Going from canister filter to HOB overflow

JohnO, ill vacuum the substrate in the next couple of days. I have the equipment to do it just never really done it before. I didnt think it was THAT important Guess I was wrong :-[
Im not sure about scrubbing the live rock though, I dont want to kill anything on it. I like all the little things that live on it, its cool If I scrubbed it what would it be doing?

nfarocks, thanks for the links!!! I was looking for a decent DIY skimmer! Same goes for a DIY sump if anyone has a link handy. Anything that is DIY is what I am really after so the more links the better

Cheers

 

Some people scrub their live rock...i use a power head and blow the crap off of mine..once a week or so..to each their own.
i'll post a pic of my DIY sump tonite ....very quiet and cheep to make.

 

JayKaye
here is a good link for you to see....
very cheep sump
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_overflow.php

 

You dont need to scrub the rock, do weekly waterchanges add some more live rock, and clean the substrate
I have run quite a few tanks on crushed coral although in my opinion sand is easier to clean, you could add sand on top if you want but what ever you do go slow dont add 50 lbs of uncured live rock at one time

 

nfarocks, thanks for the link! I have a good mate of mine who is a plumber, ill be talking to him soon about making this setup. ;D

kb.bear. Cheers. Im not too sure whether ill change to sand instead of CC now. I seem to be getting mixed thoughts on it and I guess "if it aint broke dont fix it"

 

I would not add sand on top. It will eventually just fall throught the CC. I would hold off on taking out the cc tho, because it is doing quite a bit of biofiltration. Once you get your skimmer running, and your fuge set up, and the amount of rock you think you will go with, then you can start removing the CC if you still wish to.

 

I see. I have posted up a similar post on another forum and they recommend to replace the CC with sand, like you said. Ill take your advice and do it further down the track but definately will change it in the future.

For now ill just keep vacuuming it to keep it at least presentable

Thanks again for all your help everyone. Really appreciate it I will definately be frequenting this board more often