This article is a condensed version of the continuation of the series of articles on Live Sand that is located in the NetClub™ Library. An expanded version will be added to that Library in the next few days. Added text and details in that version will be in a different color for easy identification. The first installments are already in the NetClub™ Library.
Up to this point in the discussions on the Berlin and Live Sand methods we have reviewed the advantages of such filtration, and its benefits over what older methods of running aquariums offered in this respect. We looked at the challenges that hobbyists were faced with if they decided to use this method, and discussed various advantages of this filtration approach.
In short, this new method offers a level of water quality purification that is superior that what we were obtaining in the past, regardless of what we were doing, and regardless of what kind of filtration method the tank was equipped with. Even what was considered "advanced" as little as two years ago, is now just another method.
This does not mean that those other methods do not offer you the ability to run a successful aquarium. By all means they do. The difference between the two is that with the combination Berlin and Live Sand methods you will obtain a level of water quality that is far higher. Better water quality will benefit all the animals in your aquarium because the environment they will be living in is of a much higher quality.
Since maximizing the quality of the milieu, or habitat, is the key to being successful, the suggestion is that you seriously consider using this method, whether you are setting up an new tank, or whether you are converting an existing aquarium. The advantages are the same and the method described here can be used in both situations.
Let us take a look at the steps needed to set up such a system and sort of bring together everything we have discussed so far and put it into practice.
That is what this article will deal with.
To set up this kind of an aquarium you will need to order live rock and live sand and you will need to find a reputable dealer who sells high quality products. It is important to start off with the best quality you can obtain. If not, you will find that you may be facing problems you had not expected.
Good quality rock is porous and allows for large amounts of bacterial growth. Good quality rock is also relatively clean of unwanted material and organisms. There is no set standard of course but reputable dealers only sell good quality. It pays do deal with them.
Collecting rock and sand yourself is not really an option. What you can collect yourself is normally a lot too close to shore and may contain harmful elements, bacteria, and possibly other disease inducing parasites and viruses. Unless you are a diver and can go off shore and collect from a nearby reef, it is better to buy the live rock. The same applies to live sand.
It is not uncommon when you collect live sand from close to shore, to introduce "Vibrio", a virus, into the tank. Vibrio easily leads to rapid tissue necrosis in small polyp stony corals (SPS corals), the main reason why hobbyists loose these types of corals.
Because pollution near the shoreline may be high or higher, anything collected from such an area is probably not suitable for your aquarium.
Once you have selected a reputable dealer the next step is to decide how much live rock and live sand you need for your aquarium.
Here are some guidelines:
Use between 1 and 1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon of water in the tank Order enough live sand to have a layer on the bottom that is at least 2 to 3 inches thick (I will give you a formula to calculate how much you need to order based on the size of the tank in this article)
Note that live rock will need to cure and cycle, meaning it will need to go through a period during which animal life on it dies, and bacteria start to grow in the porous areas of the rock.
That die off will create pollution in the tank. This will be in the form of ammonia and nitrite. For as long these are present, no animals should be added to the tank as they will be severely stressed if you do, and may die or, at best, break out with parasites or become otherwise diseased.
Dealing with the results of stress is not necessary if you follow simple procedures and cycle the rock first, meaning let it go through the necessary die-off period and let the filtration system build up a bacterial level that neutralizes the ammonia and nitrite before you add animals.
Before adding the live rock to the tank however, you can greatly improve its quality and reduce the amount of die-off that will occur by cleaning it properly, outside of the tank.
This is not difficult to do at all. What I suggest is that you use a large tarp or a plastic sheet, and place all the live rock on it. Let the live rock sit there and spray it with some salt water from time to time so it does not dry out. Use salt water from the tank to do so and use a bottle with a spray nozzle.
Several things will now be possible:
All your live rock is spread out, one piece next to another, on the plastic or other water-resistant material you have placed it on. You can now look at each piece and remove anything that looks as if it is dying, or will die when you place it in the aquarium.
Sponges, for instance, need to be removed. They will not survive if you leave them on the rock and, when they die, they will severely pollute the aquarium water and prolong the cycle.
