Leaking 90 gal, help me swap over to a RS450

MrAlpha

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So I wake up to water on the floor this morning and find that my 90 gallon reef started leaking. A steady 1 drop a second leak from the overflow bulkhead on the bottom of the tank. Tank has been up for about 10 years. The wood stand has water damage around the area where the hole for the over flow is drilled. No way to fix the leak without break it all down and with the stand as damaged as it is, I’m seriously thinking about pulling the trigger on a Red Sea Reefer 450. I have the leak rigged so it drips back into the sump for now.

Now my question is how quickly can I after I have this new tank up and running can I transfer everything over. I would like new base rock and new sand but I will seed with one piece of rock my the old tank. I don’t want to use my old rock because most of the larger pieces are covered in red mushrooms I don’t want in the new display. I’ll be transferring 5 small to medium fish, a large clam and two BTAs. any other suggestions are welcome to make this as smooth a transition as possible
 

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If you are going to use new Base Rock & Sand you will have to treat it as a brand new Tank start, i.e. Cycle it and slowly add livestock after the cycle has finished. It will make the cycle quicker the more live rock from your tank you use but you will still need to let the bacteria multiply so it can handle the waste load of your fish, i.e. slowly add livestock. Pretty much treat it as a fresh start.
 

Aquavaj

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If it's just a standard corner or center overflow can't you just drain the overflow and then be able to work on the bulkheads?
 
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If it's just a standard corner or center overflow can't you just drain the overflow and then be able to work on the bulkheads?

It’s a corner overflow, yes I could drain the overflow but I can’t access the bulkhead because the hole in the stand is just big enough for the return hole to fit through. So I would have to empty the tank and remove the tank to really access it. The stand looked like it’s toast anyways, if I’m going through all that work I would like to upgrade to a new tank.

My main concern is how can I speed things up so I don’t have the two tanks running for a full cycle on the new tank. I’m worried if the old tank leak gets worse and I come home to a flood.
 
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I just picked up the Red Sea Reefer 450, some new sand and 60 pounds of base rock. Only options I could think of is
1- set up the next tank, leave the old tank up (hoping is doesn’t get worse) until the 450 is cycled. (Seeded with a little LR from my 90 and some bacteria in a bottle to speed it up as much as possible)
2-break down the old tank, transfer fish, btas clams and to a 20gal or 40 gal with a filter and live rock. Hope the new tank cycles within a couple weeks
 

Aquavaj

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If that's the case then yea you're gonna have to take it down to fix the leak. If it's just leaking from the seal on the bulkhead then you may be ok for awhile if you can direct the drip into the sump. If you don't mess with it I don't see how the seal will just fail completely. Doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of it asap.

But if you restart with new rocks and sand then you're looking at a full cycle even if you jump start it with one or 2 rocks from your old tank. You can try dumping as much bacteria as you can but you're still looking at minimum of 1 week, 2 on the safe side.
 
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If that's the case then yea you're gonna have to take it down to fix the leak. If it's just leaking from the seal on the bulkhead then you may be ok for awhile if you can direct the drip into the sump. If you don't mess with it I don't see how the seal will just fail completely. Doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of it asap.

But if you restart with new rocks and sand then you're looking at a full cycle even if you jump start it with one or 2 rocks from your old tank. You can try dumping as much bacteria as you can but you're still looking at minimum of 1 week, 2 on the safe side.
Yes I have the drip going into the sump now
 

KrisReef

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I just picked up the Red Sea Reefer 450, some new sand and 60 pounds of base rock. Only options I could think of is
1- set up the next tank, leave the old tank up (hoping is doesn’t get worse) until the 450 is cycled. (Seeded with a little LR from my 90 and some bacteria in a bottle to speed it up as much as possible)
2-break down the old tank, transfer fish, btas clams and to a 20gal or 40 gal with a filter and live rock. Hope the new tank cycles within a couple weeks
Any chance to add a hang off back overflow to bipass the leak threat and lower the need to cycle quickly or set up an extra holding tank?
 

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Have you consideed putting your new rock and sand in a temporary sump and cycle it with your current tank, then transfer it over to the new tank once it’s “live”... or conversely set up the new tank and put ALL your old rock in a temporary sump, then slowly start to remove it one piece at a time as the new rock becomes live in the RSR 450. It will be an eye-sore for a while, but you’ll be able to put the new tank in the same location as the old tank and have it be instantly cycled.
 

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I just purchased a new RS Reefer 525 XL Deluxe on Bulk Reef Supply today, and noticed the 450 was no longer listed on the site. I wonder if they are discontinuing that model? Just an FYI.
 
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MrAlpha

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I just purchased a new RS Reefer 525 XL Deluxe on Bulk Reef Supply today, and noticed the 450 was no longer listed on the site. I wonder if they are discontinuing that model? Just an FYI.
That’s interesting, it’s possible. I just picked up my 450 from a LFS for a substantial discount. It was the last one they had of several 450 that came in. Maybe red sea was discounting them to the LFSs to clear them out.
 

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Can you put your existing rock in the new tank to avoid the cycle and slowly replace them with new ones one at a time?
The mushrooms would likely die or spread to the new tank. I think that's part of his reasoning for not wanting to transfer the rock.... he's sick of the 'shrooms If they died, it would probably cause his cycle to go even longer.

Best bet is to pray the leak doesn't become a catostrphic failure and cycle the new rocks either in the existing sump or in the new tank.
 
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MrAlpha

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Well the new tank is up and running with a shallow sand bed and 60Lbs of dry base rock. I added a bottle of Fritz turbo start 900 (treats 100 gallons). Do you guys think the dry base rock will provide enough organics to kick start the cycle or should I add something? I haven’t started a new tank in 10 years but people used to say to add a cocktail shrimp or feed the tank like it had fish ect. What's the current trend?

F2FEAD83-E7C4-4BC8-BFA0-F6D8E357B21C.jpeg
 
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Well just to finish up this post with a conclusion. I cycled the new tank with some Fritz turbo and it completed the cycle within 2 weeks. Thankfully the old tanks leak didn’t get any worse. Moved all my inhabitants over with no loses and they seem to like the extra length of this tank vs the standard 90. I also came up with a mount for my lights I made out of 80/20 T Slot. Over all I’m happy with the outcome. Now to organize the wiring in the electronics cabinet :(
 

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