Crushed Coral To Sand

[StingrayKid]

Well, I have a nano reef that pretty much consists of 12lbs of live rock, a clean up crew, and one peice of soft coral. (plus equipment). After reading a bit, I've come to find crushed coral isnt that great for my nano reef. So, I want to convert the substrate to a marine sand. For freshwater, I've found this isnt that difficult.. but for salt.. I'm not sure. I do plan to upgrade this set up to a 30gallon later on. So heres my question: Can I make this conversion saftely, and if so, should I take the time to do it? Or, should I just start over in a new 30 gallon with a Live Sand substrate/regular sand substrate and get some more LR? Seeing that I have such little in the nano reef. My lighting system is sufficient enough for a 30gallon, and so is the rest of my equipment (minus the heater).

 

[Mr Miagi]

Changing over wouldnt be hard, as you've found in your FW tank. Its certainly do-able. Just recquires more thought and preperation. If your going to upgrade anyway, now might be the time. If you didnt want to upgrade, make sure you have enough tubs/buckets to support you LR, Coral, Clean up crew and what ever else you might have. If you LR is mature and you have a low bio-load, your tank shouldnt go through such a large cycle, but if youcrushed coral is mature it sounds with that much LR its probably doing most of the bio filtration. How old is the crushed coral substrate? Is it seeded or relatively new? HTH

 

[StingrayKid]

I've had the setup for at least 6 months, so I assume its mature. I think I'm going to upgrade to the 30gallon very soon just because I dont want to upgrade later after going through this transition. Plus, I get more options for fish and such, along with the fact it will be a safer investment due to its size vs. a nano reef.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Well because its mature, and would have a nice amount of bacteria and life in it already, I would wait till you are ready to upgrade to the 30, and scatter it underneath you new sand, so it isnt visible, but helps the seeding process. If you wanted you could also mix it in.

 

[StingrayKid]

I'm vey close to being able to upgrade, so, I'll keep that in mind. I just cleaned out the 30gallon which used to be my old freshwater community tank. (I moved the fish my 55gallon community). Since the 30gallon is going to give me more options fishwise, I wanted to do the sand for fish like gobies who like to use the sand. The fine gravel in that used to be in the 30gallon when it as freshwater kinda stratched up the glass a few times on the inside of the tank, but other than that, the tank looks fine.

 

[Aquascaper]

Has the 30g had any copper medication used in it at any time?
If it has copper will have leached into the silicone seals and will leach back over over time and could kill off your inverts

 

[StingrayKid]

I dont think I've ever used any copper medication. But, I know for a fact the water that was used in the tank was from my house's well, and all the water from the well is filtered through a water filter in our basement that filters out metals such as copper. I'll run some tests on the water and see if there is any copper in there. Is there such thing as a copper neutalizer or medication?

 

[Aquascaper]

Check the silicone seals for any blue discolouration, that's a sure sign of copper

 

[StingrayKid]

I check out the seals. All my tanks I've ever owned had a slight tone of blue to the seal, and so does the edges of the sides of the tank. By "Blue Discoloration", do you mean like a very noticeable, heavy blue tone? Because the seals do have a blue tone to them, if thats a sign of copper.

 

[Aquascaper]

Aquarium silicone commonly comes in clear and black......i've never seen a clear blue silicone but I have seen many tanks with clear silicone stained with a blue tinge from copper medications

The decision is yours, copper will leach out of the silicone but how fast and how much there's no way of telling. I would say the choices are:

1) Stick with the tank and buy a copper test kit and do regular tests (every 2 weeks or something). Be prepared to upgrade the tank at a later date should traces of copper be found. Look into copper removal methods (I don't know of any, not that i've researched it)

2) Upgrade the tank now and be safe in the knowledge that the tank is 'fresh'. Maybe getting a bigger tank, thicker glass, pre-drilled for a sump.......use it as an excuse to sort out all the things you wish your existing tank had. A decent 30g bare all glass tank would only set you back about £30 here in the UK so you're not talking huge costs.

 

[StingrayKid]

Okay, I guess I'll go for a new tank. This ones scratched up and very used anyway. As for a pre-drilled sump tank... do I really need a sump for a 30 gallon tank? I'm not sure where I can get a pre-drilled tank around where I live. (United States).

 

[Aquascaper]

It's not essential but it will give invaluable help to the system........

larger volume = more dilution if a problem occurs
Area for equipment so they stay out of sight
Refugium

You can always drill your own tank using a diamond tip hole cutter drill bit or most LFS will do it for a price, if you still don't want to drill you could use an overflow box (drillings better)

If you are getting a bigger tank try looking for shallow and wide rather than tall and thin as these are easier to illuminate fro corals. And the thicker the glass the better, check out some custom tank builders for prices.

 

[SkiFletch]

depends what kind of blue youre talking... a lot silicones have a slightly blue tint to them. I know mine has it and I also know it has never seen the light of copper. my tank's silicone has an extremely light blue hue almoast the same tint as the "my controls:view new posts:my assistant:new messages" line of this very forum. there's a few types of RTV silicone that are actually called "blue rtv". have to leave things to your own judgement, but it might be worth filling the tank with RO water and testing for traces of copper before you go and buy a whole new tank

 

[StingrayKid]

Okay, so, what I'm going to do is get the new 30gallon and possibly have it drilled, along with a sump put in. I have no idea how to build/install a sump, but I know the general concept of one. I need to do a lot of re-arrangements around the room if I'm going to upgrade the tank, let alone of a Sump system.

 

[SkiFletch]

if you're going to make the sump out of acryllic, have a store cut the pieces for you to exact dimensions. get some fine sandpaper and smooth the edges a little. if you have access to a mill, mill a perfectly straight smooth edge and use IPS Weld-On 16 cement. if you dont have access and you have a slightly rough edge, use some Weld-On 3 cement (almoast liquidy) and then seal with a bead of rtv silicone to prevent leaking. The 16 cement is a much better cement but requires very smooth surfaces. the 3 will "run" into the joint and is usually applied with a glass syringe but is not quite as perfect at sealing (hence silicone backup)

if thats a little above your skill level, you can always get creative and use a smaller tank or a plastic bin