Peterpiper

Ok, as some of you know out tank and sump was setup for seahorses, but things changed and now its a reef in progress.
One section of the sump is used for the bio filtration, it has dead coral rubble that was cycled using the ammonia method.
Now that the tank is becoming a reef, we want to move the bio filter to the LR in the tank.
I was thinking about removing a little of the coral rubble from the sump each day over a 4-6 week period.
Are there any other ways or options?

lew2000

What type of substrate are you using. If i understand correctly, and i am probably wrong, you want to use live rock to be the bio-filtration? Just for reference, most people today use live rock for a FOWLR tank and use live sand with live rock for reef tanks due to the need for greater filtration for reef animals.

Peterpiper

Substrate is sand, sized about 2mm.
Yes, the LR in the DT ( DISPLAY TANK ) is what I want to use for the bio filtration.
The issue is that the system was setup for seahorses, there was to be no LR.
The bio filter was established in the sump by using dead coral about 2" in size and adding ammonia for the cycle.
The DT is now stocked and we have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 20 nitrates.
I want to remove the coral that is used for the bio media from the sump and let the LR do its work. I just dont want a mini cycle, so I was thinking about removing the existing bio a little at a time.

lew2000

I can't see any problem in moving the rock from the sump to the tank in one batch, as long as it is handled carefully and moved right away. The only other aspect is that sumps have excellent water movement of course and the tank will need essentially the same. I am curiuos though, are you going to keep the sump in operation for oxygenation, any type mechanical filtration, etc?

Peterpiper

We are not looking at moving, we are looking to remove it from the system alltogether.
Yes the sump will remain, we are looking at micro algaes and a DSB, We will keep the floss for the mech filtration.
What we are trying to do is remove the bio media from the sump, but give the bacteria time to grow on the LR in the tank.
As you know the flow is to slow in the DT to just place the coral bits in without going through a cycle. and we dont want bits of dead coral in the DT.

lew2000

I was actually thinking about placing the coral adjacent to or on the live rock - sorry i wasn't clear. I am not sure how much shedding (rate) of bacteria growth takes place via water column versus adjacent placement - maybe no difference. Either way, i would think that you would remove the coral in the time frame you were looking at and as long as the ammonia and nitrates don't spike of course. What about using bio-spira marine to insure adequate bacteria?