need a little advise

[jwilson]

friend of mine is selling everything he has and going to a small fresh set-up due to a change in his work schedule. he has offered to sell me all the livestock in his tank for an AWESOME price. the problem is, i don't want to kill everything by just acclimating it and putting in my tank. i don't think my current biofilter can handle such a large change in the bioload. i can ALL this for $150! here's the list...
all but 3 of these are nice large pieces, the other 3 are fully encrusted frags that you can barely see the plug on.

Green Acropora
Purplish green with white hair acropora
Purple Hydnophora
Green Montipora Capricornis
Green Montipora Digitata
Orange Montipora
Rock covered in orange zoanthids
Green slimer acropora
Yellow scroll cup
Candy cane with 7 heads
Frogspawn with 4 heads, looks like each head is bout to split again
One big rock has green star polyps on it, green montipora on it and 2 spinoid worms.
Pink catspaw stylophora
A few red mushrooms still on a disc, others spread throughout

For fish there the foxface rabbitfish, bangaii cardinal, ocellaris clownfish and red scooter blenny

There is also a rose urchin, a cleaner shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, several margarita snails, a few trocus snails, one tequila snail, and 2 or 3 nassarius snails.


how would i go about adding this to my tank without a massive death rate? should i get a large amount of his water and add to my tank to help the biofilter?
i may try and get his sump if it will fit my cabinet. all his filtration is in the sump.
will any of this help?

 

[PR_Reefers]

what size is your tank?? filtration?? is it mature how long have you had it running? is it heavily stocked right now??

 

[skinz78]

How big is your tank? I would see if your LFS would hold the fish for you for a week and then add them. As for the corals I would just add them all at once.

 

[PR_Reefers]

I agree it would be the safest thing to do.... unless you have a mature huge tank!

 

[josepy1]

what size is your tank? wat do you have in yours. mianly you want to make sure your temp is between 77-79 ph is stable between 8.1-8.3 with minimal swings, alk is between very close to what his tank is, mag is around 1300, and calcium is up to about 450. no matter how much you put into your tank you need to test test test to see how much of each you are losing in a two to three day period, then buff for that amount per day. calcium reactor will help keeep everytin in line. sump will help with the volume. finally make sure u have a minimum of 5 watts per gallon for those sensitive sps your gonna put in there. if you do all these things you should be fine. hope this helps

 

[Mantis]

+1 on what size is your tank? Do u have to take all the livestock at one time? Can you do it slowly?

 

[jwilson]

my tank is a 37 gallon with a 10 gallon sump. cheato, protein skimmer, filter sock, and carbon in sump. it is very minimally stocked right now, 50 lbs live rock, ~35 lbs live sand, 5 small fish (blue green chromis, 2 small damsels, fire fish golby, golden sleeper golby) no coral and i plan on giving the damsels away. it has been set up in current tank for about 10 months, but everything in came from a tank that was up for ~2 years. he is needing to get everything sold as quick as possible. he may already have a buyer for the tank/stand/equipment/liverock/livesand.

 

[jwilson]

also has about a dozen hermits, 8 turbo snails, a cleaner shrimp, a emerald crab, and a bristle star.

 

[Sasquatch]

jw? this is not the right time for this deal, shine it on or buy the tank and equip from him as well, you don't have enough room

 

[josepy1]

if i were u i would upgrade to atleast a 75g before you stuff all his stuff into it. maybe a 55g would do it. that will definately be a tight fit for all that stuff. may be fine in your tank barring that you keep perameters nice and stable. ha ha i would just jump right into it and cry later lol.

 

[jwilson]

i don't have enough room for his tank. this is why i down graded to a 37 from a 90. my house is for sale, and i plan on having a large tank in the house we are going to build, for now i'm stuck with a small tank. if i give my damsels away, this will put me at 7 fish in the tank, the largest being the 4" foxface. i don't think the bioload will be to high from the fish, and i've seen more coral in a smaller thank than what i'm getting. my main concern is shocking the bioload by adding this many at one time. maybe i can add the coral and find someone to baby sit the fish for a couple weeks. i stay on top of my perameters and do 10% water changes every Sunday. i'll guess i've give it a try and it things start looking bad i'll give some of the livestock away. he has many nice pieces i don't want to miss the chance to buy. he doesn't want to split anything up, he just needs it gone.

 

[skinz78]

I agree your tank is too small but if you can part out a bunch of stuff and make a bit of a profit you should do it. For one the Foxface is way too much for your tank.

 

[PR_Reefers]

Yeah... too small of a tank.. pick what you want & make someone happy with the rest

 

[jwilson]

the foxface is the one fish he has that i'm not really wanting. i know it needs alot more room than i have, but at the moment i don't know anyone to give him too. another friend of mine is starting a FOWLR tank soon. if the foxface can make it till his tank is up and going, i guess i have a present for him. lol

 

[ReefDreams]

You should see if the local store will take the foxface. IME your gonna have issues by adding all that stuff at once and your gonna stress the animals out. I know this deal is probably driving you crazy as other deals out there drive the rest of us crazy but it might turn out to be more of a headache. Good luck with your decision

 

[jwilson]

I may be able to set up a smaller tank in my bed room to use as a temporary. I can put the coral in it using some of his water, liverock, and sand. I'm going add the fish that i am going to keep (everything but the damsels and the foxface) then I can slowly add the coral. Hopefully this will keep from shocking everything to the point of no return.

 

[Captain Nemo]

I didnt see what kind of lighting you have? Personally the tank you have is to small for the load you are trying to put on it. Try the local fish store and see if they can hold stuff for you or if they want to buy it from you. That way you dont stress all of your tank. Pick what you want and sell or giveaway the rest. If you want to drive to chattanooga I will take the orange rock zoas, jsut a thought....

 

[Captain Nemo]

Also I hope you have enough light to maintian the corals, If not I could help with those also. just LMK if you want to get rid of some.

 

[Murfman]

What size is the tank you friend has all of this in? As stated, your current set up is too small. Can you set up a trough in the garage as a temp set up for the fish? The corals should do fine, as long as you have room for them.

 

[jwilson]

The fish will be going in the small tank I'm going to setup this week. The tank currently has two PC lights in it (was FOWLR, no need for any more light), but I have a 4x31w with led lunar ordered.