I currently have a Reefer 350. For all the reasons you'd guess, I have a new tank coming, probably 2-3 weeks out at this point - a new 80g Tsunami acrylic tank. I'll be reusing the stand and sump and all my current equipment, and transferring over the rock. The new tank is a little bit bigger (taller) than the Reefer, but the dimensions are essentially identical.
I've done a tank transfer before (technically, I've done three), but I've always had a few losses, mostly (I think) because I wasn't nearly as prepared as I thought I was. So this time, rather than assuming I know what I'm doing and can just wing it, I'm putting my plan out here for everyone to critique and see if I'm missing anything.
Early Preparation
For the early stages, it's about acquiring the materials I'll need. By my estimation I'll need the following items:
Tank Preparation
Once the new tank arrives, I'll need to start prepping it to be ready for the swap. I'll need to do the following things:
So I'll have 100g of space to hold about 70 gallons from the display tank. 17 gallons in my water change cabinet, and an extra 20 gallons in the bin. That's 70 + 17 + 20 = 107 gallons of water to fill up the new tank. Should be enough even if I have to empty out and refill the sump as well.
Tank Transfer
Finally, the main event. With all the prep work done, it's time to actually do the swap. I anticipate taking 2-3 days to do everything.
First, after finishing up the plumbing on the tank, it'll be time to leak-test for a day or two. I don't anticipate any problems here (I've heard that Tsunami knows how to build tanks) but better safe than sorry.
Once it's time to start, clear out all the furniture around the tank and set up the stock tank within siphon-hose distance of the Reefer.
Remove the top rocks - those I can remove without disturbing the sand bed - from the tank and place in the stock tank. (And remove those excess RBTA from the rocks while doing so!).
Drain 30-40 gallons from the main tank into the stock tank. Catch and transfer any fish I can during this process. If I can catch the fish before removing the foundation rocks, all the better.
Finish draining the display water into the stock tank, and then pull out the rest of the rocks and add to the stock tank. As much as possible, I want to avoid carrying over water with silt and cloudiness from the sand. Once the water gets cloudy it's throwaway water, so I'll need to have enough pre-mixed on hand before that to make up for whatever I have to toss.
Set up powerheads and heaters for the stock tank to keep things comfortable for the rest of the transfer.
Scoop out about 10-20 pounds of sand from the original tank to seed new sand with fauna and set aside. Remove the remainder of the sand (to either toss or thoroughly rinse for later re-use), and vacuum up the remaining water in the tank.
Disassemble the Red Sea plumbing.
Carefully remove the tank from the stand and wheel it away.
Pull the stand away from the wall and set the new tank on it, then install the plumbing. Leak-test as much as possible, then drain the tank again and slide back up to the wall, re-leveling and shimming as necessary.
Lay down egg crate on the bottom (is this still necessary for acrylic?), then stack the foundation rocks, then the remainder of the rocks. Fill up halfway, install the powerheads inside the tank, mimicking (as much as possible) the flow pattern in the old tank.
Fill up another 25%, and return all the livestock to the display tank. Top it off, place on the lids... and then die!
So, is this a good plan? Have I missed anything? Any supplies or other equipment I should pick up to make it easier?
Every time I've done a transfer before it ended up being just absolutely exhausting, so hopefully I can be at least slightly less dead than usual after this one.
I've done a tank transfer before (technically, I've done three), but I've always had a few losses, mostly (I think) because I wasn't nearly as prepared as I thought I was. So this time, rather than assuming I know what I'm doing and can just wing it, I'm putting my plan out here for everyone to critique and see if I'm missing anything.
Early Preparation
For the early stages, it's about acquiring the materials I'll need. By my estimation I'll need the following items:
- Holding bin for the actual transfer. I'll be picking this up this week - likely, a 100g stock tank from Tractor Supply. The new tank will be going on the old stand, so I need somewhere to hold everything until the swap is complete. Hopefully, I won't actually need this until the tank transfer happens, but it's also my backup plan in case the current tank fails before I'm ready to swap.
- 1-2 extra bins for pre-mixed saltwater and sand. Probably just 30g Rubbermaid totes. Knock on wood, I should have enough capacity between the stock tank and my water change cabinet (20g) but one of the things that did me in last time was not having enough mixed saltwater on hand, so may as well have more than I need.
