200 GAL Reef Rookie

[Reef GE]

After 20 years out of the saltwater hobby, I am 'leaping' back in with a 860 liter reef system (including sump) that I virtually inherited from a contact who had to get out of the hobby quickly. I'm nervous about jumping into a reef system immediately - and would have preferred to gradually build into the hobby as my knowledge increased, but as the tank is good to go and already functioning, I hope to get on track quickly. Thankful for this forum and hoping all you out there will be kind enough to guide me on my way!

 

[Reef GE]

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[Reef GE]

Help! after moving an established tank to my house, the guy selling it to me dumped a lot of salt on top of the wet live sand and live rock and turned up RODI to fill tank. He did this before I could stop him. When I saw it and protested he told me no worries...the salt will dissolve slowly and no risk to bacteria in live sand or rock. They can survive higher salinity, etc.

I pulled out the live rock immediately and put it in buckets with some of the water we saved from before moving the tank. (Where salt was on rock/sand, it was very hot). 12 hours later, my tank is still filling with RODI, salt still lying on live sand. I’m guessing salinity is very high, but who knows at what salinity? I’m guessing there have been pockets of RODI/salt water in different places.

What did salt or RODI do to live sand? What’s my best and worst case scenario as far as preserving any bacteria or critters in sand or rock? Does it matter? Most of rock is sitting in a bucket.. As I said, I pulled it out immediately, but had to rinse salt off with the incomng RODI to remove salt he had poured.

The sump underneath is established, bioballs, brick, filter media, etc. After tank fills in 12 hrs or so, I plan to check salinity before turning on sump. Even if all the bacteria in sand died, shouldn’t the sump bacteria be enough to restart this tank? Many other questions...

Thoughts?

(yes, I know the water should be mixed before hand. I didn’t do it and saw it when it was too late).

 

[R.Weller]

Assuming the sump isn’t dry, yes, the bacteria in the sump will populate the display. Chances are, you won’t have an issue beyond some die off resulting in an ammonia spike. Bacteria will consume that per the cycle. As soon as you equalize salinity (a wavemaker in the display will help dissolve quicker), I would get it circulating & enjoy the process. Now that it’s yours, take it slow & you will do fine.

What other questions do you have? I’m certainly not an expert, but I do have some practice & there are experts on here.

 

[Reef GE]

I am moving my tank from one house to another. The corals are being kept at a friends house until the tank reestablishes. I move the rock over to recycle my tank, hoping it all goes quickly. Yesterday I noticed two bubble tip anenomes lying on the sand. They were pale and probably had stowed way on the live rock without me seeing them. When I came back a couple hours later one of wavemakers had fallen of its suction cup and buried both anenomes in sand. I carefully tried to relocate but could not find. Both were relatively small in appearance though probably all closed up due to shock. What is risk of toxins to tank (200 gal). Is this just an ammonia risk...if so no problem, I’m cycling tank anyway. Or is this a long term toxin risk? I don’t know size or type of anenome as I inherited this tank from a friend. I will have corals to move over in a couple weeks along with fish. The anenomes were small enough that we missed them in the transition.

 

[R.Weller]

My opinion, you have more then enough volume to cover the risk. It will contribute to ammonia, but otherwise, anything else will dilute.

Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate. At the end, do you intend to do a water change to remove the nitrate or are you going to use other methods (e.g. grow it out using chateo in the sump)? A bottle of DrTims One & Only will also help speed the process.

 

[Reef GE]

I have a mature sump that transferred to our house in original water. Sump refugium is full of algae / plants of some kind...to help soak up nitrates no doubt