As the live rock remains out of the water and while you are in the process of cleaning it, undesirable animals such Bristle worms, Mantis shrimp, Stone crabs, and so on, may start moving or show themselves, allowing you to remove them from the rock. This is a real benefit as it is far simpler to do so when the rock is not in the aquarium. Since you do not want any of these in your aquarium, removing them is important.
You will also be able to look at the shape and size of all the rock and form yourself an idea as to how and where you are going to place all the live rock in the aquarium. This helps a great deal in shaping the look of your tank in advance. Once the live rock is in, it is not that easy to make large changes in how it is positioned.
Because the rock is still out of the water you can clean, it and clean it even more, until you are satisfied that you have removed all the unwanted material and life forms (sponges as already indicated but most of the algae too as they will probably not survive). The exception to this is coralline algae, which should of course be left on the rock. Coralline algae is very desirable in reef aquariums.
Note that your aquarium should be ready to receive the rock and sand you now have. The tank should not be full with water. When you add rock and sand, the water level will automatically rise. Fill the tank up to about half it height and have some reserve water. You may need it when all the rock and sand have been added, to top the aquarium off to the right level
Have all your filtration in place and make sure that the protein skimmer is in place. You will start the skimmer as soon as all the live rock and live sand has been placed in the tank.
Now that you have cleaned the rock, and now that you have an idea of how to place it in the tank, you are ready for the next step. This involves adding the sand to the aquarium.
It is today's practice not to use the plenum method any longer (the method that was advocated by Dr Jaubert of the Aqurarium at Monaco whereby sand was placed on a grid). This left an area underneath the grid where only water was present. Originally, this was seen as a good way to operate live sand aquariums because of the oxygen transfer between the water in the aquarium and the water in the plenum.
It has been found since, that the plenum becomes a repository for nutrients that are not desirable (nitrates, phosphates and silicates especially). These nutrients could leach back into the tank and create water quality problems. This is a matter of debate among many hobbyists but the tendency nowadays is not to use a plenum, a method that I adhere to as well. I have written articles on the subject, based on extensive testing, that demonstrate how high these nutrient levels can rise.
They rise to such a high level of concentration that one certainly does not want to run the risk of seeing these nutrients transfer back into the aquarium water.
As a result of these findings (Thiel and others), the plenum approach is no longer used and the sand is placed directly on the bottom of the tank. This is the method described in this article.
I indicated that there is a formula that allows you to calculate how much sand you actually need. Indeed there is. Take the length of the aquarium in inches, multiply that number by the width of the aquarium in inches and then multiply that number by the thickness of the sand layer that you wish to obtain. This number then needs to be divided by 20, and you will have the weight in pounds of sand that you need for your aquarium.
When using this formula take the inside dimensions and note that the result is approximate but close enough so that you can reliably use it.
An example: you have an aquarium that is 48 inches long and 12 inches wide and you wish to obtain 3 inches of sand. 48 times 12 times 3 equals 1728. Divided by 20 this yields 86.4 which is the approximate number of pounds of live sand you will need.
I mentioned cleaning the rock several times. The best manner in which to do so is to have two buckets with saltwater and a toothbrush or similar implement available to you.
Take each piece of rock and start cleaning off what needs to come off by rubbing the brush over the rock. Some sponges may not come off that easily and to remove them you may need a knife. Remove the material you want off the rock and then move the rock around in the first bucket with a swishing motion.
This takes most of the larger unwanted material off the rock. Now rinse it in the second bucket. Take a good look at it and if you are satisfied that the rock is clean put it to the side.
If you are not satisfied, clean some more and rinse the rock again. When the rock is clean, and that does not mean that you remove everything from the rock, just the unwanted algae, sponge and other life forms that may be dying, rinse it again in the second bucket. Now put it on the tarp or piece of water resistant material again, or add it to the aquarium.
As you continue to do so you will eventually have cleaned all the rock which will then be ready to be added to the aquarium.
Before adding the rock though, you will need to add the sand. Normally, if you just pour the live sand out of the bags it came in, it will cloud the tank a great deal. Sand contains very small particles besides the grains. When these small particles mix with the water, the latter will cloud. Avoid this by being really careful in how you add the live sand to the tank.
