180 Gallon SPS Reef sand bed change (1 Viewer)

[BILLYO382]

Just thought id post a picture of my sps tank(4ft x 3ft x2ft tall). Recently i've been battling phosphates from 0.02-0.08 and was tired of burning through GFO so I added an ATS to the system which has took about a month to start working and was tired of my 2 year old sugar sand bed that was possibly leaching phosphates. So I said to heck with it and underwent a day long transformation by removing all fish, rocks, & corals. What a pain it was but I love the results thus far. Anyhow lmk what you think, enjoy pict's below.

before


all empty


added carib sea reef grade sand


after






Phospahtes as of today

 

[madehtsobi]

what is this ATO system? all i can think is automatic top off? unless mispelled it? ATS? algae turf scrubber?

but regardless, it looks awesome!

 

[webster1234]

Very nice set up!

 

[BILLYO382]

what is this ATO system? all i can think is automatic top off? unless mispelled it? ATS? algae turf scrubber?

but regardless, it looks awesome!

Yes i added an Algae turf scrubber (ats), thanks

Very nice set up!

Thankyou

 

[madehtsobi]

cool. any pics of that setup?

 

[jqsquared]

Where did you put everything while you cleaned the tank out? Looks awesome btw!

 

[fishcraze_1]

Josh. You had quite the job buddy. I'm sure it was a pain to do all that but looks awesome. I'm gonna have to stop by soon and check that beauty out. Looks awesome.

 

[BILLYO382]

cool. any pics of that setup?

sure

Where did you put everything while you cleaned the tank out? Looks awesome btw!

in 3 x 30 gallon rubbermaid containers and 1 - 40 gallon breeder, & 2- 55 barrells to hold water. Thankyou for the compliment

Josh. You had quite the job buddy. I'm sure it was a pain to do all that but looks awesome. I'm gonna have to stop by soon and check that beauty out. Looks awesome.

Yes it was a huge job indeed, you have no idea how much work and hours that took, lol. For sure your welcome to come by and check out my little box.

 

[d2mini]

That really turned out great! Tank looks awesome.

 

[sergio nuncio]

I always dread projects like this but the results are always so darn rewarding !! Great Job

 

[Mark L.]

Looks great man. Keep us updated on your coral health. SPS are so temperamental a project like that would scare the crap out of me. LOL!

 

[BILLYO382]

That really turned out great! Tank looks awesome.

Thankyou sir

I always dread projects like this but the results are always so darn rewarding !! Great Job

Me too, lol but yep very much so

 

[RR-MAN]

Looks great man. That's a lot of work especially with the delicate SPS. You touch'em and they break.

How long it took you to rinse that much sand? I run BB but thinking about adding a think layer of sand. I prefer the med size versus the fine grain.

 

[CBBSteve]

Nice work, BillyO.
Congrats!

good luck,
Steve

 

[inigomontoya]

Looks good Josh.

 

[mwilliams62]

Very nice tank.. A lot of work there.. But aren't you concerned that changing all that sand out at one time is going to cause it to cycle all over?

 

[BILLYO382]

Looks great man. Keep us updated on your coral health. SPS are so temperamental a project like that would scare the crap out of me. LOL!

Thanks for the compliment Mark, you saw me breaking my back lugging all that sand out of Denis shop the other day,lol. But I will deff. keep everyone posted on coral health as alot of people are interested in doing something similar, im the guinea pig lol. Everything is still doing well. knock on wood.

Looks great man. That's a lot of work especially with the delicate SPS. You touch'em and they break.
How long it took you to rinse that much sand? I run BB but thinking about adding a think layer of sand. I prefer the med size versus the fine grain.

Appreciate the compliment. Yes sir back breaking work and loads of time. It took me about 1 & 1/2 hrs to rinse all the sand. Yea I do to, I like the 1mm-2mm thick sand.

Nice work, BillyO.
Congrats!

good luck,
Steve

Thanks Steve

 

[BILLYO382]

Looks good Josh.

Thanks Jeff

Very nice tank.. A lot of work there.. But aren't you concerned that changing all that sand out at one time is going to cause it to cycle all over?

Thanks, but no, im not worried as I do run bio pellets so I still have alot of bacteria in the system and I left my refugium sand alone, so I think that helps keep things stable too.

 

[jqsquared]

Any updates, dealing with a troubled sand bed myself now. Long story short I believe what happened is I moved my tank replaced sand mixed with several cups live sand of old. Shortly after ALK line clogged didnt discover this for a month or two. Over use of CAL clumped the sand trapping in what had accumulated, fixed the ALK line. Tank is balancing out which is leaching the muck from the sand now. Hair algae growing from the sand bed....Gosh a mess.

 

[BILLYO382]

Any updates, dealing with a troubled sand bed myself now. Long story short I believe what happened is I moved my tank replaced sand mixed with several cups live sand of old. Shortly after ALK line clogged didnt discover this for a month or two. Over use of CAL clumped the sand trapping in what had accumulated, fixed the ALK line. Tank is balancing out which is leaching the muck from the sand now. Hair algae growing from the sand bed....Gosh a mess.

Man sorry to hear about your situation, im working on a new setup at the moment, but I never had any problems after swapping the sand. Sounds like you need to do the same, dont fret. Take care