Best Way To Restart???

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by kracer1025, Jun 2, 2011.

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  1. kracer1025

    kracer1025 Skunk Shrimp

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    Location:
    New Mexico
    My tank is currently a 90 gallon mixed reef. I have several pieces of live rock that are fully covered with zoas and palys, some mushrooms around. My main love is sps corals, but I am affraid that with the amount of soft and lps corals I currently have in my tank my sps growth is suffering.
    I am thinking of possibly getting rid of all my current live rock and starting fresh with new rock.
    The problem that I have is for 1 the cycle that will start and I really like my current stocking. My fish have been disease free for over a year. I would really like to start fresh with higher end sps corals and get rid of the few pests I have in my tank now (majano, and aptasia)
    I have noticed that the sps corals close to any soft corals have either grown away from the other corals or stopped growing all together. What options do you think I have to start over, but keep my current fish if possible.
    Here are a couple tank photos so you can see the areas being taken over by zoas.
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    Just kicked on the lights to take some pics so some of the corals do not look very good sorry for the bad pics.
     
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  3. fishyfinder

    fishyfinder Teardrop Maxima Clam

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    Heck I'll trade ya tanks. haha You can then start over with mine. I think it looks great!
     
  4. kracer1025

    kracer1025 Skunk Shrimp

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    Thanks I appreciate the kind words. I think it looks good also, maybe just a bit bored.
     
  5. xmetalfan99

    xmetalfan99 Giant Squid

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    I see you have a sump. Buy some dry rock from bulk reef supply or reefcleaners.org. Make sure the amount you buy is the same as or close to what you will be removing weight wise. Place the dry rock in your sump. Leave the dry rock in the sump for about a month so the dry rock is live rock.

    OR

    Put your old rock that you want to remove in your sump and the new rock in your tank so you can get your sps away from your softies.
     
  6. kracer1025

    kracer1025 Skunk Shrimp

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    Great idea, my only worry would be a small cycle from the new rock going into the tank. I currently have around 25 sps corals that would probably not handle any type of ammonia spike or water condition changes very well.
     
  7. xmetalfan99

    xmetalfan99 Giant Squid

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    Dry rock will not cause a cycle.
     
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  9. kracer1025

    kracer1025 Skunk Shrimp

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    Thanks, I have always used live rock from my lfs and have never used dry rock before. I was just on reefcleaners website and was just reading that their rock will not cause a cycle.
    Do you think that it would be possible to keep any of the pests that are in my display off of the dry rock in the sump. 1 of the main reasons for doing this is to get rid of my majano and aptasia problem. Shy of buying the new zapper I have tried just about everything else to get rid of these pests just to have 5 more for every 1 that I kill come back.
     
  10. Cjiggajess

    Cjiggajess Bristle Worm

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    OMG :Looking: I ADORE ur tank!!!! WOW!!!! Im so showing my hubs this pic hes going to be drooling!!!!
     
  11. kracer1025

    kracer1025 Skunk Shrimp

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    Thank you :)
     
  12. xmetalfan99

    xmetalfan99 Giant Squid

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    Is there aptasia and majano on the rocks you will be keeping? How do you kill them?