To avoid this, proceed as follows: put the sand in a plastic bag (if it is not already). Close the top of the bag, or hold it closed with you hands, so no water can get into the bag and no sand can get out.
Lower the bag into the aquarium all the way to the bottom. When the bag is at the bottom, tilt it sideways and open the top. Slowly, very slowly, pour the sand out on the bottom of the aquarium. The slower you do this, the less cloudiness will result. This may seem trivial at this point. It is not. If the tank is cloudy after you add the live sand, it will be very difficult for you to add the live rock, as you will not really be able to see what you are doing.
You probably have several bags with sand. Lower each one in the same manner and pour out the sand. When all the sand you have is in the tank, gently even the layer out with your hands so the thickness is about the same everywhere.
Be careful when doing this. The gentler you are, the less the water will be affected by the small particles in the sand, and the less cloudy it will be. If you do this properly, there will actually be no cloudiness at all.
Note that ven if the tank becomes cloudy there is really no harm done. The problem though it will be more difficult for you to go to the next step, which is adding the live rock. If the water is too cloudy, you cannot see what you are doing and you will not be able to shape the look of the rock formation inside the tank easily.
Since you cannot leave the live rock out of the water until the tank clears up, it is important to make sure that you add the sand carefully. This will allow you to go on to the final step: adding the live rock.
Take each of the pieces of live rock and, after looking at it and at the aquarium, decide where you are going to place each piece. Then do so. Slowly your reef will start to take shape. Note that if you are not satisfied with the look you have achieved, you can always rearrange the rock somewhat. Large changes will be difficult to make without removing a good portion of the rock but small changes will be relatively easy to achieve.
At some point all the live rock will have been placed in the tank, on top of the live sand, and your aquarium is now ready. Well sort of. It is not yet ready for animals but it is ready for you to start the skimmer and other filtration implements that you have installed.
Mind you, you cannot put animals in the tank yet because the live rock that you placed in the tank will cycle. This is normal and can take from 14 to 30 or more days, depending on each individual situation. There is no way to generalize and know in advance how long your tank will need, to go through a complete cycle. You will need to test the ammonia and nitrite levels to determine what is actually going on.
Since ammonia does not appear immediately, do not be misled by the fact that the tank is in good condition and can now receive animals. Wait at least 12 or more days before you decide to add any life forms. When you are sure that no ammonia and no nitrite are present, you can start adding animals.
Whether you start with fish or whether you start with corals and invertebrates is entirely up to you. I personally prefer to add the corals first and the fish later but that is a personal preference of mine. Do not add too many animals at the same time as this would result in a sudden and large increase in the bioload. Such an increase can lead to another ammonia spike (which leads to nitrite spiking as well).
You probably wonder why the tank still cycles even though you cleaned all the live rock according to the method described earlier. Even if you have cleaned all your live rock real thoroughly, there will still be living matter on the rock that will die, and that will result in the tank cycling.
All you need now is patience and a few tests to allow you to determine when the aquarium is ready and when animals can be added. As I stated, this will be different for every aquarium and cannot be guessed at. Only testing will let you decide whether your tank is ready for life forms, or not.
Once it is, go ahead and add animals. Make sure you know what the requirements of the animals you add to the aquarium are. This is where you need to read books and magazine articles, to familiarize yourself with the tank conditions these animals require and then adjust the tank water quality parameters to reflect this.
Introduce your animals slowly and acclimatize them to the tank. Take your time doing so. Indeed the differences in water quality between the conditions in the tanks at the store where you obtained the animal, and the conditions in your own tank may require that you acclimate the animal for longer.
Now that the live sand and live rock is in the aquarium, and given that the tank has gone through its cycle, the addition of animals is the next step.
I will discuss this more in detail in the next article in this series. The NetClub™ version of this article contains a lot more detail.
Should you have any questions regarding live sand and live rock, feel free to visit our Web Site page at http://www.athiel.com on the Internet, or email me at albert@athiel.com
In this article I suggest that you should not use a plenum on your aquarium set up. This is based on my personal negative experiences with the use of plenums that load themselves with nutrients. Others may have a different opinion and you should consider what they have to say as well.
Albert J. Thiel
July 1997