keep the rock in the tank and incorporate a large sunken ship into it. I think the rocks laying around he ship would look good. Add some coral here and there, remove one of the rena filters and get a skimmer and more rock. I plan on putting in a purple reef lobster, flame angel, couple of black and white damsels and some coral. More coral than fish prefeably. Thanks for your help guys.