Coral QT and moving tank

[Jstn]

I am planning on buying a bigger house this springs and my current tank situation is not great. My 120 has been setup for 4 years, it was a move from a 90g I had in a previous home, and it never "took" off. I (acedotally) attribute to the air quality of Minneapolis, the new EPA "regulations" of the past administration allowed the GAF shingle plant to release hydrocarbons without a thermal oxidizer upgrade and I live less than a mile away; you can smell asphalt in my back yard, (one of the reasons I am moving outside the side to a more rural area).

In addition to slow growth, I have gained a huge colonial hydroid infestation, they seem to be everywhere and end up stinging me in the process, this tank has become a bane to me. I have had 6 or so cases of burns where my arm has open sores over a week (it sucks, if you get stung vinegar ASAP is your best bet). Ive tried fenbenzadole, it doesn't work long term, and it's past kalk and even its on some of the skeletons of my micromusa lords.

I also regret making my rock work as tall as it is, I love the scape, i just wish it was 10" tall vs almost 18" (another reason to restart)

Add all this together and it feels like a chore compared to a hobby, so I have decided to reset the tank, Its a custom oak stand I built and I love the dimensions of a 120, the issue becomes, how does one complete this and moving?

Option 1: The idea of a potentially moving all the coral I care about to a QT/frag tank will make a move much less hassle, give me room to clean the 120 and add new rock and setup the "new 120" at my next home. On the other hand a qt tank might be harder in terms of biology to keep coral and I might lose everything.

Option 2: Move the 120 as it is and setup my qt at the new house and effectively same as option 1.

Either way I was going to reboot and prob pare down some coral (12/24 pls and 12/20 Sps) and in the future QT all my corals anyways.

So Im open to hear ideas and thoughts on how to accomplish this best;

Has anyone been in a similar situation and has advice to share? In addition what size/setup or tips in keeping a QT tank for coral?

Appreciate it in advanced, and a few pics of the current 120

 

[gentlefish]

Oh joy. Moving is never fun not even with a fish tank in your arms.
when I moved, what made it bearable was dual overlapping ownership for 1month. I bought a new and bigger and better tank for the new place and moved allbiomass over piece by piece. I drove biomass in buckets to the new place and brought back salt water that I had the new one filled with to the old. The old tank finally moved to become my QT.
At a later stage in the hobby I was battling toxic Dino’s. All fish went in a 38g fish only and frags went into a non mature frag only 60g. The Rest test was bleached, re-seeded. Everyone rehIt is surprising how much stuff continues to move from tank to tank with frags.
I understand you want to get away from the colonial hydroids. If I understand their life cycle correctly, any moving of ilifestock and equipment puts you at risk to reimport hydroids. So I am not sure how you could possibly be successful in your quest short of going fish only, bleach the liferock and restart. But it would leave your corals without mature system for support.
Happy to learn you move to a healthier surrounding. Hydrocarbons....that can’t be good for you and your family.

 

[Jstn]

Yes i agree, we plan on dual ownership for as little time as we need, luckily the market where we are is pretty hot and homes sell in days over asking. So for that part of the move I agree, the plan would be new rock abd bleached/dried the 120 for a few months, a sterile system. I was hoping with my temp tank/qt to move my corals in once i cycle it with a brightwell brick and attempt
to kill any remaining hydroids.

This includes cutting heads of acans and
what not so be it, but during the in between the 120 (3-6 months) would be dealing with what remains (of the pests). Good news with sps is you can frag and be done.

My current live rock will go in the trash, i dont plan to reuse it, and no clue about fish. One plan is run a fish only 40b and pare them down to only my favorites. But should be able to treat fish more easily i imagine.

