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Getting back into it
- Thread starter burningbaal
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burningbaal
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hey everybody, what do you think about taking my 30lbs (ish) of sand and 50lbs (I know...a ton, but it's a cool 'scape) out of my 29g next spring and using it to seed my future big tank? It'll probably end up at 6x2x2 for a 180g unless I convince the budget to grow enough to add 6" to the height.
My thought is to build the scape with about 100lbs of bone-dry rock, putty, etc, pour in about 2" of dry sand, add some live rock enhance, bacteria addititve, and all the rocks that aren't glued into my 29g and let the new tank cycle for a month or two. Maybe toss in a hardy fish from my 29, probably not
Then comes the questionable bit: can I just move all the livestock to the new setup and toss all the puttied-together rock from my 29 into the new sump and the sand from my 29 into the new fuge? My thinking is that the livestock from the 29 will do fine in such a giant space since they'll come along with the same rock/sand they had in the 29. then after another month or two, I can start adding other critters.
BTW, the new setup will probably be a two-side starfire (one long, one short) with a 150g stock tank for a sump, 150g stock tank for a fuge, and auto water changes that dump the 'waste' into a little QT/hospital tank. for now, I'll make it a copper-free QT tank and get a spare glass one when I first need copper in the hospital. I may add a 40b for a frag tank at some point, but I'm not sure. the nice thing about the QT run off the water changes is that it'll just have an overflow into the floor drain (no actual return), so when it gets a couple gallons from the AWC, it'll lose a couple gallons to the sewer and I have real isolation from my DT with always-new water ready for QT. When I get someone in QT, I might change the AWC to run a couple times a day to make sure there's no ammonia spike, but I'll keep some floss in the fuge or sump that can be thrown into the QT tank whenever I bring someone home. So I get bacteria ready for denitrification and plenty of WC in the QT with no real effort
I figure I may keep the 29g as my QT, if I change 1% of my main system everyday, that's well over 10% change in the QT every day with params that exactly match the DT, so other than temperature, I should have zero worries about acclimation (my 29g is setup with a little hydor pico 'return' in my DIY AIO, so it can have its own cheap ATO.
My thought is to build the scape with about 100lbs of bone-dry rock, putty, etc, pour in about 2" of dry sand, add some live rock enhance, bacteria addititve, and all the rocks that aren't glued into my 29g and let the new tank cycle for a month or two. Maybe toss in a hardy fish from my 29, probably not
Then comes the questionable bit: can I just move all the livestock to the new setup and toss all the puttied-together rock from my 29 into the new sump and the sand from my 29 into the new fuge? My thinking is that the livestock from the 29 will do fine in such a giant space since they'll come along with the same rock/sand they had in the 29. then after another month or two, I can start adding other critters.
BTW, the new setup will probably be a two-side starfire (one long, one short) with a 150g stock tank for a sump, 150g stock tank for a fuge, and auto water changes that dump the 'waste' into a little QT/hospital tank. for now, I'll make it a copper-free QT tank and get a spare glass one when I first need copper in the hospital. I may add a 40b for a frag tank at some point, but I'm not sure. the nice thing about the QT run off the water changes is that it'll just have an overflow into the floor drain (no actual return), so when it gets a couple gallons from the AWC, it'll lose a couple gallons to the sewer and I have real isolation from my DT with always-new water ready for QT. When I get someone in QT, I might change the AWC to run a couple times a day to make sure there's no ammonia spike, but I'll keep some floss in the fuge or sump that can be thrown into the QT tank whenever I bring someone home. So I get bacteria ready for denitrification and plenty of WC in the QT with no real effort
I figure I may keep the 29g as my QT, if I change 1% of my main system everyday, that's well over 10% change in the QT every day with params that exactly match the DT, so other than temperature, I should have zero worries about acclimation (my 29g is setup with a little hydor pico 'return' in my DIY AIO, so it can have its own cheap ATO.
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burningbaal
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well...I had news today. I got a new batch of NH3, NO2, NO3, pH tests and saw what I'm thinking are probably dinos on the sand bed and rocks. also, it might be some green coralline algae on the highest rocks? that bright green is only there on the highest rocks right next to the light.
I suck at these colormetric things, but it kinda looks like definitely above 8.0 pH, around 5 NO3 and zero NH3 nor NO2, so I think I'm doing well.
Also, I found that damsel :/ probably about 50% of the body mass gone, I flushed the remainder, but the fact that there are only nitrates tells me I must have some good bacteria in those rocks and sand. If I can get the electricity under control, I should be ready for some swimmers!
I suck at these colormetric things, but it kinda looks like definitely above 8.0 pH, around 5 NO3 and zero NH3 nor NO2, so I think I'm doing well.
Also, I found that damsel :/ probably about 50% of the body mass gone, I flushed the remainder, but the fact that there are only nitrates tells me I must have some good bacteria in those rocks and sand. If I can get the electricity under control, I should be ready for some swimmers!
Welcome to Reef2Reef and an amazing community.
Welcome and we are glad to have ya here!!!!!
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burningbaal
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FWIW, my 29's tank thread is here:
www.reef2reef.com
Build Thread - Rebooting the 29g AIO
I had a 90g+55sump in Oregon and had to let it go when I moved to near Seattle. I had an old 29g sitting around and had this idea to make my own little peninsula AIO with it. some 1/4" black acrylic and silicone led me to this: display is the bottom of the image, note the long wall is notched...
www.reef2reef.com
Mastiffsrule
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Welcome. Could not tell from pics but I don’t think it’s Dino. Definitely track down that stray voltage. Also check out a ground probe if you don’t have one. And keep us updated
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burningbaal
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This is there best welcome yet.Welcome. Could not tell from pics but I don’t think it’s Dino. Definitely track down that stray voltage. Also check out a ground probe if you don’t have one. And keep us updated
You win, @Mastiffsrule...except I'm more about the Greyhounds than a Mastiff
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