- External Overflow Box. I'll be using the stand and sump, but I didn't want to try to match the cutouts for the Red Sea stand in case we got them wrong. Using an external overflow will make it relatively easy to retrofit the new plumbing into the stand. Right now I'm deciding between the Eshopps Eclipse-L, the Prodigy-L and the Modular Marine 1200gph box.
- Plumbing. I plan on doing a Bean Animal drain, so I'll need the plumbing for that. I'll also need to get the plumbing for the return line(s). Replacing the old Red Sea plumbing and doing easier-to-source American plumbing with a proper gate valve. I'll need pipe, fittings (unions, elbows, gate valves), some barbed fittings for return lines. I also may as well redo the plumbing to my UV filter, doing a proper valve-controlled split from the return line (or maybe just adding a separate pump for the UV line).
- Sand. I'll be reusing some sand from the existing tank to seed with worms, copepods, and all the other microfauna living in the sand bed. Probably about 10 pounds or so from the old tank. The rest (about 80 pounds) will be new sand, leaning towards dry Caribsea special grade at the moment.
- Rock. I'll be sizing up a little bit (adding three inches of height) and could justify an extra bit of rock. I'm not sure that I want to worry about this right now - the existing rock will still work and I might want to take more time on this. I also have some old rock in my garage... might be worth re-curing it and just using that.
Tank Preparation
Once the new tank arrives, I'll need to start prepping it to be ready for the swap. I'll need to do the following things:
- Drill the tank for the overflow.
- Drill the tank for return nozzles.
- Assemble, as much as possible, the plumbing.
- Rinse and store the new sand
- Cure any new/old rock that will be added.
- Make up an extra 20 gallons of saltwater and store in bin, heated and mixed.
- Build a "dam" for my melanarus wrasse in the stock tank, mostly just to hold sand for him to sleep in during the transfer.
So I'll have 100g of space to hold about 70 gallons from the display tank. 17 gallons in my water change cabinet, and an extra 20 gallons in the bin. That's 70 + 17 + 20 = 107 gallons of water to fill up the new tank. Should be enough even if I have to empty out and refill the sump as well.
Tank Transfer
Finally, the main event. With all the prep work done, it's time to actually do the swap. I anticipate taking 2-3 days to do everything.
First, after finishing up the plumbing on the tank, it'll be time to leak-test for a day or two. I don't anticipate any problems here (I've heard that Tsunami knows how to build tanks) but better safe than sorry.
Once it's time to start, clear out all the furniture around the tank and set up the stock tank within siphon-hose distance of the Reefer.
Remove the top rocks - those I can remove without disturbing the sand bed - from the tank and place in the stock tank. (And remove those excess RBTA from the rocks while doing so!).
Drain 30-40 gallons from the main tank into the stock tank. Catch and transfer any fish I can during this process. If I can catch the fish before removing the foundation rocks, all the better.
Finish draining the display water into the stock tank, and then pull out the rest of the rocks and add to the stock tank. As much as possible, I want to avoid carrying over water with silt and cloudiness from the sand. Once the water gets cloudy it's throwaway water, so I'll need to have enough pre-mixed on hand before that to make up for whatever I have to toss.
Set up powerheads and heaters for the stock tank to keep things comfortable for the rest of the transfer.
Scoop out about 10-20 pounds of sand from the original tank to seed new sand with fauna and set aside. Remove the remainder of the sand (to either toss or thoroughly rinse for later re-use), and vacuum up the remaining water in the tank.
Disassemble the Red Sea plumbing.
Carefully remove the tank from the stand and wheel it away.
Pull the stand away from the wall and set the new tank on it, then install the plumbing. Leak-test as much as possible, then drain the tank again and slide back up to the wall, re-leveling and shimming as necessary.
Lay down egg crate on the bottom (is this still necessary for acrylic?), then stack the foundation rocks, then the remainder of the rocks. Fill up halfway, install the powerheads inside the tank, mimicking (as much as possible) the flow pattern in the old tank.
Fill up another 25%, and return all the livestock to the display tank. Top it off, place on the lids... and then die!
So, is this a good plan? Have I missed anything? Any supplies or other equipment I should pick up to make it easier?
Every time I've done a transfer before it ended up being just absolutely exhausting, so hopefully I can be at least slightly less dead than usual after this one.