I havent found much on their (hydroid) life life cycles, do you mind sharing any info?

appreciate the thoughts, i think the key would be to go slow and cycle my qt tanks well

 

[gentlefish]

Agree, not much I know about hydroids. Polyps on substrate. Populate by budding. Also sexual with release into water column and cyst stages are noted ( just in case of absence of water). I think of them like aphtaisia.
Would not toss the LR, 1 week in bleach and dried-good as new. If man made rock, yes you are right.
So you would essentially move your fish and a frag rack? That could just work.

 

[Jstn]

The rock was cemented together by myself back in 2014 (marco rock) and Im ready for a scape after what I have learned since. But yes fish and frag tank, and hopefully no pests.

I do like the idea of bleaching the tank once the rock fish and coral are out before draining it, its a good piece of mind.

 

[gentlefish]

I can relate. I also rebuilt and wanted rock structures @islands” on stilts, to get under it, removable if necessary. Here are 2.

 

[Johnboy3886]

How did your move go? Im in a similar situation and wondering if it’s possible to actually kill hydroids on corals. I have a lobo and some euphyllia that I’m really attached to but don’t want the pest in my new tank

 

[pseudorand]

sterile system. I was hoping with my temp tank/qt to move my corals in once i cycle it with a brightwell brick and attempt
to kill any remaining hydroids.

A word of caution: I've had trouble with "quick cycling" with salt (works great in fresh). I have both a fish and coral QT, both have had ammonia problems. The fish QT was cycled with media from DT, so I assumed it would be good. I lost 3 of 4 fish before I realized the root cause was ammonia. (Hint: test kits aren't very sensitive - get a Seachem Ammonia Alert.) After 4 months, I finally think that tank is stable.

After that, I cycled my coral QT with Fritz 9000 and NytroCycle ammonia. It burned through the NitroCycle twice, producing nitrate and measuring 0 nitrite and ammonia within 24 hours, so I called it good. Crabs and snails lived for a week, so I added frags. My ammonia alert wasn't quite 100% yellow (= <0.02ppm) a few days later, so I did a water test. Ammonia was 0.25 and nitrite was off the charts.

I'm glad to be proven wrong, but I'm about ready to conclude that saltwater takes months to cycle any new tank.

I think the discrepancy between the seachem ammonia alert (0.02ppm) and API test kits (0.25ppm) is that the seachem measures just toxic NH3 while most other test kits measure the combo of NH3 and NH4+. (That's speculation on my part, but it's the only explanation I have for the difference in the scales.)

 

[Johnboy3886]

A word of caution: I've had trouble with "quick cycling" with salt (works great in fresh). I have both a fish and coral QT, both have had ammonia problems. The fish QT was cycled with media from DT, so I assumed it would be good. I lost 3 of 4 fish before I realized the root cause was ammonia. (Hint: test kits aren't very sensitive - get a Seachem Ammonia Alert.) After 4 months, I finally think that tank is stable.

After that, I cycled my coral QT with Fritz 9000 and NytroCycle ammonia. It burned through the NitroCycle twice, producing nitrate and measuring 0 nitrite and ammonia within 24 hours, so I called it good. Crabs and snails lived for a week, so I added frags. My ammonia alert wasn't quite 100% yellow (= <0.02ppm) a few days later, so I did a water test. Ammonia was 0.25 and nitrite was off the charts.

I'm glad to be proven wrong, but I'm about ready to conclude that saltwater takes months to cycle any new tank.

I think the discrepancy between the seachem ammonia alert (0.02ppm) and API test kits (0.25ppm) is that the seachem measures just toxic NH3 while most other test kits measure the combo of NH3 and NH4+. (That's speculation on my part, but it's the only explanation I have for the difference in the scales.)

I’ve struggled with QT myself. What I found is that if the QT takes more effort than a DT the success rate is low. I’m sure it depends on the individual but I would agree that the lack of maturity makes it unstable. I feel like the mistake is trying to set up a cheap and simple frag/QT. They just become a ton of work. Out of curiosity did you have fish in you coral QT? I’ve read the NH3 does not affect coral like it does fish.